The battle for ANC KwaZulu-Natal chairperson is likely to be a two-way contest between sitting chairperson and premier Sihle Zikalala, and senior party MP Siboniso Duma (Photo: Jackie Clausen/Sunday Times/Gallo Images)
A critical moment at the ANC’s watershed Polokwane conference in December 2007 was when the ANC Youth League made it clear it would not adopt the programme until there was an assurance from the party’s leaders that votes would be counted manually and not electronically.
When they demurred, the youth league would not give up. The singing just got louder, the slogans more strident, there was even booing. Mosiuoa Lekota — ANC chair at the time — could not keep the meeting in hand.
Whether the manual count played a significant role in Jacob Zuma’s victory is anyone’s guess. But it was a defining moment of democratic accountability in the ANC. The person who stood up to make that call was Sihle Zikalala.
At the time the public face of the youth league was Fikile Mbalula. Zikalala was little known outside of youth league structures, but he immediately became one to watch. He was 34 years old at the time.
Zikalala would go on to become a strategic political player in KwaZulu-Natal: MEC for economic development and tourism and the most powerful position of all, chairperson of the ANC in the province — home to the ANC’s largest support base.
“I was born into a highly religious family who was also politically active. What really drew my involvement in politics was witnessing and experiencing the conditions under which black people lived. It was easy to get involved in the struggle when you are exposed to those hardships and see people around you suffering,†says Zikalala, now 44 years old.
A communications science graduate studying towards a master’s degree, Zikalala has eschewed the trademark militancy that often characterises youth league leaders.
Instead, he has worked hard and quietly on the ground, building the party’s grassroots membership under his various roles as ANC councillor, provincial youth league secretary general and later provincial ANC secretary. He even played a central role in brokering peace negotiations between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party in the 1990s, when he was in his early 20s.
But, like Zuma, Zikalala also experienced a political bloodbath when he took over from his predecessor, the former KwaZulu-Natal premier and provincial party chair, Senzo Mchunu, at a hotly contested provincial elective conference in 2015.
Zikalala clinched the position with 780 votes to Mchunu’s 675.
Several party insiders in the region credit ANC treasurer and former premier Zweli Mkhize for this, saying he worked hard to ensure Zikalala’s victory. Others insist it was Zikalala’s efforts on the ground and the support of the youth league in the province that secured his position.
But his victory remains fragile. Supporters of Mchunu cried foul, citing irregularities and challenged the results in court, calling for it to be declared null and void. It could see a rerun if Zikalala loses the case.
The fallout over his election has left him inheriting a deeply divided party base, once seen as kingmaker in the ANC’s leadership battle and presidential choice.
With more than 50 political killings in the province over the past six years, most of them key ANC officials, tensions are high and camps are hellbent on ensuring their candidates are put into positions.
With the court challenge hanging over his head, a loss of party support at last year’s local elections and a province battling political killings, Zikalala is under no illusion that his is a formidable task.
Wearing two hats, he must, as party chair, show decisive leadership in uniting its members ahead of the elective conference later this year, and, as economic development MEC, he needs to drive economic growth, investor confidence and public trust in his role.
It has been a tough balancing act — and, at times, conflicting — his recent call for land expropriation without compensation being an example.
“Our freedom was negotiated without any consultation about the land which was not included in the transformation agenda. We cannot live with the current situation where the majority of our people don’t have access to land,†says Zikalala.
He says the land claims commission processed a number of claims but those selling land set exorbitant prices to frustrate the process, knowing government could not pay such amounts.
“Those owning land did not buy the land, they forcefully took it from Africans; so we need to resolve this question about land through proper consultation,†he said.
“If we want people to make a meaningful contribution to the economy, they must be given the land back.â€
Zikalala said he is not talking about land for infrastructure development — normally the reason land has been expropriated.
“We are talking about land expropriation for agricultural use. We want land to be returned to the indigenous Africans who owned the land before it was taken by white farmers, who can come in as part of the solution or part of the problem. We are not going to waive on the issue of land expropriation without compensation and we want this to be tested through a referendum,†says Zikalala.
It is a challenge to the mother body, but Zikalala has been there before and he’s not afraid to throw down the gauntlet.
He says the challenge is a “testing†one, but not aimed at creating further discord in the party. He stresses the importance of unity and discipline but insists this is strengthened by debate on crucial issues.
“Bringing about unity means we must begin by ensuring those that are not in leadership must be brought into the ANC and allowed space to participate. We need to constantly engage on issues that divide the movement.
“Those in leadership must lead in embracing those discussions and must not be seen to be isolating anyone. We have to engage with each other in a genuine manner,†adds Zikalala.
He has also offered an olive branch to Mchunu in the form an out-of-court settlement — to bring about peace in the province. After all, comrades don’t resolve disputes through courts.
Mchunu supporters are said to be in talks but will settle for nothing less than a rerun. Mchunu reportedly also rejected an offer of an ambassadorial position pending the court action.
Although Mchunu and Zikalala are “talking peace†in the interests of uniting the party, the divisions over the elective conference have left both camps determined to settle political scores.
