After reconfiguring the provincial executive committee four months ago to rebuild structures following last year’s humiliating defeat, the KwaZulu-Natal ANC has disbanded regional executive committees, which will be replaced with task teams.
The decision was made recently, and the process was expected to kick off in KwaDukuza, where the party’s national leadership was expected to announce that members would form the regional task team on Monday.
The ANC provincial spokesperson Fanle Sibisi confirmed that the party has decided to disband the regions, adding that most of them, if not all, have had their terms lapsed.
“Yes, the process will affect all the regions, and we hope by the end of the month, we will have finished the process,” said Sibisi.
He said the party has not decided whether it will allow the regions to go to their elective conferences before next year’s local government elections or hold conferences after.
Sources within the party said the decision was prompted by branch audit outcomes, which the reconfigured provincial task team undertook after it was established.
The sources said the audit outcomes revealed that many branch executive committee members were sympathetic to the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, and the ANC felt it should disband regional executive committees as they appeared to have lost control of the branches.
According to the sources, the party’s focus will be in eThekwini and KwaDukuza.
Although the ANC did not perform badly in KwaDukuza, the municipality with a budget of R3.2 billion rand is seen as one of the strategic municipalities that the party wanted to keep at all costs.
The eThekwini, which is the only metro and one of the largest regions in the country, with a voting population of close to two million, is the party’s main strategic point.
The region, which has been the party’s stronghold for decades, fell to former president Jacob Zuma’s MKP in last year’s elections, which relegated the ANC to third place. The region is expected to be a battleground between the ANC and the MKP.
The eThekwini regional executive committee’s term expired in April. It has been under former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, who has been a ‘ceremonial‘ chairperson after she was forced to step aside soon after she was elected in 2022 because of corruption charges she was facing.
Gumede is still on trial for the R320 million Durban Solid Waste tender scandal.
Despite the ANC’s insistence that these changes were for renewal, others view them as a strategic decision by Luthuli House to have direct control over branches ahead of the party’s elective conference in 2027.
Sources say the changes will give party Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula an edge over other potential presidential candidates since he will have direct control of branches.
Mbalula, Senzo Mchunu, and Kgosientsho Ramokgopa have been touted to replace President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is serving his last term.
