ANC KZN chairman Siboniso Duma.(Photo by Gerhard Duraan/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has vowed to regain the support it lost to former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party (MK party) in the May general election.
The party is on a bid to rebuilding its branches in the province, which it acknowledges were weak and contributed to the organisation losing over 50% of its support.
In recent weeks, members of an ANC team tasked with rebuilding KZN branches through political education has been travelling across the province.
Led by head of presidency Sibongile Besani, the team includes party veterans such as former KZN premier Sibusiso Ndebele and former ANC provincial deputy chairperson Mike Mabuyakhulu.
ANC provincial chairperson Siboniso Duma, who, along with his ANC KZN leadership team, recently met president Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss the organisation’s renewal programme, said the effort to rebuild branches in KZN was showing progress.
“We are focusing on cadreship and ideological development because we understand that some cadres may have strayed from the foundational values of the ANC. We are replacing individual interests with a greater interest in the collective goals of the movement.”
Statistics from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) showed that a significant number of ANC supporters in Msunduzi and eThekwini voted for the MK Party in the May election.
Duma said the meeting between the ANC provincial leadership and Ramaphosa resolved that the party should intensify its renewal efforts in Msunduzi, which falls under the organisation’s Moses Mabhida region.
As part of this effort, Duma will deliver the party’s renewal lecture at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall on Sunday.
The efforts come amid calls from some senior ANC leaders for the removal of Duma and the current provincial executive committee (PEC).
Some members of the ANC national working committee (NWC), which recently completed an assessment of KZN’s performance, suggested that the PEC be replaced.
The party’s national executive committee (NEC) is yet to decide on the PEC’s future.
There have been rumours that some ANC leaders wanted the team, which includes Besani, Ndebele and Mabuyakhulu, to assume the PEC’s responsibilities, but ANC provincial spokesperson Mafika Mndebele dismissed these.
“What some people don’t understand is that those comrades were brought in by the PEC, not by the national leadership. The members of the team have been given a specific task; they are not part of the PEC.”
This article was first published by The Witness.