Durban - KZN MEC for Education and KZN ANC youth league chairman Kwazi Mshengu says he harbours no ambitions of being the next chairperson of the Moses Mabhida region.
Mshengu, who was accused of refusing to use a state car which was previously used by his predecessor Mthandeni Dlungwane, was responding to allegations that he was planning to contest for the ANC’s position.
Party insiders and Mshengu’s opponents in the region said his October 21 address at an OR Tambo memorial lecture in Camperdown was a launch pad for his bid to wrestle control of the region from the cabal of Dlungwane which includes Mzi Zuma, a relative of former President Jacob Zuma.
However, on Thursday, Mshengu vehemently denied that.
“The ANC constitution does not allow a person serving in the higher structure to contest the lower structure. I am directly elected to the ANC PEC (provincial executive committee and PWC (provincial working committee) until 2022. So there is no way I can contest a regional congress neither do I harbour ambitions to... I have never been approached by any branch or party members to contest the regional conference. Any member who knows how the ANC work will never even attempt to approach me. I will have no role in the Moses Mabhida regional conference, I will not even be a delegate,” said Mshengu, dismissing the rumours.
When asked about his comment made to delegates that some members of the party had placed them themselves above the party, Mshengu said he was not taking a swipe at Dlungwane.
“I have never taken a swipe against anyone. I raised in principle the challenge in the organisation where certain people have become too powerful and resources above the ANC. This is a well-known new phenomenon in the ANC and I have raised this point in the ANC PEC meeting, ANC YL (youth league), PEC and on social media way before I addressed the O.R Tambo lecture in uMkhambathini (Camperdown). I argued that O.R had an opportunity to become too powerful and resourced than the ANC itself given his international connections but he chose to surrender his being to the ANC and the people,” he said.