DURBAN - QUESTIONS have been raised about the timing and intention of some ANC councillors in eThekwini Municipality in visiting former ANC president Jacob Zuma at his home in Nkandla tomorrow.
News of the visit started circulating on social media on Monday evening and was confirmed to The Mercury yesterday.
“Yes, it is true that we are visiting our former president. It is something that we have been considering for a while, and everything is working according to plan,” said councillor Ntando Khuzwayo.
Khuzwayo said the plan was hatched over the past weekend. According to the councillor, the aims of the visit included:
Getting counsel from the former president as they start their five-year terms as councillors.
Giving Zuma wishes for a happy festive season.
Finding out how Zuma has been since his release from incarceration in July.
“We had been hoping to see him for a while, but the pressures of campaigning for the local government elections made this difficult and we now think that the moment is right for us to visit him and show our respect and appreciation for what he has done for the organisation,” Khuzwayo said.
While the plan had been to keep it as a visit by eThekwini councillors, the councillor added, the planned visit had generated a lot of interest within and outside KwaZulu-Natal. He said ANC members from Gauteng, the Free State, Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces were now set to be part of the visit.
There have been suggestions that the planned visit is linked to the deal that was brokered recently which ensured that the ANC – which did not get an outright majority – still managed to retain eThekwini Metro.
While it has never been officially confirmed by the party, indications were that Zuma was influential in ensuring that the deal, which involved Abantu Batho Congress president Philani Mavundla, made it possible for the ANC to retain control of the metro.
EFF leader Julius Malema told the media recently that Zuma and suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule were involved in making the deal between the ANC and smaller parties.
The deal was regarded as a triumphant moment for the ANC members from the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) grouping aligned with the former president.
An ANC member from the Renew, Rebuild and Unite (RRU) grouping, which is aligned to President Cyril Ramaphosa, said it was clear that the planned visit was aimed at dividing the ANC.
“The fact that this was not sanctioned by the regional structure just tells you that this is a faction-driven mission,” he said.
He added that council speaker Thabani Nyawose would not be part of the visitors as it had been done without following proper routes within the party.
ANC KZN spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said the provincial leadership had not been informed about the visit.
“What we will check now is whether the decision was taken by the ANC caucus and this will come from whip Thembo Ntuli. But as these stand, there is no structure in the ANC that has sanctioned the visit,” said Ntombela.
He added that they would not stop anyone from visiting the former president.
A political analyst from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Siyabonga Ntombela, said the visit was a clear demonstration of the provincial leadership’s inability to deal with unruly party members.
“The provincial leadership’s deficiency has been exposed in this instance. How is it possible that people can plan something like this without the provincial structure knowing? There needs to be some introspection from the provincial leadership,” said Ntombela.
He said the visit was also undermining Ramaphosa’s mission of trying to unite the party and drive good governance principles. He noted that with the regional conferences and provincial conference most likely to take place next year, the visit was providing a good avenue for the RET grouping to plan its next move.
“These people are there to swear their allegiance to the former president, and they are probably also going to discuss how they will regain power as a grouping at different levels within party structures. So effectively, this visit is a plenary meeting for them.”
He said that it was an open secret that there was bad blood between Ramaphosa and Zuma and stressed that the visit would drive a wedge of division among ANC councillors in the municipality.
Attempts to get comment from Jacob Zuma Foundation’s Mzwanele Manyi were unsuccessful.
THE MERCURY