By Daanyaal Matthews
The shockwaves of the 2024 election have been felt by the ANC’s Kwa-Zulu Natal branch who are set to be reviewed following an abysmal performance earlier this year that resulted in only 17.6% of votes in the province, with a large portion of votes going to the newly established uMkhonto weSizwe party led by former ANC President Jacob Zuma.
At a recent media briefing, the Secretary-General of the ANC, Fikile Mbalula, has reiterated that the review of the Kwa-Zulu Natal branch was already promised following the election results. The greater rumour following this announced intervention is the idea of the ANC disbanding their Kwa-Zulu Natal leadership, which Mbalula has stated had not been decided but did not rule out the possibility of such a decision being made by the national executive.
Theo Venter, Professor of Practice, College of Business and Economics at the University of Johannesburg, interprets the situation as perplexing primarily due to the numerous factors at play in the ANC ahead of its NEC.
“There’s a lot of things brewing in the spot because there’s the position of Fikile Mbalula as the secretary general to become president in a year or three. Then there is Paul Mashatile, who has ambitions as Deputy President, and a few others. Then of course there’s the looming threat of MK, especially in KwaZulu-Natal. So there are a lot of things that one must take into account to try to understand what the ANC, especially Fikile Mbalula, is trying to do here,” theorized Venter.
However, the idea of a disbandment of the ANC’s Kwa-Zulu Natal executive would not be surprising for Professor Venter, given that the ANC had previously theorized to be rid of its leadership in KZN just prior to this year’s election:
“Before the election, even this year, there were talks about replacing the PEC in Kwa-Zulu Natal with a Provincial Task Team, a so-called PTT. Because we know that the elective members of the Kwa-Zulu Natal PEC were not supportive of Cyril Ramaphosa.”
Listen to the full interview here:
Photo: @MbalulaFikile
