Mkhwebane, ex-KZN premier Mchunu defect to Zuma's MK Party

A home for the dejected, a choice for the working class and the only vehicle for changing the lives of black South Africans who have been abandoned by the ANC.

Those are some of the reasons that motivated the MK Party’s two latest recruits to defect from their old parties.

ANC veteran Willies Mchunu and former EFF MP Busisiwe Mkhwebane were unveiled as new members of Jacob Zuma’s MK Party and will immediately take up the reins as KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga conveners respectively. 

Mchunu, a longtime ally of Zuma and a former premier of KwaZulu-Natal resigned his ANC membership recently. While his resurfacing in the MK Party did not come as a surprise, he, for the first time, shared what appealed to him about his new political home. 

“Those of us who stay in KZN have aspirations, some of our aspirations have not been met, and I dare say having been in the leadership of my erstwhile party (ANC) we must admit there are things that we were incapable of doing for the poor. 

“For those people who belong to the working class, we were not able to do those things. Here is an opportunity that presents itself, people, particularly the working class on their own without being cajoled by any means decided to make the MK Party their choice,” said Mchunu.

Mchunu’s mention of the MK Party being the people’s choice in KwaZulu-Natal is a reference to the party receiving 45% of the votes in this year's general elections. 

“Now if you sit there and you are a politician, you must ask yourself why did they choose MK Party, and in my view they chose a party that has an opportunity to now do what we were unable to do in the past for the people who belong to the working class. Africans in particular, because those are the people who have been at the receiving end of this political system. My reason for joining MK Party is that it is the people’s choice, it is also my choice,” he said. 

Mkhwebane, the impeached former public protector who subsequently joined the EFF but quit the red berets a week ago to “rest”, said the MK Party felt like home. 

“I joined the MK Party because I felt that it's a home that understands the persecution of black people, the challenges we are facing and fighting the captured system. So I could relate to the constitution of MK — I am not lost I am home,” she said. 

Head of presidency for the MK Party Magasela Mzobe described Mkhwebane as the quintessential MK member, adding that the party welcomed her warmly. 

“The aim is to attract all South Africans who have demonstrated resilience and commitment in fighting for the struggle of the liberation of black people in South Africa — that is the foundational principle of the organisation, to attract and harness all the talents of black people fighting for the total liberation of black people. 

“She has demonstrated she is not part of the captured and the establishment even at the expense of her political career. She is not joining for self-enrichment, she has risked her own comfort,” Mzobe said.

Mchunu and Mkhwebane are not the first high-profile figures to leave either the ANC or the EFF for Zuma’s party, and while the former president has made it clear that he doesn't believe his party has anything in common with the ANC, it has previously presented the EFF as an ally. 

Asked why his party was recruiting from organisations it considers a friend, Zuma said that was not the correct question to ask. 

“At the time the party she [Mkhwebane] went to seemed to be the better party — she went there and quite a number of people went there because there was no alternative. But when all of us realised the ANC was being killed, we took a decision to establish the party of the people in this country, 

“Politicians who are able to see what is right and what is wrong have been coming to the MK Party. A politician will not just stay in a wrong place when there is a correct place politically,” said Zuma. 

He also maintained that the ANC “was no longer doing what it was established to do”.

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