By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: Thuli Dlamini.
Zwakele Mncwango has resigned as a member of Democratic Alliance (DA) three days after he resigned from the Provincial Legislature and made a public commitment that he was still a member of the DA.
Mncwango will take up the position of ActionSA chairperson in KZN before the end of October.
The DA’s KwaZulu-Natal leader, Francois Rodgers, has welcomed the resignation of Mncwango.
Rodgers believes that Zwakele has been planning his departure to ActionSA for the last month, he feels that he needed to come clean with the public and his new party as to why he saw it fit to enjoy the perks of his office in the Legislature, at the pleasure of the DA, while planning his departure to his new political party.
Mncwango is the latest senior DA leader to resign in the province in recent months. In March, Mbali Ntuli announced her departure not only from the legislature but from the party as well. In June, Nicole Graham – who was the DA’s candidate for eThekwini Municipality – also resigned as a member of the council to go study in Australia.
In a statement on his resignation, Mncwango said he resigned with a “heavy heart” on Tuesday and that his last day at the legislature will be on October 15.
“This decision is predicated on factors that I have pondered on over time in terms of my role in politics. I entered politics for the sole purpose of serving the people of KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa at large for their betterment and progress and to make this country the haven that we all desired it to be,” he said.
“I did not come to this decision easily. In reaching this decision, I engaged in much soul-searching and reflection over time and decided that I had to evaluate how much more of a contribution I could make going forward.”
“In the process, I questioned whether or not the KwaZulu-Natal legislature was the right place to continue to best serve the people of KwaZulu-Natal.”
Mncwango said he would be contemplating various options about his future and those included remaining in politics, furthering his studies or going into corporate.
In August, Makashule Gana also resigned from the Gauteng legislature and the DA, while former DA MP Patricia Kopane left the party to lead ActionSA in the Free State. Western Cape MEC of education Debbie Schäfer also resigned from her position to take up a job in the legal sector in the UK.