INKATHA Freedom Party (IFP) said the resignation of Premier Sihle Zikalala is a relief to KZN people.
They said Zikalala has been the premier of KZN since the advent of democracy.
They further said almost all departments under Zikalala’s leadership were implicated in corrupt activities.
This comes after Zikalala suddenly resigned as KZN premier on Thursday, 4 August, after he was defeated by Siboniso Duma as KZN ANC chairman in the provincial conference two weeks ago.
The province will now have a woman premier for the first time in history as Nomusa Dube-Ncube, Amanda Bani and Mbali Fraizer were interviewed to be the next premier on Friday, 5 August.
IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa said Zikalala’s resignation was long overdue.
“The writing was on the wall following Zikalala’s embarrassing defeat at African National Congress’ provincial conference in KZN two weeks ago.
“Zikalala’s ejection from the office of the premier will bring relief to the people of KZN in a variety of ways.
“This is the beginning of the final ejection of the ANC in 2024 by the people of this province.
“Zikalala has been the worst premier of KZN since the advent of democracy.
“Almost all departments under his tenure were implicated in corrupt activities, he said.
“In all aspects of leadership as premier and as chairperson where he has failed this province, he failed together with his ANC collective.
“The logical conclusion is that the ANC collective has failed the people of KZN,” he said.
He said it was concerning that whenever ANC members met at their elective conferences, the primary objective became the unseating of a sitting premier and not the needs of the people of KZN.
“This has become a trend for ANC conferences in this province and does not benefit the people of KZN in any way.
“We await the new premier, whom we will hold accountable for all the outstanding investigations,” he said.
KZN Democratic Alliance (DA) chief whip, Zwakele Mncwango, said it was expected that Zikalala would resign as KZN premier.
“Zikalala just drank his own medicine. The same thing happened when Zikalala took the position to be KZN ANC chairman where Senzo Mchunu, who was the premier at that time, was forced to resign,” he said.
Mncwango said Zikalala was the leader who always wanted everything to be about him.
“That one left a bad taste in the mouth of his own party.Although he was bad on one side, he was also good in that he was always at the legislature to answer questions. He was also available in the committee to explain about his office,” he said.
Addressing the media on Friday after his resignation, Zikalala thanked the KZN Legislature, his comrades, revolutionary activists in the ANC and leaders of the opposition parties.
“I thank the pleasant engagement we share with the leader of the official opposition Honourable Hlabisa.
“I’m happy that I depart the government with no cloud of any allegation.
“When we started this term after the 2019 elections, the province had recorded about R12, 4 billion of irregular expenditure in 2018/2019.
“It is important to note that irregular expenditure does not automatically mean corruption but it means failure to account and possible mismanagement” he said.
Zikalala said that in a period of three years, they reduced this to R6,8 billion.
“When we started this term, only two departments had attained clean audits.
“Today as we depart, the Premier’s Office has attained its first clean audit in history,” he said.
