Durban - KwaZulu-Natal DA leader Zwakele Mncwango will enter the contest to retain his position at the party’s provincial conference early next year.
Mncwango, who is the caucus leader of the eThekwini Municipality, said he was yet to accomplish his mission, which is to remove the ANC from the seat of provincial government.
Mncwango told Independent Media that he wanted a second term as the leader of the party, the position he took from MPL Sizwe Mchunu in Richards Bay two years ago. The party is expected to hold its provincial conference in March.
“I have a mission to accomplish. Our mission is to grow our membership for 2019, and drop the ANC’s votes to below 50%,” said Mncwango.
While the DA national leadership is gunning to take over Gauteng and make it its second province after the Western Cape, Mncwango’s eyes are firmly glued on KwaZulu-Natal.
“We need to be realistic, it won’t be possible to take over KZN, which is why we are only aiming at reducing the ANC voter base to below 50%. The EFF and IFP must take their portion from the ANC. We must all play our role in dropping the ANC below 50% because they are the common enemy,” said Mncwango.
Mncwango said the DA had been buoyed by last year’s local government election results which had seen the party make inroads in rural areas - a dramatic turnaround from previous years.
“An analysis of the 2016 result speaks for itself. Right now the numbers speak volumes,” he said.
He said in KZN the party had grown the number of its councillors from 140 to 195.
“In eThekwini (Municipality) we had 43 councillors and now we have 61,” he said.
Mncwango said the party now has councillors in all municipalities in the uMkhanyakude District Municipality, and four in the Nongoma Municipalities.
“In Dumbe we previously had one councillor, but today they are five and we took a ward,” he said.
Mncwango is hoping that his accomplishments have not gone unnoticed and that party members will give him a second chance.
He said the power struggle within the ANC could play right into the hands of the opposition parties.
“Right now we don’t have to focus much on destroying the ANC because the ANC is destroying itself,” he said.
ANC provincial spokesperson Mdumiseni Ntuli said the ANC’s factions were negotiating to restore unity ahead of the 2019 elections.
“The DA and others like them are underestimating the effort we are engaged in to unite the ANC.
“For some of them it is imaginable that we might emerge from the national conference with a united ANC,” he said.