ANC in KZN to go ahead with elective conferences

The ANC’s leadership says the KwaZulu-Natal province and its regions can now go ahead with their planned elective conferences.

The party’s national working committee received feedback over Sunday and Monday from provincial structures on their readiness for the conferences.

The party’s top six officials arrived in Durban on Sunday in a bid to unify the KwaZulu-Natal regions, listen to the qualms of branches, and finalise a date for the divided province to finally hold its elective conference.

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has been split into two factions since its 2015 provincial conference where new leadership was elected. One camp backs Ramaphosa and the South African Communist Party, and former ANC provincial chairman and axed premier Senzo Mchunu. This faction gathered on Monday calling for the postponement of the provincial elective conference, claiming they were being barred from branch meetings and registering as members in good standing.

The other group – who say the elective conference needs to run as soon as possible – supported former African Union commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for ANC president in December 2017 at the national elective conference, and support former president Jacob Zuma as well as Sihle Zikalala.

Zikalala was provincial ANC leader until January when the party suspended the leadership after the Pietermaritzburg High Court found that the 2015 elective conference, won by Zikalala against Mchunu, was null and void. An interim structure was set up and co-led by Zikalala with Ramaphosa backer Mike Mabuyakhulu. Their mandate was to ensure the provincial elective conference was held by the end of April, but they failed. The interim structure was only supposed to function for three months and their mandate ends on Tuesday.

Sunday’s meeting saw a large group ejected from the meeting as only branch chairs and secretaries were allowed to attend. It also saw private broadcaster eNCA’s cameraman and journalist stopped from filming during a live broadcast, while shouts of “factional”, directed at the television crew, could be heard in the background. Other journalists were also told to stop recording or taking photographs with no reasons given.

Members of the ANC national working committee (NWC) and national executive committee (NEC) were deployed all over the province. Deputy President David Mabuza and others met regions in the north, including Zululand and Ilembe. Secretary-general Ace Magashule, and Bathabile Dlamini, Jackson Mthembu, and others met with regions in Pietermaritzburg and the south.

National chairman Gwede Mantashe, and Thandi Modise, Zizi Kodwa, and Senzo Mchunu met regions in the Newcastle and Dundee areas. Treasurer-general Paul Mashatile and Dlamini-Zuma and others met the Musa Dladla region in Empangeni.

On Monday, the NWC and interim provincial structure met at the Coastlands Hotel in Durban to discuss the final decision and Magashule told media: “I think we are all agreeing throughout the regions that we are ready for regional conferences. We are ready for provincial conferences. We are ready and happy that our structures are busy ensuring that there’s unity and cohesion in the province.”

He added that despite the challenges “we are not tiring”.

“The provincial task team comrades are working together to forge unity so that we are able to score a decisive victory in elections next year…. we reporting back, we not ending here… this is the year of unity and renewal… we are highly impressed by the leadership of KZN,” he added.