Amid the Cabinet lekgotla in Pretoria, shortly after President Cyril Ramaphosa delegated his national executive members, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula ridiculed a broad coalition of the EFF, ANC and uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP).
Mbalula was commenting during an ANC podcast on Sunday, saying a collective government of the ANC, MKP and EFF, as a second option in Gauteng, was doomed to fail.
The ANC-DA negotiations on forming a government of provincial unity had collapsed.
The ANC has initially negotiated with the EFF, said Mbalula.
“The (EFF, MKP and ANC coalition) has not worked in the creation of this government. I don't see it working going into the future because there are parties we know and have experience with, in particular the EFF. They are the first party we spoke with in terms of this process of negotiations.”
Mbalula said the MKP was structureless and had neither a party mandate nor ideologies. Instead, it was poaching ANC ideologies, which negated a fruitful coalition of the three parties nationally and provincially.
Mbalula’s statement concurs with the DA, which previously said a partnership between the MKP and the red berets was a “doomsday coalition”.
“I do not know what Jacob Zuma stands for and what he wants. I don’t even know what it represents. Do they have a programme? An ideology? I see their ideology as a rhetoric of reclaiming the ANC. I only listen to Zuma when he speaks in public,” said Mbalula.
With the MKP sitting at the helm of majority votes in KwaZulu-Natal, Mbalula noted Zuma had the opportunity to form a government with the liberation movement and IFP, thus landing the premiership spot from the MKP.
However, the MKP had run to form relations with the EFF and IFP but the IFP had jumped ship, opting to work with the ANC and DA instead.
As the kingmaker, the National Freedom Party (NFP) had voted with ANC, DA and IFP narrowly outvoting the MKP. The IFP’s Thami Ntuli was given the position of KZN premier.
“I don’t know what Zuma wants to do with what he has achieved (in KZN). I see him only deploying questionable people who are in Parliament. We have met with his people; they did not come to Parliament, they did not form part of the first seating. Have you heard any coherent thing they have said about taking South Africa forward? I haven’t heard anything except them blaming us, the ANC.
“Zuma was supposed to invite us to Nkandla to form a government but he went to the EFF and IFP, which joined us as the second largest party in KZN. He said we are a ‘dark’ ANC, a DA-ANC, but he got the opportunity to lead in KZN and collaborate nationally. Instead, he sent people we don’t know,” said Mbalula.
While the MKP was sitting on the opposition benches with ActionSA, Mbalula said the MKP was welcome to join the Government of National Unity only after it had formed structures and figured out its ideologies and identity.
He said that Zuma could talk to the ANC once he clarified what he stood for and wanted from the ANC.
The Star
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