Nomvalo also denied that the party is experiencing factional battles with the suspension of some of their leaders.
MK party leader Jacob Zuma. Picture: Emmanuel Croset / AFP
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) says it will prioritise quality over cadre deployment when selecting its mayoral candidates for the upcoming local government elections.
The party’s secretary-general, Sibonelo Nomvalo, and other high-ranking officials said on Thursday that the party will soon announce its mayoral candidates.
“We are not going to use cadre deployment at the expense of quality. Quality must supersede cadre deployment because we have seen on the other side of the political divide in the ANC in particular that the criteria have compromised the quality of service delivery. We must not fall in the same trap,” said Nomvalo.
“Quality must take precedence because at the end of the day, those mayors are going to be responsible for the lives of our people at the local government level.”
Nomvalo said a mayoral candidate must be able to read council reports, especially relating to budgets of the City.
“If you take a mayor who is not going to be able to read minutes and understand minutes of a council meeting, we are gambling with the lives of our people. So, experience, knowledge, and skills to the party.
“But its about deploying people who are going to respond to the needs of our people at a local government level.”
Who will the MK Party work with
Nomvalo said the MK Party would ideally want to work with progressive parties after the local government elections. These are parties that consider themselves leftists.
“In this country, if all black parties were progressive and not betrayed by the ANC by now, we would have taken the land back from white people because we have numbers in parliament to do that. But because you have the ANC, which is being led by a project of white people, Cyril Ramaphosa, it is difficult to achieve that goal,” he said.
Factional battles
Nomvalo also denied that the party is experiencing factional battles with the suspension of some of their leaders – the latest being the party’s Chief Whip in parliament, Nthabiseng Mabatho Mokoena-Zondi.
Mokoena-Zondi’s suspension comes weeks after the party’s spokesperson, Nhlamulo Ndhlela, was suspended.
“We are not going to overlook enforcing discipline because we are scared of rumour mongering. Principles must remain in the organisation because, in the absence of principles and of enforcing organisational discipline, anarchy will prevail.
“If we do not enforce discipline now, no one will want to join this party because it’s a madhouse, people do what they want at the time they want.”
Nomvalo said all the decisions that the party has made since its inception are part of its constitution.
