Durban — The newly elected KwaZulu-Natal ANC leadership has assured defeated Sihle Zikalala that it will not remove him from his position as premier of the province.
In the new leadership’s first media briefing after the announcement of the results on Sunday, the new chairperson Siboniso Duma allayed fears of the purging of the defeated members, saying the new leadership has no intention to remove the premier or anyone in the position until the 2024 general election.
Duma, who defeated Zikalala by a big margin for the chairperson position – having amassed 930 votes against Zikalala’s 665 – said the new leadership would focus on building and renewing the ANC towards the 2024 general election, to ensure that it retains the province. If they were going to purge the defeated members, that would put the party at risk of going into the 2024 election divided, he said.
He was backed by the new provincial secretary, Bheki Mtolo, who said all of them as the new leadership were in the same provincial executive committee that proposed Zikalala's name for the premiership, therefore they cannot go against their own decision.
Outlining his programme, Duma said his new leadership would soon meet with amakhosi, the Zulu royal family as well as Nazareth Baptist Church (Shembe) to strengthen relationships with these institutions as they were very important stakeholders in the province.
In its own analysis of the reasons for its humiliating loss in the local government elections last year, the party listed weak relations with these institutions as having mostly contributed to losing about 18 municipalities to its rival, the IFP.
Duma's slate, which was known as the Talibans, made a clean sweep at the elective conference that started on Friday and ended on Sunday in Durban.
Donning Muslim scarfs, the delegates were very active and sang song with a lot of confidence. Mtolo defeated the incumbent Mdumiseni Ntuli who had only held the position for five years after he was elected in 2018.
For the deputy chairperson position, current Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane trashed Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu while legislature speaker Nontembeko Boyce lost to incumbent Sipho Hlomuka. Former Newcastle mayor and the current regional chairperson Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba completed the top list after beating Human Settlements MEC Jomo Sibiya for the treasurer position.
The Duma-Mtolo combination is not new, as the two were elected to the provincial ANC Youth League leadership in 2010 at a conference that was held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Howard College campus. At that conference, which elected former education MEC Mthandeni Dlungwane as chairperson, Mtolo was elected secretary while Duma served as his deputy.
The late Sindiso Magaqa was elected as Dlungwane's deputy. Their leadership did not last long after the national Youth League under Julius Malema disbanded them for refusing to organise buses to support Malema, who was facing a disciplinary hearing by the mother body.
Duma, who is originally from Mthwalume on the South Coast but now lives in KwaNyuswa outside Hillcrest, west of Durban, was elected to the legislature in 2014 and has served in many portfolio committees.
He is currently chairperson of chairpersons. Mtolo, who is from Kokstad under the Harry Gwala region, was appointed Kokstad local municipality deputy mayor in 2011 and went on to become the mayor in 2016. He was subsequently re-elected to the same position after last year's local government elections. He would soon vacate his mayoral position as provincial secretaries are full-time in the ANC.
Simelane, who hails from Vryheid under the Mzala Nxumalo region, challenged Dlungwane and lost at the 2010 conference. She was regional chairperson before being elected to the legislature. She was appointed party provincial spokesperson after the 2018 conference, a position she left after she was appointed Health MEC in 2019.
The KZN ANC conference was largely a picture of unity and discipline and the new provincial leadership kept delegates under control as they hosted party president Cyril Ramaphosa.
Applauding the unity and discipline, Ramaphosa said to loud applause at the Olive Convention Centre in Durban on Sunday: “I was very impressed with the press conference that uComrade Duma held… when he said there is not going to be any purging.
“We need to make our conferences about the people of South Africa. The people that we are committed to unite to organise and to serve. I always say KZN has always shown great leadership. On a number of issues that affect our organisation as a whole. You have always been leaders in showing a path to the future our organisation should take. We must emerge from this conference with a clear programme and an undivided commitment to improve the lives of the people in KZN.
“The fundamental purpose of this conference must be to advance the realisation of the vision of our Freedom Charter. We can adopt credentials, we can consider political and secretarial reports, we can debate policy and elect leaders but unless we use this conference to advance the struggle for the freedoms contained in the Freedom Charter this conference could be a waste of time and have no reason.
“I expect you will forge unity and you will close ranks and unite even though you might have different perspectives coming to this conference.“
Daily News