Why independent candidate Anele Mda is fearlessly taking on the 'big guns'

Loading player...
Anele Mda, an independent candidate vying for a seat in parliament, says political parties will be chasing after independents but she won’t work with any party. She is our guest on the Sunday Times Politics Weekly podcast with Sunday Times deputy editor Mike Siluma. 
We kick-start the conversation by asking her why it was important to publicly rebuke the IEC for not displaying her photo during the signing of the Electoral Code of Conduct.
Eastern Cape-born Mda tells us how she was bitten by the politics bug as a child and about her journey in politics. 
She is a former ANC member and founding member of COPE.
In a significant milestone in our democracy independent candidates have a seat at the table with established political parties for the first time in the country’s history to contest elections. 
“We are the ones who will set the agenda. Political parties will be the ones running after us, not the other way around,” she says.
Mda says she is not planning not to become entangled with any political party.
She also took swipe at some parties. “Imagine having to sit in the ANC in this day and age and lie and say there’s a good story to tell? What good story to tell? Imagine being in the DA and sit there and lie and say there’s a whole intentional embrace of Africans in the DA … Imagine me going to an EFF where I am going to be led by a demagogue that does not respect any woman leader … Imagine me going to Rise Mzansi, sitting there and acting as though ’no we’re an honest new political party that is not aligned’. Who funds you?” she said.
More is covered in detail in the conversation. Listen, subscribe for free and share with your circle.
4 May 2024 English South Africa Politics · News Commentary

Other recent episodes

The cost of protest in South Africa

Protesting in South Africa comes at a price, sometimes a deadly one. From Sharpeville to today’s crackdowns, the state’s response to dissent has often been force, not dialogue. As the country marks Human Rights Day, the question remains: Why does standing up for basic rights still come with heavy consequences?…
20 Mar 27 min

How the ANC in Gauteng will be fixed

The Sunday Times’ Lizeka Tandwa spoke to Gauteng PTT coordinator Hope Papo about how they intend to turn around the party’s fortunes. 
8 Mar 1 hr 11 min

Dlamini-Zuma shoots down GNU, turns on MK Party

ANC heavyweight Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has expressed her disapproval of the government of national unity (GNU), saying that if it had been up to her, the ANC would not have formed a government with the DA.
30 Nov 2024 1 hr 22 min

'I will take back my ANC to honour our ancestors' — Jacob Zuma

ormer president Jacob Zuma has laid out details of an audacious plan to “take back my ANC', by uniting “black” parties under his MK party banner and recapturing the leadership of the party, which he said had “deviated from our ancestors”. He spoke to Sunday Times politics editor Sibongakonke Shoba…
23 Nov 2024 49 min

Khama wants probe into public finances after Masisi’s ousting

Former Botswana leader Ian Khama has called on the country’s new president, Duma Boko, to launch an investigation into the ousted Mokgweetsi Masisi’s use of government finances during his period in power. Khama says he feels responsible for the 'dictatorship' that ensued after Masisi took power. The former president was in…
9 Nov 2024 20 min