Durban - Barely a year since she was elected as eThekwini mayor, Zandile Gumede faces an uncertain future amid rife speculation that she was not likely to finish her term, which ends in 2021.
This is was sparked by the alleged breakdown of her relationship with the ANC’s provincial chairman, Sihle Zikalala, who was instrumental in her rise to power. But both of them scotched this claim.
Gumede, who also heads ANC’s eThekwini region, the party’s biggest with 101 branches, clashed with Bheki Ntuli, secretary of the region, over many issues including the city’s efforts towards radical economic transformation, according to internal party sources.
Gumede, who hails from Inanda, to the north of Durban, defeated James Nxumalo in 2015 for the position of regional chair and was subsequently elected mayor, ultimately controlling the municipalitycity’s then R42 billion now R45 billion budget.
At the time of Gumede’s election, Co-operative Governance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube’s name was being punted to take over as mayor of KZN's only metropolitan.
And while Gumede made history becoming the first black woman to lead eThekwini Municipality after 1994, the odds are now stacked against her and it remains to be seen whether she will survive until her term ends.
Zikalala said, “This is nonsense and I don’t even want to entertain this thing. Our relationship is very good.”
When contacted, Gumede said, “Those people wish we could fall out with both Zikalala and Ntuli. Our relationship is solid and (we are) keeping the struggle alive.”
An ANC insider in the eThekwini region said, “She is defying orders from the provincial leadership and her colleagues at regional level. This has resulted in the breakdown of her relations with the people who lobbied for her to become regional chair.”
Another ANC source in the region said, “Ntuli and Gumede were not allies from the beginning. They ganged up against Nxumalo, but they have never been close.”
Gumede still had the backing of the ANC Youth League both in the province and in the region that vigorously campaigned for her.
Gumede’s working relationship with her deputy, Fawzia Peer, has also soured, according to municipal sources.
It was an open secret that Gumede did not want her she was perceived to be Nxumalo’s ally. But she was imposed on her by the provincial leadership headed by Zikalala.
This was also evident when Gumede sidelined Peer and appointed her ally from the neighbourhood, Mondli Mthembu, also chairperson of the Human Settlement and Infrastructure Development Committee, as acting mayor when she was away for a week.
This triggered a backlash against Gumede within and outside the ANC. Despite this, Peer said they haved the “best and most professional relationship”.
“Gumede is clearly isolating Peer and she ends up being deployed to useless events. Unfortunately there’s less she could little she can do other than to comply,” said a senior employee at the municipality.
Another bone of contention for the ANC provincial leadership was that Gumede was seen as failing to clearly articulate and advances the idea of radical economic transformation in the metro.
The Sunday Tribune understands that the issue of radical economic transformation was debated extensively during the provincial executive committee sub-committee meeting at Seme House, the ANC provincial office, on April 3.
One of the resolutions taken at that meeting was that all municipalities must review their supply-chain management processes, procedures, practices, structures and policies to advance radical economic transformation in KZN.
Also discussed was the role municipalities controlled by the ANC – especially eThekwini - the only metro in the province – can play to advance the radical economic transformation.
According to a document seen by the Sunday Tribune, the ANC set June as the deadline “to develop and implement a programme to transform and deracialise the finance sector through a multi-pronged approach”.
An ANC councilor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “Gumede is clearly failing to do what the provincial leadership wants her to do. That’s why, at times, Ntuli would intervene and give Gumede a mandate. But she defies him.”
An ANC national executive member source, the party’s highest decision-making structure, said running a metro was “not a child’s play”.
Without mentioning names, the NEC member who is from KZN said deploying a person who lacked capacity to lead a metro was a recipe for disaster.
“It’s one of the things the party must review, that deployment without training is denting the organisation.”