Durban - ANC eThekwini regional chairwoman Zandile Gumede says she is ready to be the mayor of the eThekwini Municipality if the ANC wins the August 3 local government elections and elects her.
Asked if she was ready, Gumede categorically said: “Yebo!”
Gumede, who is also the chairwoman of the safety and social service committee in the province’s only metro, said she was ready to replace mayor James Nxumalo.
Gumede was at the JL Dube Stadium in Inanda, north of Durban, to address a Youth Day event. She tops the ANC’s list of proportional representation councillors, which puts her in pole position to lead the municipality, which has a budget of R42 billion.
“In fact I want to put the record straight that it is a wish of the youth league, it is a wish of many structures, it is the wish of the people of eThekwini,” said Gumede.
It is believed that the provincial executive committee has put Gumede’s name on the list of the party’s provincial mayoral candidates, which is yet to be rubber-stamped by the national executive committee.
“Right now it is the PEC list. It is yet to go to national for approval. So it is too early for me to say I would be the mayor. If the ANC deploys me I am more than ready because I have been there in the council, and I have been there in the structures,” she said.
The ANC is expected to release its final list of mayoral candidates next week. Gumede said if the national executive committee approved her appointment it would mean the party was committed to uplifting women into top leadership positions. She would be the first woman to be a mayor of an ANC-led metro council.
Regarding media reports that the national executive committee had preferred Co-operative Governance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube to be the city mayor, Gumede said Dube-Ncube did not appear on the ANC provincial list of mayoral candidates.
“We listen to what is discussed in the party structures. In the structures we are in, Nomusa’s name does not even appear. So I don’t want to comment about her name. I will only comment about her if the ANC says something about her,” she said.
Gumede emerged as the leader of the ANC’s biggest and most influential region in the country after defeating Nxumalo at the party’s regional conference in December last year. About ANC branches that supported Nxumalo against her, Gumede said she had extended an olive branch, and they accepted reconciliation.
The city faces a conundrum over its buses, which are operated by Tansnat, a company owned by taxi boss Mandla Gcaba. The two parties are in dispute, each claiming it is owed millions by the other.
Gumede said when she took control of the city her leadership would come up with a solution.
“The solution will come from the ruling party and other stakeholders. I cannot say that I alone have a solution.” ANC Youth League leaders told the crowd of young people on Thursday: “We are going to campaign from corner to corner for Zandile Gumede.”
“The eThekwini region is ready to have a woman mayor. Come August 3, Zandile Gumede will be the mayor,” said league provincial secretary Thanduxolo Sabela.
Political analyst Xolani Dube, of the Xubera Institute, said it was Gumede’s right to ascend to the mayoral position. “You cannot ascend to a chairpersonship position, and then you don’t really take the crown.” However, Dube said it was up to the ANC to decide whether Gumede had the capacity to run “such a complex municipality”.
The Mercury