Ann Eveleth
PROVINCIAL and Constitutional Affairs Minister Mohammed Valli Moosa tried to control the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal conference with an iron fist, but had to back down from plans to handpick a provincial secretary amid accusations that he was violating the party’s constitution.
Delegates to the weekend conference in Durban said Valli Moosa delivered a National Executive Committee (NEC) “directive” in a no-nonsense fashion.
The directive barred two senior incumbents, former secretary Senzo Mchunu and deputy secretary Sifiso Nkabinde, from contesting top posts in the party’s provincial election.
While ANC leaders said Mchunu “stepped down gracefully” from his post after a fierce behind-the-scenes contest, Nkabinde’s supporters ignored the national directive and nominated him secretary.
“Valli Moosa didn’t want to accept the nomination until someone warned him the ANC constitution requires all nominations are accepted,” said a delegate.
Nkabinde lost the race to national MP Sipho Gcabashe, but placed sixth in the 13 non- officer provincial executive committee posts – a victory which delegates said also contravened the spirit of the NEC directive.
Valli Moosa’s efforts to keep Nkabinde and Mchunu out of the race followed Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s warning that national intervention might be needed if the conference allowed internal power struggles to divert it from charting a path for the 1999 elections.
The warning came in the wake of ANC power struggles in the Free State, Western Cape and Northern Province, but some delegates argued KwaZulu-Natal’s power contest was “completely different from the personal differences which marked the Free State problems. In KwaZulu-Natal there were two issues at stake: cleaning up the party and ideology,” said a delegate.
The NEC had moved to oust Nkabinde due to his “warlord” reputation in the volatile Midlands, while Mchunu had been directed to stand down to pave the way for Gcabashe to lead the party’s mobilisation for the 1999 elections, delegates said.
Gcabashe “won support partly because of his successes in leading the party to urban victory in the local government elections, but other contestants for the post were pushed aside because of his close relationship to [provincial chairman] Jacob Zuma,” said a delegate.
Delegates cautiously welcomed the new leadership, arguing that “on the one hand we now have a united leadership to lead us to 1999, but on the other hand there are concerns this leadership will reject dissenting views,” said a delegate.
While KwaZulu-Natal has emerged from a vicious three-way power struggle in 1994 to become one of the ANC’s most united provinces, some ANC leaders said this was due to the demise of Zuma’s opposition: Midlands stalwart Harry Gwala died last year and former Southern Natal chairman Jeff Radebe was now busy with his national public works portfolio. He did not attend this year’s provincial conference.
One ANC leader argued the problems which had plagued the party in KwaZulu-Natal were “essentially ideological and these differences remain despite the united leadership”.