Communists name mayoral candidates, promise to free KZN from ‘Egypt’

By Celani Sikhakhane

• The SACP announced mayoral candidates for all 63 wards across uMzinyathi District’s four municipalities at a gathering in Nquthu.

• The party is contesting the 4 November elections independently of the ANC, despite remaining part of the national Alliance and Government of National Unity.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) in KwaZulu-Natal has intensified its local government election campaign, announcing mayoral candidates for the province’s rural municipalities with a promise to free poor communities from what it called “Egypt.”

The announcement was made at an SACP gathering in Nquthu, northern KwaZulu-Natal, where the party unveiled candidates for all 63 wards across the four municipalities of uMzinyathi District.

SACP Inkosi Bhambatha Region Secretary Bonga Mdladla told the gathering that, despite remaining part of the ANC-led Alliance, the time had come to free communities from poor service delivery and collapsing municipalities.

“We have observed the collapse of our municipalities for years, while people continued to get poorer without services, because of the tendering system. Our mission is clear: to scrap the tender system and in-source workers to create more jobs while delivering proper services for our people. We are here to free our people and municipalities from painful rule. Remember how the people of Egypt were freed by Moses in the Bible? That is what we, as the Communist Party, are aiming to do, to take our people out of Egypt,” Mdladla said.

Mdladla said the party submitted its candidates to the Independent Electoral Commission on time and met all requirements to contest the 4 November local government elections independently of the ANC.

“As much as we are still part of the ANC-led Alliance and the Government of National Unity, in local government we are clear that we are contesting without the ANC. They know this well, because we have told them before, and what we are doing is implementing our own policies to fix the broken state of our municipalities,” Mdladla said.

In Nquthu, the SACP announced former ANC Regional Chairperson Lucky Moloi as its candidate. Mdladla himself is the mayoral candidate for uMzinyathi District, Bongiwe Jele for eNdumeni, Sibusiso Mchunu for uMvoti, and Mandlakhe Ngobese for Msinga.

The party’s growing presence in KwaZulu-Natal adds further pressure on an ANC already losing ground to MKP, led by former President Jacob Zuma. In the 2024 general election, the ANC suffered heavy losses across key KZN regions, losing a number of constituencies and forcing the closure of some offices and staff retrenchments, after its representation in the KZN Legislature fell from 44 seats to just 17.

Pictured above: The Communist Party’s Inkosi Bhambatha Region announcing its mayoral candidates for uMzinyathi District’s municipalities.

Image source: SACP