Now is the winter of discontent for the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal.
Amid growing factional conflict and infighting in the province, which was solidly united behind Jacob Zuma at the ANC’s 2007 Polokwane conference, disgruntled members in the Moses Mabhida region continued their six-week-long sit-in protest against corruption and internal dysfunction at the party’s regional branch headquarters in Pietermaritzburg.
On June 12, the headquarters were the target of a failed arson attack that led to the conviction of Themba Mbona, a driver for regional secretary Super Zuma. In his guilty plea Mbona implicated Alpha Shelembe, ANC regional treasurer and newly appointed Pietermaritzburg deputy mayor, of offering him R500 000 and a job in return for the arson attack.
The protestors allege the fire was aimed at destroying documents that would incriminate members of the regional executive committee in underhand dealings.
Shelembe, who has since resigned from his mayoral job, has been charged with arson and is set to appear in court in August. He, one of his three wives, his sister and four other men also face charges of corruption, fraud and money-laundering related to a 2003 property deal involving the Umgungundlovu district council’s purchase of an office block for an inflated price. The state alleges that Shelembe and his co-accused collectively Âbenefited from the deal to the tune of R1-million.
Shelembe is just one of several ANC members in the region who, the protesters charge, have been imposed on the council by the party’s provincial leadership. These leaders, the protesters allege, are corrupt and responsible for running down municipalities that include Umgeni and Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg), which was placed under administration last year after going bankrupt.
Tellingly, the protesters have strong support from the South African Communist Party and its youth league, as well as Cosatu.
But the protest seems to be about more than clean governance and protecting the ethos of the ANC. According to the protesters, party insiders and alliance leaders in the province, there are also concerns about “the centralisation of power” by ANC provincial chair and premier Zweli Mkhize.
His critics charge that he was instrumental in protecting members of the Moses Mabhida regional executive committee by deploying them to municipal positions. The regional executive committee is collectively known the “tsunami caucus” — a reference to Zuma’s rise to power, which was likened to a tsunami by union boss Zwelinzima Vavi.
Ousting Zuma
Two weeks ago, The Witness reported that, at an ANC protest march in Pietermaritzburg, Young Communist League provincial chair Mlu Manana told the crowd that Shelembe and “others like him” were “part of a broader grouping aiming to oust ANC president Jacob Zuma next year by using money looted from council coffers”. The implication was that Mkhize could not be trusted to support Zuma for a second term as ANC president and had deployed loyal cadres to strategic government positions in the region to lock down support for a rival to Zuma.
Mkhize is already under pressure from another quarter. Last week his lawyers instituted defamation proceedings against Msunduzi’s former deputy mayor, Mervyn Dirks, after the latter had publicly alleged that Mkhize’s wife, May, had benefited through one of her companies from a R280-million tender, for which no budget had been planned, to provide smart meters to the municipality.
May Mkhize maintained that she had resigned from the company at the time of the tender being awarded. She and her husband are suing Dirks for R2-million.
According to ANC dissidents who spoke to the Mail & Guardian, there is an increasing sense among the party rank and file in the region that Mkhize has thrown his lot in with the so-called “Mvela group”, which is allegedly driving Tokyo Sexwale’s presidential aspirations as the party moves towards the ANC’s elective conference in Manguang next year. A high-ranking SACP official said the protests “were increasingly developing as a kind of succession battle”.
The Young Communist League’s organising secretary, Mlondi Mkhize, went a step further. “The Estcourt detachment is starting to show itself in the province,” he said, alluding to an alleged meeting in Estcourt where ANC heavyweights, including Mkhize, Sexwale and Mathews Phosa, met to plot replacing Zuma in Manguang next year.
“What is happening in Msunduzi is an indication of the patronage within the ANC. The aim is to consolidate strategic government positions to control tenders, with money then flowing to certain people’s campaigns for office within the ANC,” said Mlondi Mkhize.
The protesters and alliance leaders appear to reflect the national sentiment in remaining steadfast in their support for Zuma — but cracks are starting to appear in what was previously a hegemonic province. KwaZulu-Natal went to the ANC’s 2007 elective conference with the biggest provincial delegation and voted as a bloc for Zuma.
‘Emerging divisions’
The journey to Mangaung 2012 appears to have already started in the province, and if the Moses Mabhida region reflects the emerging divisions, it is going the same route as ANC branches and affiliates in most of the country.
The alliance partners support Zuma, whereas senior members of the party described as “petty Âbourgeois nationalists” and “tenderpreneurs” are exploring another route that is likely to include Sexwale as their presidential candidate and Fikile Mbalalula as their nominee for the secretary general’s post.
The next few months are vital. The dissidents in Moses Mabhida have already complained about “branch gatekeeping” in the build-up to this year’s local government election. A national task team headed by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is investigating allegations that members were prevented from joining or voting in branches’ general meetings that were held to elect ward candidates.
Branches will have to be locked down by the winning faction to ensure support from the regions, the new executives of which will be elected in August and September, before the provincial elective conference that will take place towards the end of the year.
This was already indicated by the decisions taken at last weekend’s ANC provincial executive committee meeting in KwaZulu-Natal. The committee closed ranks around Mkhize and announced that Shelembe was to be replaced by Thobane Zuma — considered to be a Mkhize man and that Baboo Baij would replace Zonke Mbatha as Msunduzi council speaker.
What the committee called “Operation Bring Back Order” will also result in members of the provincial executive visiting the Moses Mabhida region to explain the redeployment, and the launch of a membership drive.
However, after meeting provincial leaders, including secretary Sihle Zikalala, on June 29, the protesters remained adamant that their sit-in would continue until the entire regional executive committee was removed. Several also expressed misgivings about Operation Bring Back Order.
Said Sibongile Mkhize: “This could be just another attempt by the provincial leadership to build compliant support in branches in the region so as to secure Moses Mabhida ahead of the elections.”
Mkhize’s spokesperson, Ndabe Sibiya, said this week that the premier was committed to good governance and that allegations of his involvement in a plot against Zuma were unfounded.