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Workmen were busy removing portraits of former Premier Senzo Mchunu from the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature this morning ahead of the inauguration of his replacement, transport and public safety MEC Willies Mchunu (unrelated), who is also the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal deputy chairperson.
Senzo Mchunu, who lost a bid for a second term as ANC chairperson to his then provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala in a hard-fought contest last November, was forced to resign by the governing party on Monday.
He had been under pressure from Zikalala’s allies – in particularly the ANC Youth League – to resign because they have been pushing for a clean-out of Senzo Mchunu’s backers to make room for new leaders elected to the ANC’s provincial executive committee.
As preparations went ahead this morning for the election of Willies Mchunu at 2pm, his predecessor’s portraits were removed by legislature staff, who had a pile of portraits on a trolley which they were wheeling out of the front entrance.
They were not willing to say where the portraits, which had hung next to those of speaker Lydia Johnson and President Jacob Zuma on the walls of meeting rooms and offices throughout the legislature complex, were destined.
A scaffold tower was being set in the legislature grounds and sound technicians were waiting to mount speakers which will be used to broadcast the proceedings this afternoon to the public. The precinct around the legislature was expected to be closed to traffic during this afternoon’s session.
Inside the legislature the vacancy created by Senzo Mchunu’s departure for the National Assembly in Cape Town was being filled by ANC spokesperson and provincial executive committee member Mdumiseni Ntuli, a former ANC Youth League leader and close ally of Zikalala, who was the next on the list.
ANC insiders said that another reshuffle to accommodate the youth league’s demands is on the cards, with MECs seen as close to Senzo Mchunu and who back his campaign for re-election set to be axed to make room for more of Zikalala’s backers.
