Recruiting from the state capture report list: Infighting puts MK party ‘at risk’

The infighting within the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party is posing a serious threat to its future, political experts said yesterday.

The analysts were reacting to Mpumalanga MK party leader Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who recently sacked four senior members of the party’s provincial task team.

In a letter dated 3 January that The Citizen has seen, Mkhwebane asked Mike Ngobeni, Pro Khoza, Treasure Thabethe and Skhwameni Nkuna to stop executing their tasks with immediate effect.

Mkhwebane accused the members of misconduct apparently committed on 27 December, when the four left the party’s provincial leadership WhatsApp group.

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A war of letters

She said after they left the group, Khoza wrote a letter indicating his intention to resign and also made “unfounded allegations” against some members.

“Another letter was written by Commander Mike Ngobeni requesting a meeting and asking me to respond to the alleged crisis.

“You also wrote a letter to the secretary-general making unfounded allegations against me.

“I therefore withdraw all the letters written to you allocating responsibilities as proposed during our first WhatsApp chat,” the letter read.

The Citizen contacted Mkhwebane for comment on the letters to the four, but she refused and referred questions to the party’s national spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela.

Ndhlela confirmed there were changes in task allocations.

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“Yes. This is for the reallocation of tasks. There are going to be changes throughout all provincial detachments.”

When asked to elaborate he did not respond.

Using what power, Mkhwebane?

Sources within the party said they were shocked by Mkhwebane’s letter because she did not have the power to withdraw the tasks assigned to members by the national leadership.

“No one has powers to appoint any member and allocate responsibilities except national high command.

“The allocated and withdrawn tasks were unconstitutional since the allocator has no such constitutional powers,” said one source.

The source said the members were continuing with their work even though they had been ordered to stop.

When contacted, one of the affected members, Ngobeni, declined to comment.

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Suspensions in KZN

This came a day after the party suspended three of its members in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature.

Thobani Zuma‚ Sfiso Zuma and chief whip Kwazi Mbanjwa are facing charges of irregularities and transgressing the party’s constitution.

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Prof Ntsikelelo Breakfast from Nelson Mandela University said: ”There is a fight going on in that party and that poses a serious threat to its future.

“MK is a government in waiting and every member needs to secure a position. Be that as it may, the leaders who assisted the party to perform well in the elections are being replaced by senior politicians who joined recently.

“The founding members feel neglected and some are being pushed out. They have internal information and they might use it to attack the party,” he said.

Breakfast said another problem was that MK depended on one person, Jacob Zuma.

Recruiting from the state capture list

Political analyst Goodenough Mashego said the party would fail because it was recruiting people from the state capture report list.

“It seems to be a member you should be implicated in state capture.”

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