By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula announced the party is planning another complete overhaul of its Kwazulu-Natal (KZN) leadership.
Mbalula was briefing journalists on Wednesday, 10 December, on the third day of the ANC’s National General Council (NGC) in Gauteng.
The ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) replaced the provincial executive committees of Gauteng and KZN with PTTs after the two provinces suffered major electoral losses in 2024.
KZN is the ANC’s largest province by membership, but it was the hardest hit by the rise of the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party. The ANC’s share of the provincial vote in KZN dropped from 54.22% in 2019 to 16.99% in 2024.
When the ANC announced the KZN PTT, it said, “This intervention, framed within the constitutional mandate of the NEC, reinforces the principles of unity, renewal and organisational rebuilding.”
But the party has continued to struggle in the province. In the most recent by-election in KZN, in November, the ANC lost Ward 17 in the iLembe District Municipality to the MK party. Its share of the vote plummeted from 65% in 2021 to only 30%.
On Wednesday, Mbalula said the PTT would be disbanded after its initial mandate expired, changes to the provincial leadership would occur in February 2026, he said.
“We need to get out of that particular situation. We have not been doing well. We are facing an existential crisis there, the tsunami. It’s a big disappointment for the ANC, and then we’re going to deal with it.”
He said the PTT was “fighting over who must lead, not the task we gave them”.
Mbalula said the party was going to “fetch” people who would build the ANC in KZN and appoint them to lead the party in the province — “root and branch, not people who are concerned about who must lead and all of that and just leave and abandon the task”.
His mid-term report painted a sobering picture of the state of the organisation in KZN. The report identifies several deep-rooted weaknesses. And these include declining cadre discipline and the collapse of political education programmes.
Meanwhile the ANC is talking to other political parties in KZN to save their coalition there from collapsing.
This comes as the province’s Premier, Thami Ntuli, faces a motion of no confidence that threatens the stability of the provincial government.
The ANC’s relationship with the DA is also strained amid a war of words between eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba and Public Works MEC Martin Meyer over cut services in the city.