POLITICS - PA deputy president Kenny Kunene has refuted allegations made by DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille that the PA was former president Jacob Zuma’s idea.
This comes after Zille recently alleged that Zuma had convinced Kunene and party president Gayton Mckenzie to start the party in exchange for a favourable business deal.
“Many of you will perhaps not recall that the PA was a project of Jacob Zuma’s ANC. They realised that they could not challenge the DA for power in the Western Cape.
“So, Jacob Zuma sent Kenny Kunene and Gayton Mckenzie off to be the BEE partners for some big deal in Russia, and he also requested them to start a political party with the aim of taking coloured votes away from the DA, because the ANC has given up doing that.
“The ANC does not mind if coloured voters go to the PA because the ANC knows that they will do a coalition with the PA afterwards, and so they might as well do it that way,” she said at a press briefing in Cape Town.
Kunene hits back
On Thursday, Kunene told The Citizen that Zille’s comments are false and based on political gossip.
“When Zille and the DA have nothing to say, they gossip, like Malema, on other political parties.
“The PA was never a project of former president Zuma. It was always an idea of Kenny Kunene and Gayton Mckenzie,” he said.
Kunene denied that he and Mckenzie were part of a big business deal in Russia.
“Zille is behaving like a desperate influencer; she is behaving like a political slay queen who is out of control,” he said.
Kunene said the PA is determined to remove the DA from the seat of power in Cape Twon in the upcoming local government elections.
“We are taking over the Western Cape, and she is scared of that,” he said.
Cape Town: A country of its own
He accused the DA of trying to turn the Western Cape into a country on its own.
“If there is any project here, they are a project because they were formed to protect the interests of white monopoly capital.
“That is why they want to make the Western Cape a different country, where black people will be oppressed,” he said.
The PA recently announced Liam Jacobs as their mayoral candidate for the City of Cape Town.
He was a member of the DA but defected to the PA.
Defections
Several ANC members, including the party’s former provincial secretary, announced their defection from the ANC to the DA on Thursday. They told the media that they believe that the DA is the most suitable party to run the Western Cape.
Zille said she expected more people from other parties to defect to the DA as the local government elections grow near.
“My prediction has always been that parties that do not have proper process and parties where all the power is seated in one person, inevitably disintegrate. That is happening already to the EFF, and that will happen to the MK party and PA.
“People are always looking for a charismatic leader in times of trouble, but when that shine wears off, the party disintegrates.
“The DA, on the other hand, is not a party of individual leaders; we are a party of constitutionalism and due process, and that is why we can continue to build steadily over time,” she said.
According to the PA’s website, the party was founded in November 2013.
“The PA was born in the heart of the coloured community and its pain, but we are a multiracial party that is fighting for a better future for all the country’s children.
“For too long, South Africa has been repressed by identity politics and parties that speak only for their constituencies instead of truly growing a country that can be a better home for all its citizens,” said the party.
Articles: Caxton publication, The Citizen
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