Former ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal will have to re-evaluate the outcome for its top six candidates in the lead up to the party’s December conference, secretary general hopeful Mdumiseni Ntuli has said.
The former KwaZulu-Natal secretary emerged as the front runner for the position when former president Kgalema Motlanthe announced the nominations on Tuesday.
Ntuli — whose campaign had stuttered, having been overlooked by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive committee which chose to endorse Eastern Cape’s Phumulo Masualle instead — received 1 225 branch nominations.
This placed him ahead of Masualle and Fikile Mbalula who received 889 and 749 branch nominations respectively.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian on Tuesday evening, Ntuli said he was keen to see how the KwaZulu-Natal leadership reacted to the nominations.
The province also fell short of convincing other ANC provinces to buy into its endorsement of Zweli Mkhize for the position of party president.
President Cyril Ramaphosa received 2 037 votes while Mkhize received 916 branch nominations. The two were the only ones who met the threshold to run for the party president post in December.
“These nominations invite, I think, a considered reflection [by] all of us, including in particular the leadership of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal. Whether their own reflection will result in them taking a position with regard to the issue of the secretary general, I don’t know,” Ntuli said.
“I’m very optimistic and I know that discussion is inevitable, but whether the discussion would lead to the positive decision on my side, it will be very difficult for me to tell.”
Ntuli, who is a member of the provincial executive committee, added that he was interested to know what conclusions would be made after assessing the nominations.
His being the front runner for secretary general — and the only KwaZulu-Natal leader to get an overwhelming majority of nominations — is likely to create a dilemma for the provincial leadership.
KwaZulu-Natal was the biggest loser at the ANC’s last conference in 2017, with leaders including Senzo Mchunu, Mkhize and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma failing to get elected.
Ntuli rattled cages in the province when he declined an offer to go up against Sihle Zikalala for the position of party chairperson, opting instead to run together with the former provincial chairperson.
Ntuli said he was humbled by his nomination.
“I’m justified to be excited and be proud of myself. My sense is that the work that we’ve been doing, interacting with national challenges, has resulted in this overwhelming support,” he said.
Many ANC leaders have said that although the nominations were a barometer of what was to come in December, there was still scope for nominees to convince delegates to vote in their favour.
Ntuli said he was alive to that, and his plan was to make advances in provinces such as the Northern Cape, Free State and the North West where he received the least number of nominations.
“The reason we probably did not get a nomination in some provinces was because we were not able to reach out to those provinces in the appropriate way. In provinces where essentially we got the majority of the nomination, my interaction with the comrades in those provinces was very positive,” he said.
“Of course, I also did not expect the actual number that went out. But I was less convinced that the outcome will place me as number one nominated for the position of the secretary general. I was equally not expecting that the gap will be so huge between myself and the other candidates.”
Ntuli was dealt a huge blow in October when Ramaphosa’s caucus resolved to support Mbalula for the secretary general position. Ntuli had hitched himself to Ramaphosa’s wagon.
Insiders in the Ramaphosa camp were said to be reluctant to back Ntuli, citing his failure to show support for the faction in the national executive committee (NEC) during this term. Ntuli denied this, saying the only time he had gone against the dominant faction in the NEC was over the unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in July last year.
He said the provincial executive disagreed with Ramaphosa’s pronouncement that the upheaval was an attempted insurrection, having done its own analysis and assessment.
“We were prepared to engage anyone about it, including those who serve in the NEC. I know some of them [who] really held me in high regard and praised me now and again, they started to withdraw,” he said.
“My own view was that … they are not prepared to be in an organisation where their strongest views may be challenged, and to some extent, be rendered ineffective in a sense. I’m the only province in this country who stood up in public, and challenged comrade Ace Magashule while he was still the secretary general.
“I’m saying it will be very difficult or impossible for anyone to produce a shred of evidence where publicly or privately I have differed with policy positions of the movement. It’s not there,” Ntuli added.
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