Durban — Former ANC KZN deputy chairperson Willies Mchunu says inorder for the party to turn around its fortunes and restore its dominance in the province in the build-up to the 2024 general elections, it will need more than the leadership elected at its 9th provincial conference.
The much awaited conference is currently under way at the Olive Convention Centre in the heart of Durban where incumbent provincial chairperson Sihle Zikalala is seeking re-election to the position.
The contest for the chairperson position is a four horse race including Zikalala, Finance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube, businessman and AmaZulu Football Club owner Sandile Zungu and senior KZN member of the provincial legislature Sboniso Duma.
Speaking to Independent Media on the sidelines of the conference, Mchunu said that it was incumbent on all members of the party to put their shoulder to the wheel and ensure that the party recovers the support it lost in the last local government elections.
“It is not this leadership that will turn around the fortunes of the ANC, it is us members of the ANC, especially us who are older and have been around the ANC for a long time. Whoever wins the conference, it doesn’t matter.
“We were not taught to follow individuals, we were taught that it is about us the members and the individual elected will be told by us as the members when things are going wrong. We will not go on social media or the traditional media to sort out our problems,” Mchunu said.
He said he was confident that even the veterans of the party could play a role in turning around the party’s fortunes, given their experience.
“We won’t fail, why would we fail? If we have the experience that we used in the past why should we fail to use it?
“That’s what I am looking at, I am not looking at who will emerge, but let us elect and when we have elected we will back that leadership as our own,” Mchunu said.
He also said that the outgoing Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC in KZN had given veterans the space to share their wealth of experience.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE