Education is the key, says Mandeni born MPL

Mandeni’s own member of the provincial parliament, Makhosazane Zungu, takes pains to stand out from the crowd.

The 48-year-old, born and bred in the dusty streets of Mandeni’s Sundumbili township, has dedicated her constituency work to being the “conveyor belt” of information between her home area and provincial government in Pietermaritzburg.

She encourages young women to further their political knowledge through education.

“If young women have political interests, it will be wise to equip themselves academically to survive politics of nowadays. Their involvement should be influenced by organisational love, not being political careerists,” she said.

Zungu, often addressed as ‘usisi omdala’ (older sister) as a sign of respect, started her political activism at Tshana High School in Mandeni where she joined the Council for South African Students (COSAS) and was often selected to represent her peers.

“When Nelson Mandela was released, the then principal of my high school, Mr Hadebe, motivated a balance of genders among the pupil’s leadership and I was elected.”

Her curiosity led her to political activism, and she joined the African National Congress (ANC).

“The leadership responsibilities were also vested on my shoulders and other comrades from 1996-1998 when we were elected to lead the ANC in Mandeni.”

She was encouraged by support from her family.

“My mother was very supportive, and my stepfather was always encouraging me to be a reader – all good leaders are readers.”

She became a shop steward for the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) at her workplace in Isithebe, which did not end well because she lost her job.

In 2002-2004 she was elected to Cosatu’s local offices and since she was no longer an employee she became an ANC Youth League regional executive committee member in 2003.

“When our regional secretary was co-opted to the provincial executive committee in 2004, I was tasked to be the regional secretary. Come 2012-2014, I was elected ANC regional deputy secretary and thereafter the political education by Cosatu (Chris Hani Brigade, SACP and ANC’s political school) was very instrumental in shaping and arming me with the correct tools of analysis.”

So it was no surprise when she was elected to the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) in 2015. While the entire committee was nullified by court order that year due to political infighting, she was re-elected at the ANC conference in 2018.

“My role as a member of parliament deployed to Mandeni constituency is to ensure that the constituency understands the work done by the provincial government, to be the conveyor belt of information between local and provincial government on challenges faced by the people of Mandeni. My biggest challenge is that the constituency offices previously were not utilised in a productive manner.”

Despite this she said remaining close to the people of Mandeni gave her great joy and having a young and dynamic staff had made her work easier.

Back when she first became involved in politics, conditions dictated that politics was for undoing the injustices imposed by the Apartheid regime.

“Today’s politics have changed altogether. We are living in a democratic country now. Today’s politics are about liberating the formerly marginalised masses to radical socio-economic freedom.”

She said she had an open door policy and used Facebook to invite comment from the public.

“My office is responsible for serving everyone who comes to it without being screened for their political affiliation. Everyone should support the government because it is the government of the people.”

Outside of her political life, Zungu is a staunch member of the 12 Apostolic Church.

“I have unconditional love for my family and close friends. I love going on outings with them and when I am at home cooking is my hobby.”

The mother of one spreads her love by having many “adopted” children through the community, who she visits regularly.

“My happiness is defined by peace, love and harmony. I remain happy when things are done correctly and I see people being helped.”

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