The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), an ANC splinter party that gained momentum after it was endorsed by former president Jacob Zuma five months ago, looks set to play a prominent role in the KwaZulu-Natal government.
While the results continued to trickle in on Thursday, the MKP stunned many observers with its performance in the 2024 national and provincial elections held on Wednesday.
By Thursday, the MKP was leading its closest rival, the ANC, with the governing party in second and the IFP in third position.
The party had secured slightly above 44%, while the ANC was on 21%, followed by the IFP with 19%.
Its performance drew praise from supporters and detractors alike. Party agents at the results centre spoke of the sombre mood that prevailed there as they watched the MKP stretch its lead.
One agent said: “They decimated everyone, they have decimated the ANC, they have decimated the IFP. The results that you see on the scoreboard, it’s just votes they have taken from the IFP. They are still going to show the results of the party from the metro areas.
No one in this centre is happy.” DA premier candidate Chris Pappas, ActionSA premier candidate Zwakele Mncwango and Super Zuma, MEC for Agriculture, Land and Rural Reform, were some of the party leaders that visited the results centre at the Durban International Convention Centre.
The MKP convener in the province, Simphiwe Mpungose, said the party was on track to win KwaZulu-Natal outright.
“We have not considered coalitions. All along, we have been working towards a two-thirds majority.”
He said the information received from party agents on the ground showed that the party had performed very well.
“We have said that we want to win the province and the results have shown that we have done very well and the chances of winning the province are very high.
“In many areas we have been successful. We have achieved success in Empangeni, Zululand and other rural areas. In urban areas, we were not concerned (as we expect to do very well).”
MKP senior leader Visvin Reddy said it should not have come as a surprise that the party was doing well in the province and nationally, describing the results as a ‘tsunami’.
“I said this right at the beginning of the campaign that MK will do exceptionally well, not only in KZN but throughout the country.
“There are many reasons, the first being that President Jacob Zuma has tremendous support in the province.
He is a charismatic leader whose term as the president of the ANC was ended abruptly.
“So many ANC and IFP voters have turned out in their numbers to support him,” Reddy said.
IFP leader Seze Gumede said the IFP was not concerned about the introduction of MKP. “These are just the same people that have moved from the ANC, it’s not new people forming a new party,” he said, adding that the IFP was still expecting to do well in their stronghold areas.
DA leader Francois Rodgers said while more results would be coming through, the picture emerging showed what the party had predicted.
“This has created a whole new dynamic in that you no longer have the party that enjoys the majority like the ANC has enjoyed for the past 20 years. That is a whole new dynamic.
Exactly how MK is going to operate in that dynamic is unknown.
“If this province is going to go into a coalition, it must be made up of no more than two parties, because the minute you start bringing minority parties into coalitions, then it becomes unstable.”
EFF provincial leader Mongezi Twala said the party was confident that it would do well in Newcastle and KwaDukuza, adding that the feedback from party agents was very positive.
Speaking about the success of the MKP, he said: “It’s quite clear that the MK is really taking from everyone. The ANC is suffering, the IFP is suffering. In areas where it (IFP) was really saying it is strong, those areas have become highly contested by the MK.
“In areas like Nkandla, Jozini, MK is really doing very well and everyone can see in the country. It’s quite clear that the MK has taken the majority of the votes in the province.”
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) on Thursday gave an update on voting, saying all those that had been in the queues before 9pm on Wednesday had been able to cast their votes.
“The majority of voting stations in the province closed at 9pm. Where there were still lines, queues, voters were processed until everyone had voted. Some stations closed as late as 2am to ensure that every voter was attended to.
“The late afternoon surge in numbers, mainly in eThekwini, meant staff had to devise mechanisms to manage the queues, including separating the voters roll by surname and creating multiple streams of voting.”
The Mercury