After winning a recent by-election in a multiracial ward in the KwaDukuza Local Municipality, the Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) is now targeting a similar ward in the eThekwini municipality.
The by-election in Ward 110 is expected to take place next week.
The ward which was previously under the Democratic Alliance, incorporates parts of Durban North's suburbs, Mount Moriah and parts of Phoenix.
The MKP has fielded Mandla Biyela as a candidate for the ward while the DA has fielded Rowena Bosman, whom the party described as a well-known activist in the ward who has been attending to community complaints despite not being a councillor.
The DA's deputy leader in KwaZulu-Natal, Sithembiso Ngema said his party had no doubt that it will retain the ward.
MKP spokesperson in the eThekwini region Bonginkosi ‘BF” Dlamini accused the DA of being over confident, saying his party has done the groundwork and is just waiting for the voting day next week to officially take the ward.
“When you look at the last year’s general election results you will see that the MKP became the biggest party in the region in terms of votes received, so we will take this ward in particular to show that we are a party for all races. We are anxious to get into eThekwini so that we can have a say on the budget allocation for service delivery,” said Dlamini.
He added that people of KwaDukuza’s Ward 28 had proven that the MKP party is not for a particular candidate by race after voting in numbers for an Indian candidate in a recent by-election.
In last year’s general elections, the MKP got more than 600,000 votes in eThekwini alone, beating both the ANC and the DA. Last year, the party celebrated its one year anniversary in Durban and vowed to win the City in next year’s local government elections.
The party is on an upward trajectory in the province having already won three by-elections. Its first Ward victory came in the Umzumbe Local Municipality on the province's south coast, followed by Ward 2 in Richmond Local Municipality last month and Ward 28 in KwaDukuza last week.