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Fifth time lucky for ANC in KZN?

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KwaZulu-Natal ANC chairman Senzo Mchunu. Picture: Tebogo Letsie
KwaZulu-Natal ANC chairman Senzo Mchunu. Picture: Tebogo Letsie

The ANC’s stronghold of KwaZulu-Natal will hold its provincial conference this week. It will be divided into two large blocks that are expected to mirror the national partitions of the governing party’s 2017 elective conference.

The previously united and cohesive province goes to conference on the back of four failed attempts to take its biggest region, eThekwini, to an elective conference because of dysfunctional branch structures that could not constitute quorums.

Provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala had to issue a statement on Thursday assuring delegates that the provincial conference would go ahead after some members unsuccessfully tried to persuade the ANC’s national office (Luthuli House) to postpone it, arguing that preparations for the conference were lacking.

Those who do not want the conference to proceed say the eThekwini region should be allowed to elect new leaders before the provincial conference.

However, according to the ANC constitution, the conference is constituted by branches and not regions.

The most contested position is that of provincial chairperson, with the incumbent Senzo Mchunu pitted against Zikalala.

During a range of interviews City Press conducted in Durban recently, supporters of Mchunu, who is also premier of the province, seemed confident of his victory, despite some branches who do support him not qualifying for the conference

But Zikalala supporters also fancied their chances.

A win for Zikalala would bolster the 2017 female president campaign championed by the so-called Premier League around African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

But a victory for Mchunu could swing the support in favour of an alternative to the Premier League – which has yet to be defined on the grounds that “2017 was still too far away” – a widely expected move to back Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The league is made up of premiers Ace Magashule, David Mabuza and Supra Mahumapelo, who also happen to be the ANC chairpersons in Free State, Mpumalanga and the North West, respectively.

In an exclusive interview with City Press, Mchunu called on the Premier League to stop dividing the ANC and stop being ahead of everybody else regarding the party’s elective conference in 2017.

Mchunu said the ANC was aggrieved and felt bad about the league’s activities if it did, in fact, exist.

“If there are people who have grouped themselves into what is now referred to as the Premier League, then it means there is dishonesty on their part.

“And even if they never called themselves the Premier League, but acted in a way or got involved in certain activities that happened in their name, then we have a problem and we still have to look hard,” said Mchunu.

He said the ANC discouraged groups and cliques that caused themselves to be ahead of everybody else before 2017.

According to party members who spoke to City Press, it is expected that the election of Mchunu or Zikalala might finally provide some space for eThekwini to sit for its leadership election.

Mchunu has been linked to those campaigning for Durban Mayor James Nxumalo to become eThekwini regional chairperson, while Zikalala has been linked to the camp backing city councillor Zandile Gumede.

Zikalala told City Press that eThekwini was making progress since the last intervention by the ANC at national level.

“Currently, branches are meeting. Most of them have been successful and those who failed were because of quorums,” he said.

However, supporters of both camps agreed that the leadership paralysis in eThekwini would only be overcome “when leaders allow for democracy to prevail in spite of their individual preferences for particular candidates”.

According to statistics before the conference, Zikalala’s lobbyists give him 396 out of the 580 branches that held their meetings by October 20.

They give Mchunu 169 and recorded the remaining branches as undecided.

But on October 16, Mchunu’s lobbyists recorded that he was leading by 269 out of the more than 471 that had met by then.

The group handed Zikalala 213 branches, with other branches regarded as neutral.

Nxumalo and Gumede have refused to comment.

Because of its large membership numbers, KwaZulu-Natal played a central role in President Jacob Zuma’s re-election campaign against a challenge from former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe in Mangaung in 2012.

The conference this week will be closely watched for signals on the ANC’s succession race in 2017, when Zuma is expected to hand over the party’s presidency to a new leader.

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