Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng ANC met in Durban on Monady but failed to strike a deal on the ANC leadership ahead of December’s national elective conference in Mangaung.
The two provinces are on opposite sides, with KZN firmly behind President Jacob Zuma serving a second term as ANC president while Gauteng wants Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to challenge Zuma at Mangaung.
Zuma’s home province, KZN, has already held meetings with the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape as it tries to avoid a bitter contest for positions at Mangaung.
Sources in the KZN ANC said party leaders in the province feel that such a contest could be divisive to the party, which is still “trying to recover from the divisions it suffered ahead of the Polokwane conference in 2007”.
After Monday’s meeting, however, no deal could be struck by the two provinces.
“Both provinces would not compromise on their presidential candidates and in the end it was decided that branches should determine the leadership issue.
“It was felt that the provinces could not dictate to the branches,” said a source privy to the discussions.
At the end of the day-long meeting at Sibaya Casino, north of Durban, the two provinces issued a statement saying the ANC’s rank and file should discuss leadership in a “comradely manner without acrimony and tension”.
The party’s KZN secretary, Sihle Zikalala, rejected the suggestion that KZN was trying to persuade Gauteng to drop Motlanthe, saying the meeting had “not focused on names, but on the political approach” ahead of the national conference in December.
Zikalala and Premier Zweli Mkhize led the KZN delegation, while the Gauteng delegation was led by provincial secretary David Makhura and chairman Paul Mashatile.
The joint meeting agreed that a conducive environment must be created within the ANC for branches and members to exercise their democratic rights to elect leaders of their choice guided by the key principles contained in the ANC document titled “Through the Eye of the Needle”, Zikalala and Makhura said in a joint statement.
KZN recently said its status as the most powerful bloc at Mangaung has not made it arrogant, adding that it was willing to work with other provinces to ensure there was unity and continuity of leadership of the ANC.
But the province is yet to make known its list of preferred candidates for the top positions.
It was believed that the province has avoided announcing its list because it was still hopeful that it could persuade other provinces for Zuma and Motlanthe to be retained in their respective positions.
The Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association in KZN has also called for Zuma to be retained, but has not nominated anyone for the position of deputy president.
On Monday,
the KZN ANC rejected claims that it had cooked its membership figures.
The ANC’s provincial membership jumped from 252 637 early this year to 331 820 at the last audit, the results of which were released last weekend.
But the party said there was nothing sinister about the growth, and attributed it to hard work in recruiting new members. - Daily News