Chaos in legislature as MK loses bid to control KZN

The uMkhonto Wesizwe party (MK) not only failed to seize control of KwaZulu-Natal’s R158-billion government today – it set out to drown its defeat in delighted chaos. The party didn’t get its hands on KZN today, but its members in the legislature looked anything but sore losers as they brought the house to a standstill for more than an hour.

MK MPLs banged their fists on tables, stomped their feet, jabbed their fingers in the faces of police officers and sang Umshini Wami.

It was a fitting tribute to their disruptive leader, Jacob Zuma, who arrived in a convoy of sirens three hours into the Pietermaritzburg sitting to consider a crucial debate for control of the province.

Zuma sat pensively in the front row of a packed public gallery, not far from African National Congress (ANC), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and Democratic Alliance (DA) heavyweights.

Zuma sat next to his party colleagues Willies Mchunu and Tony Yengeni. Close by were the ANC’s Jeff Radebe and Mike Mabuyakhulu, the IFP’s Albert Mncwango, and the DA’s Dean Macpherson.

Zuma stayed for exactly an hour, from 11.58am to 12.58pm and then, realising his party would lose the vote to control the KZN legislature, got up, smiled, waved and exited the house, leaving chaos in his wake.

​The legislature was disrupted for more than an hour until the Speaker, Nontembeko Boyce, called for a vote, and MK’s motion of no confidence in Premier Thami Ntuli was squashed.

​By then, MK members had squared off in scuffles with the police.

Jostling, one MK member shouted: “This is not your house. This is our house.”

Speaker Boyce said that while she wasn’t assaulted, MK members tried to block her exit from the legislature.

“Today was threatening and rowdy. The behaviour was meant to scare us, but it didn’t,” she said.

​There was a strong police presence inside and outside Parliament.

Mike Mabuyakhulu, who heads the ANC’s provincial task team in KZN, said: “These people have no regard for democracy… They are disrupting because they lost. The majority of the parties, except two (MK and the Economic Freedom Fighters), voted against the motion.”

​While today’s bid by the MK, EFF and a faction of the National Freedom Party failed, the losers vowed to continue their fight to wrest control of KZN.

​Today was a crucial down-to-the-wire vote in a province where power is tenuous. Seventeen months ago, the Government of Provincial Unity emerged victorious in KZN, but by a whisker in the 80-member provincial legislature.

​The MK party swept the floor in the 2024 elections in KZN, securing 37 of the 80 seats, but the opposition united to keep it out of power.

An IFP (15), ANC (14), and DA (11) coalition took 40 seats and won power with the support of a single vote from the NFP’s solitary provincial representative, Mbali Shinga.

Shinga’s vote blocked the MK party’s then-coalition prospects with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which secured two legislative seats.

​Shinga was rewarded with a provincial cabinet post by Ntuli, who appointed her MEC for Social Development.

Shinga and NFP party president Ivan Barnes are at odds, and he lobbied the party caucus to demand she vote with the MK party.

But she refused, telling MPLs: “True leadership is not in a moment of excitement, but in restraint. This house is not a rally, it is a constitutional place.”

Before the vote, MK MPLs consistently described Ntuli’s government as one in crisis. MK Chief Whip Bonginkosi Mngadi criticised service delivery failures and Ntuli’s “weak and incompetent” leadership, a theme echoed by his colleagues.

​‘White people coming to Ntuli’s rescue’

MK’s Slindile Seme said “white people” were coming to Ntuli’s rescue. Sello Magubane said the premier didn’t respect the king. MK’s Mervyn Dicks said Ntuli had gone on a jaunt with his girlfriend to New York while he cut government spending.

​The EFF’s Mongezi Twala said the 2024 elections were an expression of MK’s support, and the Government of Provincial Unity was the consequence of “a political hijack”.

​The IFP’s Thulasizwe Buthelezi said the vote was not about Ntuli’s leadership, but rather to “expose the MK scam and pyramid scheme”.

Today, he added, was an opportunity to “choose stability over anarchy, the rule of law over the rule of the jungle”.

The ANC’s Mbali Frazer said the province had not given any single party a mandate to rule after the 2024 elections. People chose a Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) that was not an “elite arrangement”, but an expression of political maturity.

The DA’s Sakhile Mngadi said the GPU had transformed the province from “indebted and exhausted” to one where the public purse was better protected.

Before the vote, MK demanded a secret ballot, saying its members had been subjected to escalating threats. It said it had opened a case of intimidation. The threats were directly related to the vote, spokespersonn Nhlamulo Ndhlela said.

Boyce ruled that the legislature’s rules allowed for an open ballot.

She said all MPLs had participated in a public debate.

“Parliamentary proceedings could not be conducted in secrecy.”

As his MK colleagues chanted in the legislature, Ndhlela decried today’s outcome: “The GPU does not reflect the will of the people in KZN.”

DA KZN chairpersonn and national Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Dean Macpherson, said MK’s disruption of the house was typical of the party.

“We have made this point to voters, and now MK is making the point on the floor. It is a choice between chaos and instability or the GPU. The irony is that MK is talking about intimidation, but the person most under threat, Mbali Shinga, is here today, voting in the open.”

The DA’s Francois Rodgers described the vote as chaotic.

“It was barbaric behaviour. Parts of the legislatures were destroyed. Doors were pulled off and, what’s worse, a member of MK assaulted the Speaker.” DM