ActionSA KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) chair Zwakele Mncwango has told Polity that corruption is a “cancer” in South Africa that is getting particularly worse in the eThekwini municipality, and he is calling for the ANC to be kicked out of office in the province.

Speaking to Polity on the sidelines of ActionSA’s maiden policy conference, he said introducing harsh sentences for those convicted of corruption would discourage people from committing similar crimes.

He is adamant that ActionSA policies will “rescue” the people of KZN.

Mncwango is worried that the province is seeing an increase in political killings and has warned that whistleblowers and others who are fighting corruption are being victimised and killed.

“eThekwini is just a portion but the bigger problem is all over the country. We believe that we need to change the government of eThekwini municipality because the problem is not the mayor per ser but the problem is the entire ANC,” said Mncwango. 

He also added that issues of service delivery pertaining to water, electricity and rural development were among the key issues affecting the province.

He promised residents that his party would focus on rural development as it made up a large portion of the province.

Mncwango said there was a great need to help empower rural communities to start their own businesses and create employment.

“That is the only way we can deal with urbanisation. Currently, the country as a whole is suffering from urbanisation because people don’t get services from the rural areas and they all migrate to the urban areas. The major cities have a burden of a growing population, which affects housing,” he explained.

He is confident that ActionSA’s policies will address such challenges because “the only way one can attract investment in the rural areas is through having infrastructure like roads, bringing back the railways, because that is how we can transport goods”.