Francois Rodgers - The battle for KZN amid “sinister power grab”…

Tomorrow, The National Freedom Party (NFP) plans to formally announce its withdrawal from the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government of Unity. In his reaction, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) leader in the province, Francois Rodgers, tells Chris Steyn: “…if the NFP are all about service delivery…and building a province, why would they take this particular approach? There seems to be something more sinister behind it… We rather see a grabbing of power.” Should the NFP now form a coalition with former President Jacob Zuma’s MKP and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), they would have 40 seats and cause a hung legislature. “So if the MKP and the EFF and the NFP decided they weren't going to support budgets or anything, you wouldn't be able to pass budgets. And ultimately…you’d get to a point where they'd have to have…fresh elections…” In a bid to prevent this, the DA is currently engaging with “all of our existing partners”, the African National Congress (ANC), the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), as well as the NFP. As for the rumour that Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla resigned as an MP because she covets a starring role in KZN, Rodgers says: “…the MK party is a bit of an Nkandla Stokvel that looks after family members. So I wouldn't be surprised if this was the ultimate goal… we will do everything in our power as the Democratic Alliance to ensure that the fiscus is protected from any further looting as we've seen in the past by Jacob Zuma.”

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