ANC in KZN could return from this week’s national conference empty handed: Analysts

The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal could return from this week’s national conference, empty handed. Some political analysts say divisions in the province still run deep and could leave the provincial body without any representation in its top six.

KwaZulu-Natal is travelling to the conference with over 870 delegates, the largest provincial representation.

In 2017, delegates from KwaZulu-Natal went to the party’s national conference divided on their preferred candidates. Although the majority of branches had nominated Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as their preferred candidate to succeed then ANC president, Jacob Zuma, others supported Cyril Ramaphosa.

Some party members put their weight behind Dr Zweli Mkhize who later withdrew from the presidential race.

Now in 2022, the ANC in the province has announced it will throw its weight behind Zweli Mkhize to succeed President Cyril Ramaphosa.

ANC briefing on the outcomes of nominations for top 6 positions:

Political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu says ideally, the ANC in the province should speak in one voice.

“And in 2017 and they came back empty handed and the reasons, there was disunity. So that is what happened in 2017 conference, the reasons I am saying that is because they decided to come up with two candidates for the same position that is Dr Zweli Mkhize and Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. It means you are depleting your votes instead of voting as a block. So, I don’t think they have learnt a lesson in that regard.”

Similarly, political analyst Dr Fikile Vilakazi says KwaZulu-Natal is losing its status of being influential both in determining national leadership outcomes and policy positions.

“The ANC is fragile, we are talking about a failing political party here. A political party that overtime, has really been losing touch with society, everywhere its in the public domian, you just have to look at the archives, the reports and listen to citizens speak.”

The party’s former provincial secretary, Mdumiseni Ntuli who is also vying for the position of secretary general come December 16th says the use of money to occupy positions within the ranks of the party is fast becoming a huge problem. He says this is preventing capable leaders from contributing to building the party.

“We have a new problem in the ANC, where people use money to get elected into positions of power. As revolutionaries we must fight against this and stop it because it is not taking us to the direction we want to take.”

Between the 1994 general election and the 2021 local government elections, the ANC has lost just over 15 percentage points in voter support. In the 2019 general elections, the party dipped below the 60% mark for the first time since democracy, a first for a national and provincial election.

Divisions in ANC KZN still deep ahead of national conference: