ActionSA in KwaZulu-Natal has a new provincial chairperson, former DA provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango.
The party’s top brass introduced him to the media at a briefing in Durban.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba expressed confidence in Mncwango’s leadership abilities as they build up toward the 2024 general elections.
Mashaba has admitted the party has had its fair share of challenges in KwaZulu-Natal.
This, as the former chairperson Dr Makhosi Khoza resigned in March this year. It was after Khoza was accused of colluding with the ANC to regain power in the eThekwini Metro after failing to get an outright majority in the 2021 municipal elections.
It was said Khoza voted for ANC in the election of office bearers in the city, in return for being made chairperson of the council’s municipal public accounts committee. However, Khoza said she was used and abused by ActionSA. The party then announced Musa Kubjeka as provincial chairperson, but he resigned in July.
Mashaba says ActionSA will grow under Mncwango’s leadership.
“But now all of a sudden I get surrounded by great South Africans that I admire here is the latest one Zwakele to lead this very important province of KZN it is actually second to Gauteng. It is the most important province for South Africa and I am really confident Zwakele knowing the little three years that I worked with him and the people that we got on the ground, the teams that we got in three municipalities, ActionSA can actually grow from strength to strength.”
#sabcnews #sabckzn New ActionSA chair in KZN Zwakele Mncwango says his main focus is strengthening the party in the province. He says already some members of ActionSA who have left the party have contacted him saying they want to come back. pic.twitter.com/f1VhcACPVp
— Nonkululeko Hlophe (@Leko3) October 17, 2022
Mncwango says the ground is fertile for his party to grow.
He says people who had left ActionSA over the past months have contacted him indicating they want to return.
“Ever since I have left the former party I have been approached by many South Africans, especially in this province, and some members of ActionSA whom there is speculation they have left the organisation, and I can tell you right now many of them as Mashaba is saying, they want to come back. It should be encouraging to see many members or former members of ActionSA come back not because they believe there is something wrong with ActionSA but they somehow felt there was a vacuum in leadership but I’m here to provide leadership.”
Meanwhile, political analyst, Professor Bheki Mngomezulu says the DA is going to struggle to regroup following the resignation of some black leaders.
“The exodus of many former black leaders who were part of the DA joining Herman Mashaba does not auger well with the DA’s political future which will mean that the DA is going to struggle to attract black voters more especially in the province of KwaZulu-Natal where leaders like Zwakele Mncwango have been attracting a number of black faces into the DA. As things stands at the moment, it is pretty much clear that the DA is going to have a huge task of regrouping especially given the fact that the IFP has made its presence felt in KwaZulu-Natal.”
Mngomezulu says even the ANC in the province will have to regroup in the run-up to the 2024 elections.
