A suspended member of Umkhonto Wesizwe Party (MKP) in Pietermaritzburg has accused the party’s provincial leader Willies Mchunu of hatching a plot to destroy the party.
Sithabiso Nkabinde who according to the MKP illegally contested the ward 2 by-election in Umsunduzi Local Municipality last month, said Mchunu and other leaders in the party were deployed to spy for their former parties in the MKP and destroy it from within.
Mchunu said Nkabinde knows the truth about why he was suspended but chose to tell a different story.
Nkabinde was reacting to his suspension alongside Cebile Zuma and party legislature member Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa.
A statement issued by the MKP said that Zuma and Mbanjwa were suspended for registering Nkabinde, the incorrect candidate, to contest the by-election while Nkabinde was suspended for accepting the nomination and registration while knowing that he was not the candidate chosen by the people.
However, Nkabinde disputed the party’s version, accusing Mchunu and other party leaders of working against the party to serve their former political parties. Mchunu is a former deputy provincial leader and former premier of KwaZulu-Natal under the ANC.
Nkabinde accused Mchunu and his provincial command team of manipulating the selection process.
“Mchunu is a spy who was deployed by his former party to destroy the MKP ,” said Nkabinde.
He denied any wrongdoing, stating that his candidacy was approved by the Independent Electoral Commission after it was disputed by Mchunu and his team. Nkabinde said he would have won easily as he had campaigned alone in the ward for the May election where he collected more than 3000 votes for the MKP out of the 5000 people who had registered.
Mchunu defended his decision in discouraging people from voting for Nkabinde, saying Nkabinde was not the candidate chosen by the community and the MKP.
“We were on the side of the community. Yes I issued a statement informing the people that Nkabinde was not a choice of the community and the MKP could not campaign for a candidate that was rejected by the people,” said Mchunu.
He denied that he was a spy and said even the ANC that he had worked for for many years had never accused him of being a spy.