By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal will host it’s much anticipated elective conference in eThekwini.
The party spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said after the provincial executive committee meeting, the party decided that the conference be held in eThekwini, adding that the party has the option of using the Durban University of Technology campus or the Olive Convention Centre near the beach.
The provincial conference will take place this weekend.
Meanwhile businessman Sandile Zungu has announced that he would contest for the position of ANC chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal.
He revealed this during a press briefing in Durban on Tuesday.
“We have been campaigning on the ground, and ordinary members feel disempowered in choosing who should lead them,” Zungu said.
The businessman, who will challenge incumbent chairperson and Premier Sihle Zikalala and current Finance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube for the position, said a fresh approach was needed in KZN ANC politics.
Zungu has called his campaign ‘The fresh approach to leading in extremely challenging times’.
He said slates do not build and foster camaraderie but foster divisions.
“Slates are the products of incumbents, we can’t take accountability for what has happened, but if we emerge at the provincial conference, we will work hard to see that the issue of slates is done away with.”
He said the party, at a provincial and national level, needed to move away from slates, away from gatekeeping and away from ownership of branches by private individuals.
The position of KZN provincial secretary is also likely to be contested as branches have nominated the incumbent, Mdumiseni Ntuli and Kokstad Mayor Bheki Mtolo.
The powerful eThekwini region is also campaigning that the position of provincial treasurer be taken by Zandile Gumede, the region’s chairperson and former mayor who is out on R50,000 bail as she is facing fraud, corruption and money-laundering charges in connection with a R320-million Durban Solid Waste tender. She was forced to vacate her position after being elected chairperson of eThekwini as part of the ANC’s step-aside policy on members facing criminal charges.
This rule is being challenged by her supporters in the province, who contend that it is unfair and selective.
In the 2019 general and provincial polls, the ANC shed votes before continuing that negative trend in the 2021 local government polls, when it failed to get an outright majority in the province’s only metropolitan city, eThekwini.
As the ANC continues to lose favour with voters, parties such as the IFP have been regaining strength while the EFF has been establishing itself in parts of the province.