South Coasters elected to MK presidential task team
In the Ugu District, unconfirmed reports suggest that in Ray Nkonyeni Municipality out of 36 wards, MK won 27, the DA won eight and the ANC won one.
After uMkhonto Wesizwe’s (MK) impressive debut in the general elections, party leader Jacob Zuma recently announced a presidential task team that includes two individuals from the South Coast.
The team consists of 17 members, including Sibonelo Maphumulo, the former speaker of Umzumbe Municipality, and Inkosi Themba Mavundla of the Mthimude Tribal Authority in Izingolweni.
The task team’s job is to stabilise the party by improving its performance and visibility regionally, provincially and nationally.
Former president Jacob Zuma’s newly-formed party, MK, could be the biggest winner in the recent elections after emerging as a major factor in the ANC’s sharp drop in support.
The party won just over 14% of the national votes to make it the third-largest party, picking up 58 seats in the National Assembly.
In the Ugu District, unconfirmed reports suggest that in Ray Nkonyeni Municipality, out of 36 wards, MK won 27, the DA won eight, and the ANC won one.
In Umzumbe, sources said out of the 20 wards, 15 were taken by MK, the IFP won three, and the ANC won two.
“In Umuziwabantu Municipality, the MK party took all 11 wards. In Umdoni Municipality, out of 19 wards, MK won 16, the DA took two, and the ANC won one,” said the sources.
The IEC’s Regional Outreach Officer, Andile Msomi, said it would be challenging to correlate each election result in Ugu before going to print as they would have to verify the numbers per voting district in each of the four municipalities. He added the IEC would check and confirm the numbers.
Speaking to Fever, Sibonelo Maphumulo confirmed that he was appointed to the presidential task team.
He said they are tasked with strengthening communication between government and traditional leaders, saying that the party’s manifesto emphasised that the land belongs to the Amakhosi (traditional leaders).
“We are tasked with building a better society by working with different religious groups and other community organisations,” he said.
Maphumulo dismissed the rumours of the MK presidential task team being authorised to deploy people in government.
“That is not true; the committee will oversee the roles of the regional, provincial, and national leadership,” he said, adding that the outcome of the recent elections shows that the MK party will also come out victorious in the upcoming by-elections in Umzumbe set to take place on June 19.
Maphumulo added: “We hope that we won’t have any complaints of rigging votes in the by-election like the complaints we have regarding the recent general election.”
The IEC announced last Sunday that the elections were ‘free and fair’ but with no single party gaining an outright majority. The ANC will need to share power for the first time since apartheid ended with some of the 18 political parties that will be represented in the country’s seventh parliament.
Parties have a two-week deadline to elect a president.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Fever’s Facebook page
