ANALYSIS: ‘ANC shouldn’t be surprised by MK Party’s performance, it’s their machinery’
While the counting of votes continues at the results operating centre after election day, ANC national chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, was stunned by the MK Party’s KZN performance.
MK Party supporters brandish inked thumbs after voting at Ntolwane Primary School in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal on 29 May 2024. Picture: Sphamandla Dlamini/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG – A day after the 2024 elections, the number-crunching exercise began in earnest shortly after midnight on Wednesday.
The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party’s previously communicated confidence and ambitions to takeover KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) could be on the precipice of materialising.
On election day, MK Party national spokesperson, Nhlamulo Ndhlela, did not mince his words, saying KZN was the party’s stronghold.
"We’re in winning mode," he enthusiastically told Eyewitness News on election day.
The party has been in the lead in KZN since the IEC started tallying the provincial votes. But this came as a surprise to the African National Congress’ (ANC) national chairperson, Gwede Mantashe.
He brought this to light in conversation with Eyewitness News earlier on Thursday.
"I must say, KZN surprised me a great deal. I expected IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party] to do well, but the MK is doing well and that surprised me."
But political analyst Tessa Dooms refused to buy the stance, saying the MK Party was the
"ANC’s machinery".
"The ANC shouldn’t be surprised at the presence of MK… even at the levels that MK is coming in at. The ANC would have a sense of that before they come into this election, because it's ANC machinery that has been taken away from them.
"They have a good enough count of how they are operating, where they're operating, where the people are and where the people no longer are."
She added that the ANC was surprised by their own performance.
"And I think they're surprised at the rural turnout and the rural vote, I think the rural turnout has actually been quite low, relatively. And as a result, the ANC took a long time to get to that first million votes."
She added that the MK Party’s ruffling of the ANC’s feathers was reminiscent of its experiences with the Congress of the People (COPE), and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), both breakaway formations of the governing party.
"And they know that the biggest threat to the ANC has always come from within the ANC."
EFF MUST STICK TO ITS MPUMALANGA SUPPORT BASE
Last week, EFF secretary general, Omphile Maotwe, vowed that the red berets would remove the ANC from power in Mpumalanga.
She said it would be surprising to see EFF take over Mpumalanga because of its "clear" support base.
The red berets, Dooms noted, appealed to, particularly, university and college students, which are usually densely inhabited in metros.
She said the EFF should be proud of the current showing that they have at this stage in the 2024 elections, in terms of rural votes.
"I'm waiting to see what happens in the next part of the journey, because they are about 700,000 votes away from where they were in the last election."
At the time of publication, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) had tallied less than 30% of the voting districts in KZN.
The MK Party in KZN was at just under 180,000 votes, while the IFP and ANC were sitting on 84,000 and 83,000 votes respectively.
For more on the elections results as they trickle in, click here.