Durban - The National Working Committee (NWC) of the ANC is expected to meet the party’s leaders in KwaZulu-Natal this weekend amid rising governance issues in the province.
The scandal involving the near collapse of the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) contract, which affected 5 400 schools and more than 2 million pupils, is one of the key issues to be discussed.
National leaders are concerned that mounting issues in the province may affect the outcomes of next year’s elections, as the ANC has won only four of 12 by-elections, with the IFP and DA making inroads into previous strongholds.
Other issues include interference by provincial party leaders in the decision-making of the provincial Cabinet.
“A Cabinet meeting did not take place because the provincial leadership needed to be appraised on the agenda of the meeting before MECs could meet,” a source said.
A senior party member said: “The issue of the eThekwini city manager Musa Mbhele and the probe into him for allegedly failing to disclose an investigation against him during the interview for the job, has also made senior ANC officials uncomfortable.
“Anything that affects the stability of eThekwini will affect the province and the ANC nationally because it is the only ANC-controlled metro.”
Another source said no special effort had been made to draw people into the party, whereas previously, attempts had been made to foster a spirit of togetherness. “The ANC in KZN is already in a very difficult position and there are concerns about what will happen when people vote, especially in the north of the province.”
In response, ANC provincial spokesperson Mafika Mndebele said the provincial leadership had not gone to government and public servants and instructed them on how to conduct themselves.
“If there are issues, like with the school nutrition programme, we alerted the party’s deployees in government and called for a speedy resolution to the matter.”
He described the suggestion that the NWC was contemplating placing the KZN leadership under administration as untrue.
“Those making accusations of interference must point out where the organisation has interfered in the work of government.
“On the school nutrition issue, the ANC gave its own view but we never took a decision for the provincial government.”
He said the NWC visit was to assess the state of the organisation and the decisions taken by the organisation.
ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the NWC would meet the KZN PEC to discuss the state of the organisation and the state of service delivery and governance in various regions in the province.
She confirmed that ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa, deputy Paul Mashatile and secretary-general Fikile Mbalula would be part of the NWC delegation.
Political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu said the ANC at a national level was concerned that if the KZN leadership continued to make governance mistakes, it could hand the province, at next year’s elections, to the IFP on a platter.
“There are grumblings in the party at the interference of the political leadership in issues of public servants.”
Another analyst Zakhele Ndlovu said the leadership of the ANC in the province faced many challenges, and there were fears that the feeding-scheme scandal could cost the party votes next year.
“National leadership is very concerned that the ANC could lose the province to the IFP or a coalition led by that party. The leadership is worried that the party could lose the only metro that it runs.”