WATCH | ANC district stalwart speaks about pain, betrayal and her new home in the MK Party

Former ANC uMgungundlovu District deputy mayor Thandiwe “Fucwana” Zungu — who recently left the organisation for former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party — has opened up about her decision to ditch an organisation she has been part of for over five decades.

Zungu, alongside former ANC eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, was last week unveiled by Zuma as the MK Party’s latest recruits during a press briefing held in Durban.

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In an exclusive interview with The Witness at her Pietermaritzburg home in Claridge, Zungu spoke about the pain of having to cut ties with an organisation she dedicated a significant portion of her life to.

From my parents, the family of my late husband [Thulani Zungu] and my own children, the only political organisation we knew was the ANC.

“I’m 68 now, and since my teenage years, I have been working for the ANC. I hope you appreciate the pain of having to leave one’s home — it’s indescribable,” she said.

In their involvement in the ANC, Zungu and her late husband rose to leadership positions within the party, with the former uMgungundlovu District deputy mayor occupying several top positions within the organisation, including that of being member of the ANC Moses Mabhida regional executive committee (REC) and regional working committee (RWC).

However, for Zungu, the relationship with the ANC started to unravel in 2018 following the murder of ANC Pietermaritzburg high profile activist Musawenkosi “Qashana” Mchunu, who was gunned down at his home in kwaPata, where Zungu has another home.

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Mchunu’s murder happened amid tensions between ANC members backing then ANC presidential candidate, former African Union (AU) chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who in the ANC’s 2017 national elective conference contested against current party leader, President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Zungu’s son Gift; his cousin, Nkosinathi “TK” Gambu, then an ANC Msunduzi councillor; and four other people were arrested in connection with Mchunu’s murder in September 2018.

The charges against Gift have since been dropped while Gambu’s case is still continuing.

In December 2018, Zungu, who at the time was still deputy mayor, was arrested at a Pietermaritzburg shopping mall in full view of the public.

While, at the time, investigators claimed that she was being arrested for fraudulently acquiring an RDP house, Zungu, who after being detained for four days was released without a charge, believes her arrest was designed to create a perception that she was somehow involved in Mchunu’s murder.

The house in question was not acquired by me. It belonged to my mother-in-law. The person who it was claimed that I stole the house from admitted that the house never belonged to her. These are things which a preliminary investigation would have revealed.

“To me, my arrest in public had nothing to do with the house, it was done to portray me as a murderer in the eyes of the public and members of the ANC.

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“To prove that I was arrested for absolutely nothing, as we speak, we are sitting with a R16 000 rates bill from the Msunduzi Municipality for the very same house. If the house was stolen from someone, why then is Msunduzi sending the bill to my family?” she asked.

Despite Zungu and her son Gift having been cleared, a cloud of suspicion continued to hang over her head.

“Some individuals in the ANC in the region continued to use my arrest and that of my son, as a weapon to sideline me within the party.

“Even though the ANC later deployed me to the National Assembly, I don’t believe that it was an honest deployment — it was a ploy to remove me from the ANC Moses Mabhida Region internal politics.

The most painful thing is that Qashana was like my own son, I brought him up. So, when he was murdered like that, I felt the pain of a parent. Then for someone to turn around and accuse me of being behind his murder, is incomprehensible. How can I murder my own son?

After being inactive within the ANC for several years, Zungu said she was then approached by Zuma through the former president’s intermediaries.

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“Because all my life I have been working for the people, I saw the invitation to join the MK Party as an opportunity for me to continue serving the people,” she said.