Durban — The DA in KwaZulu-Natal has accused its former provincial leader Sizwe Mchunu of being bitter because he was ousted when he had started running the party as a cult.
Mchunu is relentlessly pushing for the investigation against Umngeni Local Municipality mayor Chris Pappas over the allegations that he abused his mayoral position to benefit his fiancé Jean-Pierre Prinsloo’s Umngeni Tourism organisation during the Light Up Festival in December.
Mchunu claimed Prinsloo’s organisation was given R100 000 while similar organisations were given R10 000.
Pappas is the DA’s candidate for the position of premier.
Mchunu has laid a complaint with the office of the public protector, asking it to investigate the allegations.
He told the Daily News on Wednesday that he had a fruitful meeting with the public protector’s team on Tuesday. He refused, however, to divulge what was contained in the dossier he handed to the team. Mchunu also refused to confirm whether the invoices that had been circulating on social media in relation to the payments by the municipality were part of the bundle he gave the team.
The DA’s provincial deputy leader, Sithembiso Ngema, said Mchunu’s campaign against Pappas was informed by grudges and bitterness he held as he had not recovered from the humiliating defeat by Zwakele Mncwango in 2015. Ngema said it was the first time that the incumbent was defeated by a person outside the party’s top structure. Ngema also questioned the timing of Mchunu’s attack on Pappas.
He said that Mchunu was a useful tool for his party, the ANC, because Pappas was a threat to its ambitions to retain the province.
“The allegations against Pappas and Prinsloo had been going round months before he was appointed as the premier candidate, but Mchunu never bothered to raise them until he (Pappas) was unveiled as the premier candidate. Sizwe is a bitter ex-DA leader who has not recovered from the loss he suffered in 2015. I advise him to seek counselling now and after elections next year because the DA will be in government,” said Ngema.
He added that raising the issue of Pappas’s race was an indication that Mchunu’s attack on him was not about corruption, but was based on fears he was a threat to the ANC’s ambition of retaining the province.
Soon after the DA announced Pappas as its candidate, Mchunu took to Facebook and questioned his appointment. He asked why Ngema was not appointed because he spoke Zulu more fluently than Pappas. He (Mchunu) further asked whether Ngema was a token black leader in the DA.
Ngema said by celebrating Pappas’s appointment he showed that he was fully behind his candidacy.
“Maybe we must remind Mchunu about the internal policies of the DA since he has forgotten them. In the DA, we don’t appoint people on the basis of how (much) louder they can sing Struggle songs. There is no cadre deployment here …”
WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995.
Daily News