Durban - The leadership race for the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is in full swing ahead of the provincial conference in November.
The conference was moved to three months’ time to avoid a clash with the municipal elections in May next year.
On Monday, provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala said the lobbying and campaigning for the leadership has been officially opened in party structures.
Zikalala said branches were now expected to hold branch general meetings to nominate delegates to the conference and also nominate their preferred candidates.
He made the comments as two candidate lists were already making the rounds as lobbying intensified.
However, the Daily News has established that incumbent chairman, Senzo Mchunu, is set to be challenged by Zikalala.
Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, the current deputy secretary, is likely to find herself in a situation AU chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma once found herself in before the 2007 Polokwane conference.
At the time Dlamini Zuma was nominated by the President Zuma and Thabo Mbeki-aligned camps for both the national chairman and deputy president posts.
She chose to contest the deputy position, which she lost to Kgalema Motlanthe, but managed to secure a spot on the national executive committee.
In the case of Dube-Ncube this time around, she is nominated by the Zikalala camp for the position of treasurer, while the Mchunu camp want her to retain her current position.
In another development, the Zikalala camp has Transport MEC Willies as deputy chairman, Moses Mabhida regional chairman, Supa Zuma, as secretary and Harry Gwala chairman, Mluleki Ndobe, as deputy secretary.
Mchunu previously held the deputy chairman position, but lost to Senzo Mchunu for the chairman position at a general council two years ago.
Meanwhile, the Senzo Mchunu camp is pushing for Education MEC Peggy Nkonyeni to become deputy chairperson, Nhlakanipho Ntombela, for secretary and Economic Development MEC Michael Mabuyakhulu as treasurer.
As the campaigning heats up, only the ANC Youth League has publicly stated its support for the slate aligned to Zikalala.
The Daily News understands that the extended regional committee meeting of the Moses Mabhida (Pietermaritzburg) last week endorsed the candidate list headed by Zikalala. Ten other regions still have to make their choices and declare them publicly.
Political analyst Thabani Khumalo said the upcoming conference showed that the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal was no longer as united as it was at prior conferences.
“It went to the last two conferences as solid and united block. There is now division and a big one that threatens its influence nationally,” Khumalo said.
“It was united and spoke with one voice and this (current leadership) was elected unopposed. It has been stable, but unfortunately it seems unity is no longer there.”
Khumalo said the decision to move the conference from May next year to November could have been to give the elected leadership more time to work towards unity without affecting its performance in the municipal elections.
He speculated that there was a lack of a unifying force as the party marched to the 2017 national congress and the end of the Zuma presidency.
Khumalo said the ANC in the province had been at the forefront of the election of Zuma in 2007 and for his re-election for a second term in 2012.
“The unity and stability was built around Zuma. He was the figure of unity and now that his term will end everybody is looking who is next. That is what divides the province,” he said.
Daily News