The MK Party will need 41 votes on Monday to remove Premier Thami Ntuli
The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK Party) will formally propose a no-confidence motion against KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli on Monday, but questions have been raised about the party’s capacity to take over provincial governance.
The MK Party is currently the majority party in the province; they received more than 40% of the provincial vote, and they have 37 seats in the legislature.
The party is hoping to take over the governance of the province with the help of the EFF and the National Freedom Party (NFP).
Often, the party has argued that it has the right to govern KZN because it received the majority of votes.
But political analyst Andre Duvenhage told The Citizen that the MK Party is not ready to govern.
“I do not think the MK Party has strong leadership at the moment. They are very unstable. It is a family business gone wrong in many ways, and I am not sure what the implications are going to be in the future.
“There is no doubt that the situation in that party is negative,” he said.
Currently, the MK Party is guaranteed 40 votes with support from the EFF and the NFP. They will need 41 votes to remove the premier.
The ANC in this province is at a disadvantage: it holds only 15 seats in the legislature, which has forced it into a coalition with the DA and the IFP.
Can the ANC work with the MK Party?
Duvenhage says that if the motion passes, he does not see the ANC and the MK Party cooperating while Cyril Ramaphosa still leads the ANC.
This is because the founder of the MK Party has rejected any working relationship with the ANC while Ramaphosa is the ANC’s president.
“I am reading closer cooperation between what is left of the ANC, the MK Party, and the EFF in the future to attain an absolute majority against moderate parties,’ he said.
Duvenhage says it is unfair for the opposition to accuse Ntuli of allowing corruption to thrive in the provincial government.
He said these are challenges that he inherited from the ANC government that was in charge of KZN before last year’s elections.
“He inherited a legacy of corruption and the system is very corrupt, Mr Zuma and his party are using that to undermine the current government I believe that it is the best interests of that province for the premier to continue,” he said.
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ANC’s power struggles
The motion of no confidence against Ntuli means that ANC stands the risk of losing their positions in government. This also means they lose their influence over service delivery and the implementation of their own party policies.
Last week, the party’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, announced that he would be overhauling the entire leadership structure of the province.
He said the Provincial Task Team (PTT) that the ANC had appointed to rebuild the party in the province had not been effective.
The ANC has blamed the formation of the MK Party for its electoral decline. They have accused Jacob Zuma of trying to destroy the ANC.
The IFP has also defended Ntuli; they described the motion of no confidence as a plan to destabilise the government of provincial unity.
The ANC Midterm report indicates a bleak future for the party in KZN. Gauteng and the Western Cape are also giving the ANC trouble in terms of growing the party’s support base.
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