Durban - A small and newly formed KZN based political party led led by a clergyman who is close to former president, Jacob Zuma, has ahead of the May 8 general elections, teamed up with African Transformation Movement (ATM) to hand over its provincial votes to the party.
The African Freedom Revolution (AFR), which is mainly made up of former African National Congress member, has already started handing out flyers arguing its voters to back the party led Vuyo Zungula and have prominent members like former government spin doctor, Mzwanele Manyi.
Its president, Bishop Timothy Ngcobo, a man who shot to fame by organizing night vigils for Zuma when his corruption charges were reinstated last year, said they agreed to work with ATM because they share a common ideology.
“ATM is a party that is founded on God’s principle just like us. Secondly, when we compared our manifestos, there were many issues that were common and we decided to partner ahead of the elections,” Ngcobo said.
Asked how will seat allocations be done after the elections, Ngcobo said they have finalized that issue even though they have started discussing it.
ATM’s national chairperson, Mandisa Mashinga, confirmed the partnership and said Ngcobo said to them while several other political parties had approached his party to join their, he felt ATM had a similar ideologies.
“Yes it is true that we have an agreement with AFR and they have already started telling their members to vote for ATM. Ngcobo said to us while many parties came to him for partnership, he felt ATM was the right, hecne the agreement,” Mashiya said.