Mzwanele Manyi insists there is no “bad blood” between him and MK Party deputy president John Hlophe, who removed Manyi this week as the party’s chief whip.
Hlophe replaced Manyi with former Johannesburg speaker Colleen Makhubele, who became an MK Party MP at the beginning of the year.
Manyi and Hlophe clashed in February, with the former Western Cape judge president apparently accusing Manyi of duping him into reading “an embarrassing hagiography” of Jacob Zuma during the Sona debate.
Sources in the party had been saying over the past few months that it was only a matter of time before Hlophe pulled the trigger on Manyi, with several of the party’s leaders reportedly not happy with his leadership style.
But on Friday, Manyi downplayed the matter, saying all was well between him and Hlophe, who had recently given him a bottle of honey as a gift.
Manyi said he was happy to remain on the backbenches of the MKP, where he would serve on portfolio committees.
“You don’t give a person a bottle of honey if you are fighting with them,” he said. “There is nothing personal here when you are running a party and are looking at what is best and who must go where. It is just a political decision, there is no bad blood.
“There is employment and there is deployment. When you are deployed, you live on a day-to-day basis. In this political space we expect anything, any day.
“There are no issues; what has happened to me has happened and it can happen to anybody, at any time ... we are all pieces on a chess board. Whoever is driving the game can decide which piece must move.”
When I got there, I’m thinking this is still a discussion. I get there, the letter is written and signed by the president.
— Colleen Makhubele, former Johannesburg speaker
Makhubele, a former member of Cope who went on to form her party, the South African Rainbow Alliance, only to ditch it for the MK Party last year, said she did not see her ascendancy coming,
“I got a call on Monday ... from the deputy president [Hlophe], who summoned me to his office. He said he met the president [Jacob Zuma] the previous week and they’ve decided to make changes in parliament and the whippery, and he needs to talk to me.”
Makhubele said she pleaded with Hlophe to tell her what was going on, as she did not want to travel to Cape Town feeling anxious.
But Hlope told her, “It's nothing bad, the president has been talking to me about you and he’s considering that you become the chief whip ... I’ll elaborate when I see you.”
On arrival in Cape Town, Makhubele said she expected a serious engagement, and did not know that her appointment was already a done deed.
“When I got there, I’m thinking this is still a discussion. I get there, the letter is written and signed by the president. I’m like, 'Woah, wait, take me through what’s happening.' He’s like, 'No, the president has decided.' I just had to say yes, and the letter was issued.”
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