Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal ANC elective conference, one of the most eagerly awaited political gatherings of the party in the province will begin today, with party members converging at the Olive Convention Centre.
An optimistic provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli told the media yesterday that they were hoping for an early start in order to ensure that party delegates have sufficient time to discuss policy documents that will likely shape the ANC’s future.
Five candidates are vying for the coveted position of party chairperson and they include current chairperson Sihle Zikalala, Provincial Executive Committee member Siboniso Duma, treasurer Nomusa Dube-Ncube, former KZN director-general Nhlanhla Ngidi and businessman and soccer boss Sandile Zungu.
Many political analysts have suggested that Zikalala’s competition will come from Dube-Ncube, as she has been active in the ruling party's structures for several years while Zungu made headlines this week when he publicly announced his campaign for the position, a move that is unusual in terms of the ANC’s culture.
The provincial chairperson to emerge from the conference will be the ruling party’s face of its elections campaign in 2024.
“We want to start early so that by dinner time (Friday evening) the top five officials are elected. This will enable us to sit for commissions that will discuss policy documents on Saturday morning,” said Ntuli.
The provincial secretary said they were concerned about the emergence of different slates that were circulating in the media, questioning their origin and even suggesting that they were meant to divide the ruling party.
He admitted that divisions in the ruling party were the reason behind the severe losses that the ANC suffered in last year’s local government elections.
“The ANC has no control of the slates that are circulating. What we know is that there are people who survive when the ANC is divided and they know that if KZN is divided they would be able to seize control of South Africa,” Ntuli said, adding that they were very concerned about last year’s local government results.
According to Ntuli, the outgoing provincial leadership, which was elected in 2018, had sought to deal with the divisions which had been glaring in the build up to the highly contested 2017 elective conference.
“This outgoing leadership was made up of people that were supporting comrade Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and those supporting comrade Cyril Ramaphosa and we managed to rise above personal preferences in order to deal with the task at hand which was to forge unity of the movement,” Ntuli explained.
He told the media that the effort had yielded a modest level of success, but also conceded that the Covid-19 lockdown had also impacted on how the party fared in the polls.
During the lockdown, the provincial secretary pointed out many businesses closed, forcing people out of work and service delivery came to a halt, which caused a lot of anger and discontent among the public who blamed the ANC for this and sought to punish it at the polls.
University of KwaZulu-Natal political analyst Siyabonga Ntombela said an early start of the conference was not likely given the high level of contestation for positions.
“The first thing that will take most of the day will be disputes around the credentials and we have seen in the past how much time that item consumes. When you consider how much jostling there is for leadership positions then you realise this is going to be one very long conference whose outcome may even be disputed by some,” said Ntombela.
He said the emergence of different slates was an illustration of divisions in the ruling party where many were driven by a hunger for positions as opposed to serving the organisation and the people of the country. He predicted that there would be disputes around who emerges as the winner in the conference.
Today, Zikalala is expected to deliver the political report marking the start of the conference before the nominated candidates are announced at the plenary session. According to the provincial secretary, the most likely leader to address the gathering from the party’s top brass is Treasurer General Paul Mashatile, although he stressed that there was nothing compelling the conference to be addressed by a leader from the top six.
THE MERCURY