Jacob Zuma’s MK Party lost out on taking control of the KwaZulu-Natal government, despite it having received the most votes in the province, because it had no co-ordinated strategy to approach political parties to negotiate forming a coalition government.
Leaders of other parties have revealed that several people claiming to represent the MK Party called them, but none proved to have a mandate to lead the negotiations.
This week, a coalition between the ANC, IFP, DA and NFP — who together have a combined majority of 54% — became the government of KwaZulu-Natal. It successfully elected an IFP premier in Thami Ntuli, an ANC speaker and DA deputy speaker.
The MK Party boycotted the first sitting of parliament, citing complaints about alleged vote-rigging in the elections.
Who was supposed to commit themselves to a discussion with people who say they don’t accept [the election] results? On what basis were KwaZulu-Natal parties going to have a discussion with a party that is disputing the [election] outcome?
— ANC-IFP-DA coalition leader
Parties with seats in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature that could have nailed down a coalition agreement with the MK Party told of a state of utter confusion in Jacob Zuma’s outfit as the main stumbling block to their reaching a deal with the party.
This week, IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa revealed the IFP delegation had waited for four hours for a meeting with the MK Party. However, the delegation from Jacob Zuma’s party never showed up.
A leader of a political party in KwaZulu-Natal said more than a dozen people had called them claiming to represent the MK Party.
“The MKP problem is that you speak to 15 different people all claiming to represent ‘Baba’. When we tell them another person has already called and try to establish that person’s authority, the one you are speaking to will claim not to know the other one.
“Within an hour, you will get a call from yet another person claiming to be sitting with ‘Baba’ asking for a meeting, but they also won’t know the other people who called you and will claim authority,” an insider said.
The Sunday Times understands that a last-ditch attempt at negotiation was made by the MK Party through a call to IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa by yet another party representative claiming to be an adviser to Zuma on Thursday, just hours before the sitting of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature.
An insider in the IFP’s negotiating team said, “The adviser’s last name was Zuma. She was a lady who asked for a meeting with the IFP president on behalf of Zuma. The meeting was meant to have been held in Johannesburg before the sitting of the legislature, but the IFP president did not attend it.”
The IFP already had a working relationship with the MK Party, but the ANC agreed to work with the DA and the IFP at the national level, and this firmly united the KwaZulu-Natal coalition.
The NFP was the last party to join the ANC-IFP-DA coalition. The NFP’s president, Irvin Barnes, said they had chosen the coalition that would lead to stability in the province.
“The numbers required that we have 41 seats — a bloc that was going to take the people of KwaZulu-Natal forward. We have an obligation to join that bloc. The MK Party had 37 seats, with the only party [the EFF] that had expressed willingness to form a coalition with it having two seats, which would bring the number of seats to just 39,” he said. The IFP-ANC-DA coalition had 40 seats — short of just one to form a government.”
Another reason cited by leaders of the coalition for it not to consider the MK Party was its refusal to accept the election results and its boycott of parliament and the sittings of various provincial legislatures.
The MK Party announced a change of heart on attending provincial legislature sittings only on Thursday — just a day before premiers, speakers and deputy speakers were to be elected.
“Who was supposed to commit themselves to a discussion with people who say they don’t accept [the election] results? On what basis were KwaZulu-Natal parties going to have a discussion with a party that is disputing the [election] outcome?
“Who was supposed to commit to a discussion with a party that was not going to attend the sittings? Who was supposed to drop everything and go to them on the eve of the office-bearer elections the next day? What were we supposed to discuss with them?” a coalition leader asked.
Various KwaZulu-Natal leaders maintained the MK Party “precluded” themselves from engaging in any talks and then scrambled to approach potential partners “on the eve of legislature sittings”.
The MK Party this week lost a Constitutional Court application that sought to interdict parliament’s first sitting from going ahead on Friday. The apex court dismissed the application.
The MK Party’s Nhlamulo Ndhlela said the new KwaZulu-Natal coalition government was made up of rejected parties desperate to cling to positions and amass power for themselves.
“This is no longer the politics of serving — this is commercial politics,” said Ndhlela.
He added that the MK Party’s final attempt to meet the IFP failed because the party wasn’t flexible on a time request.
“We agreed on a meeting with the IFP. Our SG [Sihle Ngubane] was running late. At about 4pm, he called the team to say there were delays and asked for a 30-minute extension. They refused. They did not accommodate him,” he explained.
Ndlela said that, after a meeting with the ANC, that party had committed to giving the MK Party feedback. However, they then received a message asking for another meeting in Cape Town.
“We just blue-ticked [ignored them] because we were waiting for feedback and did not want to find ourselves in Cape Town,” he explained.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.