With the ANC’s elective conference in Polokwane two months away, ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma’s lieutenants in KwaZulu-Natal are ensuring that procedural “hiccups” in the nomination process at branch level will not hinder his final push towards the presidency.
This emerged from a provincial executive committee (PEC) meeting held over the past weekend. The branch nomination process opens on October 1.
In addition to reaffirming a KwaZulu-Natal nomination list for national office-bearers, a directive was sent out to ensure that “there are no procedural faults once the nomination process was opened up to branches. There is an attempt to ensure that this goes through without any hiccups,” said one PEC member.
Of paramount procedural concern was the need to “ensure that branch general meetings achieve their quorums”.
While the nomination process will only begin on October 1, the KwaZulu-Natal list is a foregone conclusion, with “the top six complete and solid, the only thing which needs to be consolidated is the names on the national executive committee”, said the source.
There were fears that the Zuma lobby group had grown complacent in the past few months and the PEC directive, together with Monday’s special extended PEC meeting, which will include regional chairpersons, is seen as an attempt to ensure momentum is maintained through firm oversight of the nomination process from branches to regions and finally to the province.
The KwaZulu-Natal list mirrors that of Cosatu, comprising Zuma (president), current secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe (deputy president), Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (national chairperson), South Africa Communist Party chairperson Gwede Mantashe (secretary general), National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete (deputy secretary general) and Matthews Phosa (treasurer).
That Zuma is KwaZulu-Natal’s preferred candidate has been in the public domain since 2005 when a provincial general council (PGC) decision was taken to stand behind him. This decision was reaffirmed at another PGC meeting in 2006 and again at the powerful eThekwini region’s general conference earlier this year. The majority of Zuma’s backers are from the eThekwini region.
Political analysts have interpreted the constant reaffirmation of Zuma’s nomination as an attempt to set it in stone in the minds of the rank-and-file in the province.
KwaZulu-Natal has the second-largest provincial membership, about 102 742, but provincial chairperson Senzo Mchunu said “it’s not a matter of confidence at this stage, branches still have to participate in the nomination process”.