Willies Mchunu (born 11 May 1948) was the 7th

Premier of KwaZulu-Natal The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal is the head of government of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The current Premier of KwaZulu-Natal i''s'' Nomusa Dube-Ncube, a member of the African National Congress. She is the first elected woman to assu ...

province in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. He was previously a

Member of the Executive Council In South Africa, the Executive Council of a province is the cabinet of the provincial government. The Executive Council consists of the Premier and five to ten other members,''Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996'', Chapter 6: "Pro ...

(MEC) for the Department of Transport, Community Safety, and Liaison in the province. He is a member of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

and the former chairperson of the

South African Communist Party The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing Na ...

(SACP) in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

and is a member of the Central Committee of the SACP. He is seen as a close ally of former South African President

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-aparth ...

Controversies

Violence at the Kennedy Road informal settlement in 2009

Willies Mchunu's response to the violent attacks on

Abahlali baseMjondolo Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM, , in English: "the residents of the shacks") is a socialist shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which organises land occupations, builds communes

at the

Kennedy Road informal settlement Kennedy Road is an informal settlement in Durban (eThekwini), in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Formed in the late 1970s or early 1980s, the settlement was mentioned by the African National Congress (ANC) after the end of apart ...

was and remains controversial. At the time of the attack, he claimed that the attacks were by a "criminal forum" associated with Abahlali baseMjondolo president

S'bu Zikode Sibusiso Innocent Zikode is the current president of the South African shack dwellers' movement, which he co-founded with others in 2005. Abahlali baseMjondolo claims to have an audited paid up membership of over 80 000 across South Africa. His ...

. Abahlali baseMjondolo and many civil society organizations have called the attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo and Kennedy Road residents politically motivated and blame Mchunu for condoning the attacks by an armed group affiliated with the ANC . Mchunu's response to the attacks has also been criticized by Bishop Rubin Phillip and Archbishop

Thabo Makgoba Thabo Cecil Makgoba KStJ (born 15 December 1960 in Alexandra, Johannesburg) is the South African Anglican archbishop of Cape Town. He had served before as bishop of Grahamstown. Biography Makgoba graduated from Orlando High, Soweto, and ...

. Mchunu refused calls for an independent investigation into the attacks.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

sent a letter of concern to Willies Mchunu, but there was no response from his office. On 18 July 2011, the case against the twelve members of Abahlali baseMjondolo arrested after the attacks was thrown out of court. The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa issued a statement saying that the "charges were based on evidence which now appears almost certainly to have been manufactured" and that the Magistrate had described the witnesses as "belligerent", "unreliable", and "dishonest". According to

Paul Trewhela Paul Trewhela (born 1941) is a South African journalist and a former political prisoner. Biography Trewhela was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1941, educated at Michaelhouse in KwaZulu-Natal. Trewhela worked in underground journalism ...

, "The scandal is that this political prosecution was instituted in the first place, and that it was dragged on, month after month, by magistrates, prosecutions and police without a shred of reliable evidence - with plentiful evidence, rather, of manipulation and intimidation of witnesses by the police and local ANC structures."

Deaths During Traffic Department 'Fitness Test' in 2012

In last 2012 six applicants for positions as traffic officers died during a fitness test and another committed suicide following which there were calls for Mchunu's resignation.Fitness test deaths: Provincial minister dismisses calls to resign
''Mail & Guardian'', 31 December 2012

Fields Hill 2013 Crash

Since 24 people were killed on 5 September 2013 in one of the most horrific accidents on Fields Hill, the

2013 Pinetown crash On September 5, 2013, an articulated truck drove through a red light at high speed, killing 26 people (later becoming 27) and injuring at least 80, in Pinetown, South Africa. After a light turned green at the junction of Richmond/Josiah Gumede Roa ...

, Willies Mchunu has discounted calls from residents for the banning of trucks on the "Hill of Horrors" as it has become known. Local City Councillor

Rick Crouch Richard "Rick" Crouch (born 6 September 1960) is a South African politician and City Councillor in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality representing the official opposition Democratic Alliance. Aside from being a former politician Crouch is ...

has been vocal about the Provincial Government's failure in stopping the carnage on Fields Hill, going as far as accusing the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Willies Mchunu, of practicing tombstone legislation. Councillor Crouch has been campaigning for stricter rules for trucks on Fields Hill.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mchunu, Willies Living people African National Congress politicians Members of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature People from KwaZulu-Natal 1948 births