Durban — A legal expert has dismissed the chances of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) winning a legal battle against the speaker of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, Nontembeko Boyce.
Legal expert Mpumelelo Zikalala, of Zikalala Attorneys, said: “If I were advising the MKP, I would tell them to drop the case and move on with serving the people who voted for it.”
This was after the MKP threatened to lodge a fresh legal bid against Boyce, accusing her of bending the rules in favour of the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) grouping, which involves her party, the ANC, the IFP, DA and NFP.
The animosity stemmed from a legislature sitting on Tuesday where the 37 MKP members of the provincial legislature (MPL) staged a walkout in protest against Boyce’s handling of the sitting to elect new chairpersons of committees.
Zikalala said the MKP’s chances of winning a legal battle if it took the matter of the alleged contravening of the legislature rules to court were slim.
“If the matter goes to court, the speaker would turn around and say there is a rules committee that deals with the setting up of the rules of certain sittings, and she would just say she was the enforcer of the rules,” said Zikalala.
Following the MKP’s walkout, the GPU coalition bloc took all the 20 committee chairperson positions that were up for grabs and sidelined the MKP despite it being in the majority in the legislature with 80 members.
The ANC got eight, the IFP seven and the DA five chairperson positions.
The MKP’s Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa said the party was considering taking legal action over Tuesday’s legislature sitting, which Mbanjwa described as “flawed”.
Pan-Africanist organisation Injeje yabeNguni entered the fray and launched a jab at Boyce and Nerusha Naidoo, the secretary of the legislature.
On Thursday, the organisation instructed its information sourcing unit (ISU) to launch a “comprehensive investigation” to uncover any information that implicated Boyce and Naidoo, their families and close associates.
“ISU has been instructed to pay specific attention to their sources of income, their private relations, their private relations and their lifestyles,” said Injeje YabeNguni Council leader Phumlani Mfeka.
A full report was expected in the next two weeks said Mfeka, who is also an MKP MPL.
n an interview with the Daily News, Mfeka said the information they would uncover during the investigation would be sent to the crime-busting agencies.
“We will leave no stone unturned in our quest for justice stemming from what has been happening in the provincial legislature. As Injeje yabeNguni, we’ll make sure that the investigation uncovers incriminating information.”
The legislature spokesperson, Nomusa Phungula, dismissed claims that the rules were flouted during the sitting. “It is incorrect that the speaker flouted the process during the Tuesday sitting. The honourable did provide reasons as to why there were delays in the establishment of the committees during the tabling of the speaker’s report.”
On the claims made by Injeje YabeNguni, she said: “I will seek counsel with our legal division (legislature) and the speaker and the secretary (Naidoo).”
Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said the MKP had a right to legally fight any perceived injustice against it.
Meanwhile, the MKP has reappointed Arthur Zwane as its secretary-general just a week after announcing his replacement, Dr Sifiso Maseko, who has been redeployed to the party’s human resources division.
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Daily News