Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK) has been hit by internal sabotage from the powerful Church group, All African Alliance Movement (AAAM), say senior party insiders.
That group, they say, was recently fired after their intentions were discovered.
"They came in and wanted to use MK to advance their own agenda. Two lists were submitted for our parliamentary deployees which included one from their group which we did know about. Part of it was our fault. We were caught on the back foot after our success at the elections. We did not have a proper team and relied on volunteers and what ever support we received. As a result, no proper checks and balances were done. All these issues are now coming out when we start to look closely at who is in the party," the source told IOL.
Approached for comment, senior AAAM leader William Maluleke confirmed all those fired from MK as MPs were from its organisation.
“Yes I can confirm 100% they were all from our movement. Our agreement was we would handle the admin side of MK and they would handle the military side. But when they realised most of us in parliament were from Joburg and were in the majority they did not like that because they wanted more from KZN so they could control what was happening in the party.
“We brought our support to MK and now we are just fired because of our numbers. Zuma's daughter Duduzile and their party spokesperson Nhlamulo is behind all this,” Maluleke told IOL, adding that their agreement with MK was a 'gentleman's agreement' and not in writing so they have decided not to pursue any legal action and just go their separate ways.
The AAAM movement is a powerful church-based organisation which threw its weight behind MK before the elections. It boasts more than 14 million members and was previously headed by former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.
MK party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela has defended the firing of the 18 MPs, saying the party was cleaning up and those members were never meant to be part of MK in the first place.
IOL