THE Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) has notified its suspended activists in Pietermaritzburg of its intention to charge them for misconduct that led to it fielding two party candidates for a by-election.
Some party supporters said the conduct of Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa, Ungungundlovu region convenor Cebisile Zuma, and Sthabiso Nkabinde had led the party to lose the by-election in Msunduzi Municipality’s Ward 2, Sweetwaters, which it could have easily won had it campaigned for one candidate.
In letters dated January 6, MKP national prosecutor Prince Mokotedi informed Zuma and Nkabinde he had received a complaint against them from the office of the party general secretary Floyd Shivambu “in terms of section 6(3) of the Code of Conduct of the party”.
It was believed that Mbanjwa received the same letter as he was suspended along with Nkabinde and Zuma for the same incident.
“I have assessed the complaint and have decided to issue you with a Notice in terms of section 6(4) which affords you the opportunity to submit representations within 48 hours of receiving the said notice.
“A decision on whether or not to institute disciplinary inquiry will be made once the representations have been considered,” read the letters.
It remained unclear whether they had submitted the representations within the stipulated time.
MKP national spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela has not responded to questions sent to him via WhatsApp and also did not answer his phone.
Both Zuma and Nkabinde said since they could not meet the 48-hour deadline, they had requested an extension to submit their representations as they wanted to study the party’s constitution.
Nkabinde said he requested an extension of 15 days.
“I have already started with my representation, but I and my lawyer wrote a letter requesting the extension of the deadline because the MKP constitution is new and we are not yet familiar with it.
“We go through the constitution because whenever they write us such letters, they use it.
“Therefore, in preparation for our response, we need to use the constitution,” he said.
Zuma said she and her lawyer had also requested the extension and was given a deadline of January 10.
“Yes I submitted the representation yesterday (January 10), and he (Mokotedi) said he would give me the feedback on Monday,” said Zuma.
When contacted, MKP provincial leader Willies Mchunu declined to respond, saying the matter was out of his scope as it “resides with the prosecutor. The province has no authority over it”.
“We cannot, therefore, know whether they complied or not. We also cannot say what would happen if they did not comply,” said Mchunu.
Mbanjwa, Zuma, and Nkabinde got on the wrong side of the party after two by-election campaign posts — one bearing Nkabinde’s face and another featuring activist Nkosikhona Mshengu’s image — were created, which confused potential voters.
Nkabinde and Mshengu were contesting against ANC and IFP candidates for the position that was left vacant after the IFP had fired its councillor, Sbusiso Babashana Ntuli, who was found guilty of various offences.
The by-election was won by ANC’s Nduduzo Zuma after some MKP supporters, who backed Mshengu, had turned against MKP and instead mobilised for the ANC.
According to sources, the community members held a nomination meeting facilitated by the MKP provincial office and nominated Mshengu as their preferred candidate.
Community members said to their dismay, the party’s regional leadership forwarded Nkabinde’s name to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) as its candidate.
It was reported that Mshengu turned to the Electoral Court seeking an order to remove Nkabinde from being the candidate for the party, but the court ruled against him.
In defiance of the leadership, some party activists went on to draft Mshengu’s campaign poster and circulated it.
According to Mshengu, at the community nomination, he received 157 votes, Nkabinde 137 while another activist Mbongeni Skhakhane had 35.
The party issued a media statement about the suspension of Mbanjwa and Zuma for unlawfully registering the wrong candidate, Nkabinde, for the by-election.
The party said it suspended Nkabinde for “maliciously and unlawfully” accepting the nomination.
The party said Nkabinde accepted being registered with the IEC, knowing that he had lost the internal nomination process.
“Cebisile illegally signed at the IEC, Nkabinde accepted the nomination illegally and Mbanjwa signed a letter that authorised the IEC to accept Nkabinde as the candidate,” said the source.
This is not the first time Mbanjwa has found himself in trouble with the MKP in one month.
On January 1, the party announced in a media statement that it had suspended him, caucus manager Sifiso Zuma, and Thobani Zuma from the KwaZulu-Natal parliament.
They were accused of irregularities and transgressions of the party’s constitution and were currently facing pending disciplinary hearings.
The party has since replaced Mbanjwa with Marvin Dirks as its Parliament chief whip.