ANC55: Mighty KwaZulu-Natal the biggest loser at ANC conference

The biggest African National Congress (ANC) province – KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) – arrived with much fanfare at Nasrec but failed to get a KZN candidate elected in the party’s top seven at the ANC elective conference.

ANC elective conference 2022

After the tension-filled nominations on Saturday, newly re-elected President Cyril Ramaphosa‘s slate made a clean sweep, with only Nomvula Mokonyane from the KwaZulu-Natal-backed RET faction making it as deputy secretary-general.

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Despite former KZN provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli topping the branch nomination list for secretary-general, the province failed to back their own to ensure representation in the top seven leadership.

KZN’s standing at conference

At least 1 225 branches across the ANC’s nine provinces nominated Ntuli, followed by ex-Eastern Cape premier Phumullo Masualle’s 889 and Fikile Mbalula’s 749.

But he was never a favourite for the ‘Taliban’ provincial leaders, as they opted for Masualle for the position.

In a very rare record in the governing party, Ntuli has now lost the secretary position twice in one year – first at the KwaZulu-Natal conference and now at the Nasrec national elective conference. 

Unlike others in the province, Ntuli was seen as open-minded and not overboard about his support for former president Jacob Zuma, something some mistook for hating the former president.

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Without his province’s backing, Ntuli managed to garner only 1 080 votes while Masualle got 1 590, both losing to Mbalula who got 1 692 votes.

Much fanfare and rowdiness

Upon arrival in Johannesburg, the KwaZulu-Natal delegation chose rowdiness and filibustering on the first day of the conference.

They tried to drown the now-re-elected chairperson Gwede Mantashe and later Ramaphosa’s opening speech.

After the horse-trading and lobbying for support from other provinces such as Limpopo, Gauteng and North West, KwaZulu-Natal – which backed ex-minister Zweli Mkhize for the presidency – boldly claimed victory in the run-up to nominations.

Slogans such as “Awubuyi”, loosely translated means “you are not coming back,” reverberated in plenary as they vowed to get rid of Ramaphosa and Mantashe come voting time.

Mantashe, also an energy and minerals minister, was berated for the country’s ongoing Eskom power cuts every time he took to the podium to speak.

WATCH: ANC KZN delegates cheer for Zuma, heckle Ramaphosa at conference

Mr Phala Phala

Ramaphosa didn’t escape the heckling as his detractors called him ‘Mr Phala Phala’ for at least the first 10 minutes while he delivered his political report on Friday.

It was only after Mantashe’s summoning of KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Siboniso Duma on stage and instructing him to calm down the rowdy delegation that order was restored in plenary.

As it happened in the 54^th elective conference in 2017 when KwaZulu-Natal candidate Nkosazana-Dlamini-Zuma lost to Ramaphosa, the biggest delegation of 881 people again failed to make their presence felt at the ballot box – a painful lesson and an indictment on the province’s narrow political outlook.

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