Zandile Gumede to stand as ANC chairperson in eThekwini

Former Durban mayor Zandile Gumede will contest the position of chairperson of the eThekwini ANC region at the weekend, but is unlikely to be able to take office should she win the race.

Gumede, the serving regional chairperson, will stand against eThekwini speaker, Thabani Nyawose, as chairperson at the regional conference despite having fallen foul of the party’s step-aside rule over the R400-million Durban Solid Waste corruption case.

However,Gumede is likely to be told by the party leadership to step aside from her new post and not take up any of the chairperson’s duties if she is successful, as has been the case of other ANC leaders in similar situations.

The strength of the region

eThekwini, with 111 ANC branches, is one of the party’s largest and most influential regions and played a key role in the election of Jacob Zuma as party president in 2007 and his successful campaign for a second term in 2012.

Its leadership has been heavily contested since 2015, when a conference result in favour of then-chairperson James Nxumalo — several earlier attempts to hold the conference had to be abandoned — was set aside by then-secretary general Gwede Mantashe.

Gumede, aligned with the Zuma faction, which Mantashe then backed, won the rerun conference and became mayor.

Gumede and the regional executive committee (REC) she led were recalled in May 2018 and the ANC in the region has been run by a regional task team since.

Gumede and councillor Nomthandazo Shabalala, who is standing as treasurer on her slate, are out on bail over the corruption case, which goes to trial on 31 July.

Several other councillors standing trial with them are also likely to contest seats on the eThekwini REC, among them Mondli Mthembu, an ANC councillor and former city executive committee member.

Councillor Ntando Khuzwayo, the chair of the ANC’s Albert Park branch and one of Gumede’s lobbyists, said that Gumede would stand as chairperson, despite the step-aside ruling.

A replay of Mpumalanga conference

“Mama will stand. What will happen after that, we don’t really know,” Khuzwayo said.

“We have a case study where (eMalahleni chairperson Ntuthuko) Mahlaba stood and immediately after being elected had to step aside. There was a similar case at the weekend where the treasurer of Mpumalanga was elected and immediately had to stand aside. We don’t know,” Khuzwayo said.

Last weekend the ANC’s Mpumalanga provincial conference elected Mandla Msibi — who is out on bail on murder charges — as treasurer.

The election of Msibi sparked a backlash from the ANC national leadership, including president Cyril Ramaphosa, who criticised the decision in his closing address on Sunday.

Party treasurer Paul Mashatile wrote to Msibi on Monday telling him that his decision to step aside as a member of the provincial executive committee when he was arrested was still valid, despite his election at the weekend.

A victory for Gumede is likely to elicit a similar response from the Luthuli House.

The political slates 

Gumede is standing on a Unity and Continuity slate along with Shabalala, former ANC Youth League chairperson Tembo Ntuli as deputy chairperson and businessman Musa Nciki as secretary of the region. Councillor Nkosenhle Madlala, a key figure in the radical economic transformation (RET) faction of the ANC in the city, will stand as deputy secretary.

Nyawose’s Renewal Rebuilding Unity (RRU) slate consists of himself as chair and former ANC regional secretary Mthunzi Dlamini as his deputy, with regional task team coordinator Bheki Ntuli contesting the secretary’s post.

Their slate is completed by ANC eThekwini chief whip Thanduxolo Sabelo, who is standing as deputy secretary and Ntokozo Sibiya, a councillor, as treasurer.

The conference comes at a time when Durban is still battling to recover from the deadly riots last July and when the city is struggling with service delivery issues around water, electricity, roads maintenance and waste removal.

The situation has been worsened by rampant corruption and by ongoing disruption of construction projects by business forums, a number of which were instrumental in Gumede becoming chairperson.

A second chance for Gumede

The ANC has paid a high price politically — in last November’s election, the party lost its majority and now rules via a fragile coalition with the Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) and other small parties.

On Tuesday, the party lost its first council vote in 20 years when its allies rejected the  choice of Maxwell Mbili — allegedly on the instruction of the ANC deployment committee — as eThekwini city manager.

Despite this, her backers believe Gumede deserves a second run at the leadership of the region, in which the infighting in the party has had an effect on the city administration’s ability to do its job.

Khuzwayo said they believed that Gumede would win the battle for chairperson as long as the conference was conducted fairly.

“Things are going very well. This is going to be a watershed conference. Hopefully the people who are tasked with administering the conference are going to do the administration in a manner that is credible,” Khuzwayo said.

“We wouldn’t like to see an outcome where afterwards there are court papers filed. We want a successful conference with an outcome that is credible, free and fair.”

A game of numbers

Khuzwayo said a number of branches had submitted appeals over the outcome of branch general meetings (BGMs) and that these were likely to be resolved at the credentials session at the start of the conference on Friday.

He believes that Gumede should have the support of delegates from at least 58 of the 88 branches that had held their BGMs by last Sunday, which would give her a clear victory over Nyawose.

A total of 78 out of the region’s 111 branches have to make quorum and hold their BGMs for the conference to go ahead.

“We are well ahead,” Khuzwayo said. “They will need magic for them to win the conference but magic won’t work. This is a game of numbers.”

Nyawose’s supporters are also talking up their chances of taking the conference. 

One of his lobbyists on Tuesday claimed a 54-36 split of 90 qualifying branches in Nyawose’s favour.

The lobbyist also argued that the disqualification of  a number of the region’s largest branches — most of which supported Gumede — would work in Nyawose’s favour as this would reduce the number of delegates voting for her.

Nyawose’s camp was the target of several apparent assassinations earlier in the year in which activists campaigning for him were murdered in Clermont, Cato Manor and Umlazi, but tensions appear to have been brought under control as the conference approaches.

The conference outcome is also significant as it will be a test of the waters for both factions ahead of the provincial conference — and the national conference at the end of the year.

What victory will mean

Should Nyawose’s group emerge victorious, this will boost the chances of provincial chairperson Sihle Zikalala securing a second term — and Ramaphosa’s.

Nyawose has placed on record that the region will use its influence to  push for an uncontested candidate for chairperson —  and for the president of the party — at the coming conferences, should he be elected.

A victory for Gumede’s slate will boost the RET faction in the province’s hope of unseating Zikalala — their former ally before the 2017 national conference — and of replacing Ramaphosa and taking control of the ANC top structures in December.

At this stage their most likely candidate for provincial chairperson would be current treasurer Nomusa Dube-Ncube, although there is also a lobby talking up eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda as their candidate to stand against Zikalala.

Both groupings held mass meetings with their delegates at the weekend to consolidate them and as a show of strength ahead of the conference.

Gumede’s supporters met in Umlazi in south Durban, while Nyawose addressed the branches that are backing him as chairperson at the Olive Convention Centre in the city’s North Beach.

At the meeting, Nyawose told delegates the way they voted at the conference would determine whether or not the ANC renewed itself and called on them to start the process of building a “humble” party that acknowledged its mistakes and corrected them.

ANC KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said the party had its step-aside guidelines in place, which had already been applied during the elective conference cycle.

“We had a conference at eMalahleni. The chairperson [Ntuthuko Mahlaba] was elected in absentia as he was in step aside,” Ntombela said. “He did not close the conference nor assumed his responsibilities of chairing the REC till his matter was concluded by the court.

“So let us not pre-empt the eThekwini conference outcomes as we are not soothsayers. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.”

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