The ANC on Tuesday announced that it would only release the names of its mayoral candidates after the May 18 local government elections.
However, the appearance of some senior KwaZulu-Natal politicians on the eThekwini proportional representative list seems to confirm that they are being considered for the key mayoral positions in the provincial economic hub of Durban.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe on Tuesday told journalists in Joburg that the ANC had decided to stick to its “long-standing practice” of announcing mayoral candidates only after the elections, because “we don’t think the individual mayors are the brand, the ANC is the brand”.
Top ANC members told The Mercury this week that the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal had recently submitted three names to Luthuli House (ANC headquarters), rejecting the four initially submitted by the eThekwini region to the provincial leadership.
These names, say ANC insiders, are Makhosi Khoza, chairwoman of the standing committee on public accounts in the provincial legislature, who also has wide-ranging experience in local government, having been the CEO of the KwaZulu-Natal Local Government Association.
The list, released by the IEC, places Khoza in 11th spot on the eThekwini list.
The second name recommended to the ANC nationally, say ANC sources, is Cyril Xaba, the adviser to KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize.
With years serving in several key portfolio committees in the provincial legislature, Xaba is considered to be a well-rounded politician with a strong grasp of finance and administrative matters in the province.
Xaba is 12th on the eThekwini proportional representative list, which puts him in pole position to be elected a councillor and possibly mayor, given the strong ANC’s electoral strength in eThekwini. He was once part of the eThekwini regional executive.
The present eThekwini speaker, James Nxumalo, is in the third spot in the list. He has always been touted as a possible new mayor of eThekwini.
The other names that were initially submitted by eThekwini to the province also feature prominently on the list, with the acting regional chairman, Stanley Xulu, at the top, senior ANC leader Mina Lesoma second and eThekwini’s head of the housing committee, Nigel Gumede, in fifth spot.
Nhlanhla Mtaka, MD of Ingabadi Group, a KZN-based political consultancy, said on Tuesday night that the ANC strategy appeared to be broadening the “pool” from whom to appoint key city leaders by bringing in some of the senior cadres to the eThekwini list. “Given the eThekwini status as an international city with a big budget and also boasting world-class infrastructure, the ANC seems to be a sending a message that it takes its status seriously,” said Mtaka.
“This list seems to be also talking to the issue of investors who might be interested in who is to lead Durban, the city that might campaign for the Olympics,” he said.
The DA, which has published its mayoral list before all other parties, has nominated Ronnie Veeran for eThekwini.
Veeran joined the DA at its formation in 2000 and has worked for the Westville council in the treasury department for 25 years.
The Minority Front has nominated its eThekwini municipality executive member, Patrick Pillay.
The IFP echoed the ANC in saying it would release its mayoral list after the election.
In Msunduzi, the ANC has brought back the controversial former speaker, Alpha Shelembe, who was removed from this key position at the height of the administrative crisis that almost crippled the Pietermaritzburg municipality last year.
He, however, remained an ordinary council member and has now made it back onto the list, at eighth.
However, former mayor Zanele Hlatshwayo and her deputy, Mervyn Dirks, do not feature on the proportional representative list for Msunduzi.
This means voters will have to wait until after the elections to find out who the ANC’s candidates for mayors are, except in Cape Town where the ANC has accepted Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich, even though his candidature was “sprung on” the ruling party by the labour federation. - The Mercury