Cape Town — The ANC KwaZulu-Natal held their provincial elective conference at the Olive Convention Centre the past weekend from Friday July 22 to Sunday July 24, 2022. The province is the biggest ANC support base and has been divided among supporters of former president Jacob Zuma and President Cyril Ramaphosa.
According to IOL, the ANC leadership is out of touch with the needs of the people of the province and a lobby group worked hard at getting support from communities to bring change to the provincial structures. It seems a strategy that paid dividends, as all the top 5 candidates put forward, were elected - they are Provincial Chairperson Siboniso Duma, Deputy Chairperson Nomagugu Simelane, Provincial Secretary Bhekinkosi Mtolo, Deputy Secretary Sipho Hlomuka and Provincial Treasurer Ntuthuko Mahlaba.
President Cyril Ramaphosa received a hostile reception at the conference, while Premier Sihle Zikhalala was bombarded with "leave Sihle, leave" songs. Duma had to intervene and asked delegates not to boo the president ahead of his planned speech. Ramaphosa was criticised for allowing the "beloved" Zuma to be imprisoned for contempt of court, Daily Maverick reports.
"Comrade Ramaphosa as the president of the ANC is also familiar with the position of KwaZulu-Natal that we feel that president Jacob Zuma has been persecuted by the system. Let us give him a chance. The president almost did not make it because he had other commitments, but he chose to come to the conference because KwaZulu-Natal is amongst the biggest provinces in the ANC and deserves special attention. "He made an effort to address cadres personally. Comrade president is going to make remarks in this plenary and whoever loves the ANC as a disciplined member of the movement will behave because he understands that our issues will be addressed," Duma said.
Ramaphosa's recent legal troubles over the theft at his Phala Phala farm also contributed to his poor reception from Zuma supporters at the conference. Staunch Zuma supporter, former Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans' spokesperson Carl Niehaus campaigned against Ramaphosa's presence at the conference and encouraged branches to reject the national leader if he spoke. Niehaus's actions follow his dismissal from Luthuli House in September 2021 and an anti-Ramaphosa protest that took place in Johannesburg a week ago.
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Ramaphosa speaks
During his speech, Ramaphosa focused on the energy crisis, building the economy and the fractured state of the ruling party. He claimed that division arose since the 2017 Nasrec conference where he was elected and called for modernisation of the ANC's internal capacity. "Part of renewal is intensifying political education to improve the understanding of our history, values and practices amongst the membership and broader society. We must ask ourselves what role we all must play in providing the healing and regeneration of our movement. The ANC does not exist for its own sake. It exists to unite all South Africans in building a society founded on the vision of the Freedom Charter. Let us therefore remember, as we rise from this conference, that we are rebuilding the ANC so that it can be an ever-more effective agent of fundamental social and economic change. Let us remember that we have each joined this movement, and we have each gathered here at this conference because we have made a commitment to the people of South Africa," he said.
