‘ANC treasurer must be in cabinet’

Senior ANC leader Mdumiseni Ntuli, a front-runner for one of the party’s top national positions, wants the treasurer general post to be a part-time one, so that the incumbent can be sent to cabinet to have access to government networks to sustain the party.

The ANC has been in financial dire straits in recent years, which have seen it fail to pay its employees and taxes. Its troubles led to a crisis during the 2021 local government elections when employees downed tools, resulting in the party’s failure to register its council candidates with the Electoral Commission of South Africa on time. The ANC received a reprieve when the constitutional court extended the registration deadline.

“That comrade must be in government, hopefully deployed in one of the cabinet posts so that the comrade is also within … a network of people who are involved in the private sector [and] have the capacity to raise resources to finance programmes [and] also to ensure that the ANC is sustainable,” he said.

Reflecting on the staffing crisis at the ANC’s headquarters, Ntuli said the party had not paid proper attention to the composition and quantity of employees.

“So we need to relook at that and [consider] what would be an ideal structure that must exist in the headquarters and through all the provinces in the country,” he said. 

Two deputy secretaries general

Ntuli suggested that the party must amend its constitution to allow for two deputy secretaries general with different roles in the administrative office. The debate about the composition of the ANC’s top officials is part of ongoing discussions in branches and in the leadership structures of the party. 

This is not the first time ANC officials have suggested a reconfiguration. In the build-up to the party’s 2017 Nasrec conference, leaders suggested the party needed two deputy presidents and two deputy secretaries general. 

This week, Ntuli said the party needed one of the two mooted deputy secretaries general  to pay close attention to governance, policy development, research and the capacity of the ANC to generate ideas and policies. 

Luthuli House, he added, would also need a deputy secretary general charged with monitoring implementation and holding those in government  accountable.

“We don’t have that mechanism … The machinery, the instruments that we have as the ANC is at its weakest. Partly because we have also relegated the task of organising the motive forces of the national democratic revolution not to be a strategic task anymore.” 

Ntuli said even before the ANC ran into financial problems, it had no longer been paying attention to its “campaigning character”. 

“It can’t be correct that the ANC, for instance, has not had its own voice. Very strong, very massive, including organising people on the ground against the failure of state corporations like Eskom. It can’t be correct that the ANC will not lead any campaign … We are not doing that,” he said.

He added that campaigns in the ANC were not only done during elections, when commemorating former leaders or at ANC anniversary celebrations.

Ntuli has been identified as one of the two main contenders for the position of ANC secretary general, with parts of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Limpopo expected to nominate him. He is going up against former Eastern Cape chair Phumulo Masualle.

He recently lost his bid for provincial secretary to Bheki Mtolo in KwaZulu-Natal in a bruising battle that saw Sihle Zikalala’s humiliating fall from the chairperson position. Zikalala failed to make it to the provincial executive committee (PEC) and resigned as KwaZulu-Natal premier shortly after the conference. 

Lobbying ‘dishonest’

Although Ntuli believes that the current crop of provincial leaders must be supported, he said some lobbyists had been “dishonest”before the July KwaZulu-Natal conference.

The Mail & Guardian reported at the time that Ntuli stayed loyal to Zikalala despite having been approached to take him on for the position of provincial chair. 

Ntuli said he believed Zikalala was partly removed because of his perceived closeness to President Cyril Ramaphosa. He said part of the debate he tabled when he was lobbied was why Mtolo was not up for provincial chair, when he was the mayor of Kokstad.

“I refused to stand as the chair because, I said, the campaign for me to stand as a chair firstly is not coming from branches,” Ntuli said.

“Secondly, it is not driven by the correct position of the ANC and is a violation of my own principles. I can’t just enter the chair merely because I want to be elected even if I am convinced that the reason for which the sitting chair has been removed is wrong and this is not true.”

Ntuli, who failed to receive an endorsement from his home province, also commented on the PEC’s decision to pronounce Zweli Mkhize as its preferred presidential candidate. Ntuli said discussion about the endorsement of the party’s president had been “limited”. 

“We were given a report, which is coming from consultation with branches. The report was saying that the majority of those structures of the ANC were consulted and preferred comrade Zweli to become president,” he said.

“It [would] be very hard for me to say, because it wasn’t a moment where the PEC would really conduct a thorough effective detailed assessment of the performance of the national executive committee (NEC), including individual members who served in that NEC, so that you can then come to the conclusion that therefore these are the comrades … we think if we support, the ANC will be better. We are a PEC, we lead branches, why would we disagree with them, so that’s how we took the position.” 

The new electoral guidelines have generated interest in the ANC.

Ntuli said although he supported contestation in the party and a democratic process to elect leaders, the ANC “needs to consider reflecting [on the] ease with which everybody becomes available”.

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