ANC chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal Siboniso Duma. | Archives
Durban — The ANC top brass has summoned all KwaZulu-Natal ANC Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) members led by provincial chairperson Siboniso Duma to a “compulsory” meeting on Saturday at Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg, Gauteng.
This has fuelled the long-running speculation that the structure would potentially be disbanded and replaced with an interim structure owing to the disastrous performance during the May 29 elections.
As revealed in a leaked letter dated 26 November 2024, signed by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, all PEC members are required to attend the meeting with the National Working Committee (NWC).
The agenda remains undisclosed, but the significant presence of key leaders suggests a moment of reckoning is imminent.
“This serves to invite the ANC (KZN) PEC to a meeting with the NWC (National Working Committee) on Saturday, 30 November at 14h00.”
It added: “It is compulsory that all PEC members attend the NWC. The agenda of the meeting will be shared in due course.”
The ANC KZN’s sharp decline during the recent elections not only stripped it of its longstanding majority, which it had enjoyed since ousting the IFP in 2004, but it has raised serious questions about the future of the current leadership.
The provincial structure's future hangs in the balance as the NWC, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the ANC, prepares to address this contentious matter.
The NWC reports to the National Executive Committee (NEC) – the supreme decision-making authority of the party between elective conferences held after five years.
An NEC source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “There is speculation internally that the current KZN structure’s fate will be sealed on Saturday.
The party is preparing to go all out ahead of the upcoming local government after the embarrassing run during the May elections. I don’t think KZN PEC will survive on Saturday.”
The current provincial ANC leadership was elected during the party’s elective conference in 2022, where Duma thumped former chairperson Sihle Zikalala, who ran for re-election.
Other leaders who were elected at that conference included provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo, Sipho Hlomuka (deputy secretary), Nomagugu Simelane (deputy provincial chairperson) and Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba (treasurer).
The PEC, the highest provincial decision-making authority, has 30 additionally – including from the ANC alliance partners, the South African Communist Party (SACP), Congress of the South African Trade Union and the South African Civics Movement (SANCO).
A member of the PEC told the Daily News after the surfacing of the leaked letter, that: “The writing has been on the wall for a long time. I will not be surprised if the provincial structure is disbanded on Saturday. That is the expectation from many members of the ANC and its alliance partners.”
Also copied in the letter were members of the ANC NEC who were deployed in KZN, including Zizi Kodwa, who is the convener, Sibongile Besani, Sindisiwe Chikunga, Mduduzi Manana, Joe Phaahla and Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams.
Amid the raging speculation of the disbandment, ANC spokesperson in KZN, Mafika Mndebele, said: “This is a normal meeting of the ANC.”
The NEC had resolved back in August that all its provinces that dipped below the 40% mark during the May election should be hauled over the coals and be disbanded. Among them were Gauteng and KZN.
The potential of disbanding the KZN PEC is not unprecedented. A similar fate befell the ANC's provincial structure led by former chairperson Sihle Zikalala leading up to the 2017 elective conference, largely due to rampant factional infighting.
ANC national spokesperson Mahlegi Bhengu-Motsiri could not be reached for comment as her phone rang to voicemail, and did not respond to written messages.
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