Durban - As the top brass in the ANC prepare to descend on the eThekwini region next week, there were moves to find compromises to leadership problems dogging the region.
The region has met four times before but no leaders were elected, after two conferences were postponed and two others were nullified and cancelled.
Speaking to the Daily News on Wednesday, national ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa confirmed that the national leadership would visit Durban next week “to attend to the eThekwini problems”.
“We are dealing with the problems internally,” Kodwa said. He said the national leadership was expected to visit the eThekwini region on Tuesday.
The ANC’s national executive committee was set to meet this weekend to receive a report from the KZN provincial leadership. Kodwa also said the national leadership took the affairs in the eThekwini region in a serious light.
“Where there is instability, it is not good for the ANC whether the problems are in a small or biggest region. We would want to deal with the problems,” he said.
The news about the national leadership visit to the region comes on the heels of a meeting convened by the KZN leadership with leaders from 103 branches on Sunday.
They met to tackle matters arising from the adjourned conference contested by eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo and former regional treasurer Zandile Gumede – in the running for the chairmanship position.
Sources said the meeting took stock of the cancelled conference and also provided a platform for branches to raise their concerns.
Sources from both factions confirmed that there were talks of compromises that could see Nxumalo and Gumede decline nominations or a candidate line-up accommodating either faction. They said no agreement was reached.
“They were done in bad faith. Nothing tangible came out of it,” said one source.
“The talks seek to assist Nxumalo emerge at all costs. If the talks resume, they should resume without interest of the provincial executive committee yielding results in favour of a certain candidate,” said a Gumede campaigner.
The matter apparently came up again on Sunday when a date for the next conference was discussed, but this was rejected by the faction linked to Nxumalo – believed to enjoy support from the majority of branches.
“They say there must be a discussion with James as chairman and Zandile as his deputy. That is not possible,” said a source linked to Nxumalo.
Contacted for comment, provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala said discussions on the problems facing the region were handled internally.
“We welcome such a move, but we won’t say who must stand for what,” he said when asked about reported talks on possible compromises for the eThekwini region.
Daily News