Publications
Partners
The ANC has unveiled its mayoral candidates for the eThekwini Metro and the KwaZulu-Natal’s 10 district municipalities, with large scale leadership changes rung in the province’s Durban-Pietermaritzburg industrial and commercial hub.
Zandile Gumede, the ANC’s eThekwini chairperson, will replace incumbent James Nxumalo as mayoral candidate for the metro, and sitting mayor Chris Ndlela will be replaced in the Umsunduzi Local Municipality as mayor of Pietermaritzburg by businessman Themba Njilo, an undertaker and music label owner who was nominated for the post by the regional leadership of the ANC.
In the Umgungundlovu district, which surrounds Pietermaritzburg, mayor Yusuf Bhamjee has been redeployed from local government and will be replaced by Thobekile Maphumulo, the current mayor of Mkhambathini (Camperdown).
In the province’s northern industrial complex around Richards Bay and Empangeni, similar changes have taken place. Thobeka Mchunu, wife of recalled Premier
Senzo Mchunu, has been replaced as mayoral candidate for the Uthungulu District by her deputy, Nonhle Mkhulisi, a former member of the provincial legislature and Parliament who is now chair of the ANC’s Musa Dladla region.
In the Umhlatuze Local Municipality the current mayor, Mdu Mhlongo, was among those introduced as mayoral candidates today.
The bulk of the choices for district mayor are either ANC regional chairperson or senior regional executive committee members, several of whom are serving mayors.
At Umzinyathi, sitting mayor and ANC Inkosi Bambatha region chairperson Lindokuhle Ngubane is the party’s nominee and at Harry Gwala, current mayor Mluleki Ndobe will again lead the ANC’s campaign in the district.
Introducing the mayoral candidates, ANC provincial secretary Super Zuma said they had all been chosen from the three names submitted to the provincial and national executive committees by each of KwaZulu-Natal’s ANC regions. The process, he said, had not been a “heated” one and had been carried out in terms of the ANC’s conference resolutions on organisational renewal.
Zuma said the candidates were the “best and most competent” for the posts they had been nominated for.
In reference to the protests in the province around the selection process, Zuma said while the process had “put a strain on the unity of the ANC” and its alliance partners, “we have resolved all internal disputes and have reached a common ground with our alliance partners”.
“There is no turning back. They have now rallied behind all our ward and mayoral candidates and pledged their full support. You will from now on see the entire KwaZulu-Natal alliance campaigning as a united force,” Zuma said.
Earlier this month the South African Communist Party had threatened to pull out of the ANC campaign and even field its own candidates over unhappiness with the selection process and the reshuffle at cabinet level. However, its complaints stopped after its provincial chairperson Themba Mthembu was given a cabinet post.
At branch level, violent protests broke out in various parts of the province over candidate choices, sparking concerns that the campaign for August 3 would be a bloody one in KwaZulu-Natal
Zuma said the candidates would start campaigning from today and would be “introduced” to communities by the ANC regions.
Provincial chairperson Sihle Zikalala said the choices had accommodated the ANC Youth League’s demand for a 20% youth quota while deployments as speaker, deputy mayor and executive committee member would also accommodate this and 50% representation of women.
