POLITRICKING | Vuyo Zungula: ATM never tried to recruit Mkhwebane, never interested in her joining the party

"When it comes to Mkhwebane, we never tried to recruit her."

This is what African Transformation Movement (ATM) leader Vuyo Zungula says of the ferocious defence he mounted in favour of impeached Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

He says his actions were never personal. 

Zungula’s told Politricking with Tshidi Madia, a politics podcast by Eyewitness News that his well-documented vocal support of the disgraced former head of a chapter 9 institution, turned EFF member of Parliament, was about defending the country’s Constitution. 

"We actually never recruited her. I think she had a press conference and said a lot of parties approached her, we never approached her because when we were defending the office of the Public Protector, we were not defending so that we can gain membership from her. We were doing it from a principled point of view," says Zungula.

The ATM leader attempted to fight for Mkhwebane to stay in office when she was placed on suspension and faced an inquiry into her fitness to hold office, it also unsuccessfully tried to have the motion to impeach the former Public Protector happen via secret ballot. 

ATM’s arrival on the political scene was shrouded in mystery, with some in the governing ANC claiming it was the product of a faction led by former President Jacob Zuma and now expelled former secretary-general of the ANC, Ace Magashule, in the run-up to the 2019 elections. This was never proven in a court of law and Zungula has gone on to play a crucial role in some of the happenings in the country’s National Assembly. 

In this week’s episode, Zungula speaks on the support his party continues to enjoy from African charismatic churches, his plans to grow the organisation, as well his thoughts on entering into coalition talks before or after the 29 May polls.

With only just five years’ experience in national politics, he says he’s found how parliamentarians carry out their responsibilities shocking. 

"For me, one of the biggest disappointments is getting into Parliament and thinking that you're going to find a space whereby there's going to be robust discussions about the wellbeing of the country, only to find that you do not have independent people there, you've got people that are controlled either by their party bosses or the companies that fund them, or foreign agencies that fund them, so there's no independence," he remarks. 

The challenge of toeing a party line, might not affect him as it does bigger parties, with ATM, only having two representatives in Parliament, but he says if his outfit were to grow, he would want to find ways to avoid falling into a trap that sees ATM representatives struggling to put the people before other interests.

Zungula is also adamant that the upcoming polls will see his outfit increasing its base. 

"For the past five years in Parliament, we've raised issues that a lot of people agree with. And at the same time, we've managed to win over a huge chunk of support from people that ordinarily did not even know of our existence in 2019," he says. 

Part of the offering ATM will put before voters will be centred around law and order in the country. The organisation was one of the first to make its manifesto offering known to the electorate, doing so in the previous year. Zungula says something has to be done about the high crime levels, which includes better control of the home affairs department, as well as the country’s borders.

"The current system whereby if you commit a crime, you go to prison and whilst you are in prison, you get to apparently live a better life than a citizen that is law-abiding, in the sense that if you're in prison, you get to have access to three meals a day, access to DStv, hot water, and everything…. all done to by the expense of the victim. So that is why we're saying all prisoners must work for the state for free, as part of them earning their place back in society," says Zungula.