ANC KZN chairperson Sihle Zikalala says that the party’s dip below 50% in eThekwini Municipality has left the ANC at risk of not having the ability to implement service delivery effectively in the only metro in the province.
Zikalala, alongside provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli and provincial spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela, were briefing the media on Thursday following the announcement of the preliminary results of the local government election.
He said that with the metro being the economic hub of the province and the municipality with the largest population, no outright majority by a party there would destabilise service delivery.
In eThekwini, the ANC could only amass 42% of the vote and 96 seats after receiving 648 421 votes while the DA retained its spot as the official opposition in the city with 25.6% of the vote and 58 seats following 395 365 votes cast in their favour in the city.
This marks a significant drop from the 56% outright majority that the ANC enjoyed in eThekwini following the 2016 local government elections.
The EFF managed to garner 10.4% of the votes and received 24 seats in the council after it amassed 161 725 votes at the polls for the metro.
Zikalala said that the party’s supporters in its strongholds had opted not to turn up to vote and that among the reasons for this were conditions such as unemployment, poverty and inequality, and the failure of the party to deal with these challenges and ensure improvement in people’s living conditions.
“Subjectively, inside the ANC, I think issues of divisions, issues of weak structures where in some cases we conducted elections with no structures, and issues of corruption and other weaknesses levelled against the ANC leadership are a cause of concern and a cause of that hurt and dissatisfaction,” Zikalala said.
He said that the ANC PEC was yet to meet and take full stock of the situation although they were taking full responsibility as leaders of the party for the decline in votes, and they were accountable regardless of success or failure.
“In the revolution, the leadership is more required when things are challenging and therefore we take full responsibility for this; we will be accounting to the membership and structures of the ANC with whom we’ve been together in the campaign because it should not be like the structures of the ANC have not been in the campaign and it’s the provincial leadership only, we’ve all been in the campaign,” Zikalala said.
However, he reiterated that it was incumbent upon the provincial leadership to be accountable and take full responsibility.
“The message to the electorate is clear; we have listened and we have heard their views, their dissatisfaction and we will with immediate effect, regroup, respond to these key objective and subjective challenges,” Zikalala said.
He added that the issue of the party’s renewal had been prolonged, but that it would not happen overnight and that in the process of renewal some within the movement would feel unhappy and would protest, but the most immediate task was to renew and unite the ANC.
Political Bureau