'Clear my name and I'll serve as an MP' - Senzo Mchunu
Former KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu is a bitter man who would rather go hungry than allow his reputation to remain tarnished.
Mchunu told the Sunday Times this week that he had refused to be deployed to the National Assembly because the ANC had made false allegations against him before removing him as premier in May.
Mchunu wants the ANC national executive committee to hear his side of the story after the provincial leadership went to Luthuli House and "slandered" him to justify his removal. One of the claims was that Mchunu had wastefully increased the number of staff in the premier's office from 300 to 500.
He was also accused of meddling in the programmes of some MECs.
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Speaking from his Empangeni home on Friday evening, Mchunu said the allegations were never tested and the national leadership had not given him an opportunity to state his case.
Instead, when he had tried to speak to the national leadership, he had been referred back to the province.
"Out of respect - although begrudgingly - I complied. All I need is a platform to state my side of the story as [the allegations were] taken as gospel truth," Mchunu said.
"It's not personal, but if I have to wait a lifetime to clear my name before I agree to the deployment, then I will. The ANC I know is the bearer of justice and fairness. Even President [Jacob] Zuma and some in the top six do not know the full story."
Mchunu has been fending off claims that he had refused to be deployed to parliament following his axing "because he does not recognise the current ANC leadership in KZN".
"Contrary to that, I complied with their request to remove me. What hurt me was that when they called me they said they had assessed my performance in government, but then also accused me of a number of things. You don't do that. There's a difference between accusations and assessment," he said.
The ANC had informed him that he was to be deployed to the National Assembly as an ordinary MP.
"In principle I have neither accepted nor refused deployment but I cannot go to Cape Town without integrity and become an honourable member while carrying this baggage of accusations against me."
block_quotes_start He refused to accept deployment from us, saying he was liaising with the national leadership about his deployment. He was to revert back to us - which he never did block_quotes_end
On the day Mchunu was removed, he had been horrified to see ANC provincial secretary Super Zuma on TV denying that he had been recalled.
Mchunu has held a number of influential positions in the ANC, including that of provincial secretary.
He was elected provincial chairman in 2013 and later appointed premier.
Mchunu lost the party chairmanship to Sihle Zikalala in a controversial elective conference last year. The conference had been brought forward, despite Luthuli House warning that it should be held only after the executive committee's term had ended.
The rush to push Mchunu out has been linked to the ANC's succession battle, with his detractors accusing him of having cosied up to the faction that wants ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa to take over from Zuma at next year's elective congress.
Among the faction backing Ramaphosa, Mchunu is considered a candidate for the position of ANC deputy secretary-general.
But Mchunu denied this, saying he did not participate in discussions and processes that had not been sanctioned by the ANC.
He also denied claims he was the brains behind a court case to challenge the legitimacy of last year's provincial conference, at which he was defeated by Zikalala.
KwaZulu-Natal ANC spokesman Mdumiseni Ntuli confirmed on Friday that relations between the provincial ANC and Mchunu were "cold".
"He refused to accept deployment from us, saying he was liaising with the national leadership about his deployment. He was to revert back to us - which he never did," Ntuli said, adding that Mchunu had not campaigned for the ANC in the run-up to the local government elections.
Mchunu said provincial secretary Super Zuma had never deployed him to campaign - he had been asked by other ANC members to do so.
A total of 266 ANC branches - almost 50% of those that attended the conference - have asked the High Court in Pietermaritzburg to nullify the results. The matter will be heard on October 11.