Zweli Mkhize’s VIP driver is sedately navigating Pietermaritzburg’s traffic towards the city’s Oribi Airport.
Mkhize, the ANC’s new KwaZulu-Natal chairperson, has been called to Johannesburg for a party meeting and, with his appointment book running over, the Mail & Guardian‘s interview is being squeezed into the back of a gleaming black Jeep Cherokee SRT8.
Also the current KwaZulu-Natal finance minister, he talks about building cohesion between ANC branches and councillors to weed out ”patronage” and unclog backlogs at local government level, where he agrees performance and delivery is ”dismal”.
He sees no tension between the party’s KwaZulu-Natal conference calling for the withdrawal of the case against Jacob Zuma while endorsing the independence of the judiciary, saying ”inordinate delays” are ”undermining the justice system”.
He argues that the Constitutional Court complaint against Judge John Hlophe should have been handled by the Judicial Service Commission before entering the media’s domain.
As provincial ANC chair, Mkhize feels his first challenge is to deliver a ”decisive” victory in next year’s election.
That the ruling party has wrested control of KwaZulu-Natal from the IFP is a source of pride for its leaders, including Mkhize, who was unopposed at the provincial conference in Pietermaritzburg at the weekend.
After raising its 32% share of the provincial vote in 1994 to 46,9% in 2004, the ANC is aiming for 60% next year.
Mkhize, Zuma’s close confidant, does not expect public perceptions of the ANC president to have a negative effect on electoral support.
TNS Research recently found that Zuma’s approval rating among black workers was a mere 36%. But Mkhize insists he has appeal ”right across the country” while the ”negative image of Zuma has been changing.”
He says: ”I’ve seen him going out to investors, to speak internationally and I’ve been getting independent reports which make me believe he is being well received.”
He sees Zuma as being of paramount importance to a cohesive tripartite alliance, especially with the SACP and Cosatu smarting from years of being treated as partners ”in an abusive relationship”, to use ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe’s phrase at the KwaZulu-Natal conference.
”Within the alliance he is the one holding everybody together,” says Mkhize, adding that Zuma can ”create the degree of stability needed within the ruling party because he has an ear for everybody”.
He dismisses criticism of government inertia and lame-duck leadership in KwaZulu-Natal because of ”continuity in government”, saying he previously deputised in government for the current premier, S’bu Ndebele.
Mkhize, who has served on the party’s national executive committee since 1997, twice lost out narrowly to Ndebele — seen as close to Mbeki — for the provincial chair.
After Zuma left the province in 1998 for national government, Mkhize lost the leadership battle to Ndebele by 21 votes. In 2002 he lost by 17 votes.
He describes the 2002 election as a ”hot contest” after which ”we sat down and tried to manage” any divisions.
Mkhize believes this core strategy of inclusiveness and ”uniting the comrades” has proved helpful in limiting ANC factionalism in KwaZulu-Natal and denies that the recent conference was the culmination of a long-term project to purge Mbeki supporters from the provincial party hierarchy.
He believes the province has been ”on a process of settling down” since 2002 and that an incident-free ”normal ANC” conference reflected this.
”In the ANC you are encouraged to come with your different views; the trick is how leadership can create some space for those different views to interact until some consensus is stretched out,” he says.
A medical doctor, Mkhize graduated from the former University of Natal and worked in hospitals in Zimbabwe and Swaziland after going into exile in 1986.
He is a tall, physically imposing presence with the ramrod posture of a drill-sergeant. Yet, the 56-year-old is quietly spoken, slightly detached and, by all accounts, a gentleman.
Neither his placid exterior nor the wide smile fully mask his inner authority. He combines silk and steel.
Born in Willowfontein outside Pietermaritzburg, he has been commended for his work as provincial health minister from 1994 to 2004. The Treatment Action Campaign’s Zackie Achmat reportedly suggested him as a replacement for national Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in 2004.
His association with Zuma, which began in exile, was cemented by their joint role in rebuilding the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal in the early 1990s.
During Zuma’s rape trial the mother of his accuser testified that Mkhize met her to discuss her daughter’s education and a fence for her home. It also emerged that Mkhize paid the legal fees of Yusuf Dockrat, a lawyer Kwezi had consulted after her alleged rape.
He is married to doctor and businesswoman, May, and they have three adult children.
He was recently drawn into the controversy around the state-owned Ithala Bank’s arrears of R321-million when he revealed that his wife received R13-million to buy a farm. As finance minister he is Ithala’s political head.
Referring questions about the loan to his wife, Mkhize said he was confident that a three-month turnaround strategy will put the institution back on its feet.