MK Party dismisses 18 Parliament members
Parliament Speaker Thoko Didiza has started drafting letters to the 18 uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party members who were dismissed.
The UMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party has removed 18 members from their positions in Parliament.
In a letter dated 5 July that is circulating on social media, the party’s Chief Whip in Parliament Sihle Ngubane informed the affected members
MK PARTY FIRES MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT
In the letter, Ngubane wrote to National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza “to request the implementation of the MK Party’s depleted national list of candidates in terms of item 16 to schedule 1A of the Electoral Act, Act 73 of 1998, for the purposes of vacancies in the National Assembly.”
Ngubane said the Jacob Zuma-led party was filling eight vacancies from the party’s KwaZulu-Natal list due to the loss of membership of other members.
The list of members headed to Parliament also features Thulani Gamede, a staunch Zuma supporter whose name was removed on the eleventh hour from the list of MK Party members heading to the KZN legislature.
On the first day of the KZN legislature sitting MK Party members clashed over the new list which excluded Nhlanhla Ngidi, the former director-general of the province. A head of the 29 May elections Ngidi had topped the list and was tipped to be the party’s premier candidate, Scrolla Africa reported.
Recently, Zuma fired Arthur Zwane as the party’s secretary-general for the second time.
Zwane was initially fired in June but he was reinstated a few days later. Less than a month after reinstatement, he was fired again.
‘THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE’
Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, MK Party’s Nhlamulo Ndhela said many of those who were on the party’s candidate list should not have been there in the first place.
Ndhlela said their list was sabotaged and ended up including Zuma whom he said was not supposed to be there as the party planned on bringing him at a later stage like they did with impeached judge John Hlophe.
He said the party even opened a case at the Sandton Police Station and has expelled the people who were responsible for compiling the candidate list.
Ndhlela said during the swearing-in ceremony, they communicated with the 12 members whose names were on the list to inform that they will be replaced.
“Now that they are being replaced, there’s nothing untoward. This is something they knew was going to happen. The names that are now replacing them are the names that ought to be on our list in the first place,” he said.