Fix our city and stop threatening us, MK party says after protest march in Durban

De facto youth leader of the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party Bonginkosi Khanyile has warned ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula to stop threatening the party about the use of the MK name . 

He was speaking after MK supporters staged a march to the Durban city hall on Friday where he called on party members to come out in their numbers on March 5 to rail against the ANC’s stance.

“The gloves are off ... We are tired of the white monopoly capital of Cyril Ramaphosa and Fikile Mbalula. The MK [name] is ours and Jacob Zuma’s,” said Khanyile.

The firebrand, who came to prominence during the Fees Must Fall protests, joined MK after being expelled by the Patriotic Alliance in December.

“We are very clear we want all the expanded public works programme employees to be permanently employed,” said Khanyile.

He also repeated the party's call for the nationalisation of mines, banks and the South African Reserve Bank.

“South Africa belongs to black people. We want the land that was stolen by Jan van Riebeeck to be returned to the people. White people today are pretending that this is their country. The white people are guilty because they benefited from apartheid and colonialisation,” said Khanyile.

“We are sick and tired of marching to the municipality, but whenever we march here we don’t get attended to by the mayor. Instead we are given a junior official who has less than three months' experience with the municipality,” he said.

He was confident the new party would gain a two-thirds majority in the May 29 polls.

MK representative for the eThekwini region representative Gugu Mathonsi said it was “concerning” residents continued to struggle without water.

“Water is a basic human need. Without water we cannot do anything and it means that our basic human right is taken away. We cannot cook and bathe and our children are turned away from schools as a result,” said Mathonsi.

The party called for clean, safe water, prepaid water meters and insourcing of water tankers.

“We also want verified and regular water testing which is verified and extended testing. We have also noted that there is a trend of water leaks which often do not get attended. We want the municipality to fix all those pipes,” said Mathonsi.

According to Mathonsi, some of the problems were caused by recent floods,

The party has given the city 14 days to meet its demands.

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