The KwaZulu-Natal ANC’s provincial general council (PGC) is set to decide the fate of the government of provincial unity (GPU) this weekend, with tensions running high ahead of a special sitting of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature to debate and vote on the MK Party’s motion of no confidence in Premier Thami Ntuli.
The two-day gathering is also due to take a position on a number of issues facing the ANC ahead of its national general council (NGC) set for December 8-12 at Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.
The vote of no confidence is scheduled for December 15 — a date finalised after weeks of intense lobbying by the MK Party and resistance from GPU partners. The MK Party is dangling a political carrot in the ANC’s direction, promising to retain Nontembeko Boyce as speaker of the KZN legislature, to offer the ANC a fourth MEC and install veteran politician Willies Mchunu as premier. Under the proposal, the EFF would take over the deputy speaker position held by the DA, reshaping the balance of power in the legislature.
Opening the PGC, Weziwe Thusi, a senior member of the provincial task team, urged delegates to “close ranks and rebuild the ANC from the ground up”, stressing that the party’s survival depended on unity and discipline. She reminded members that the task team’s mandate was to restore the party’s credibility and assist it in reconnecting with grassroots communities after the bruising 2024 elections.
On the sidelines, ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo told reporters the PGC was not only about the GPU, but also about “charting a clear path to the national general council”. He acknowledged the deep divisions within the party but insisted the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal was “determined to emerge stronger” and would not allow external forces to dictate its future.
The ANC is unhappy in the GPU. But at the same time, the instability in the MK Party … makes people worry.
— — Anonymous ANC PGC delegate
One delegate at the PGC said, “The ANC is unhappy in the GPU. But at the same time, the instability in the MK Party, the chopping and changing of leaders, makes people worry we could be moving from [the] coals to the real fire.”
Meanwhile, the KwaZulu-Natal ANC Youth League has already called for the party to pull out of the GPU, arguing its three MECs are under siege from its IFP and DA partners. Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane and education MEC Sipho Hlomuka have faced intense pressure to resign after allegations that they, or close family members, were implicated in tender scandals. Premier Ntuli controversially cleared the two, saying, “The law does not preclude MECs from doing business with the state.”
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal had intended to hold branch, regional and provincial elective conferences to elect new leadership before the end of 2025, but disunity surfaced in the provincial and regional task teams — and the spectre of members serving dual ANC–MK Party interests.
Provincial spokesman Fanle Sibisi told the Sunday Times, “We were due to hold these conferences, but we were defeated by time. We are still rebuilding the ANC, and we will see in the future when these conferences will be held — whether they [will be] held before or after the local government elections.
“Our main focus at this stage is the issue of our participation in the GPU and the national general council, where we will be taking 130 delegates made up of the members of provincial and regional task teams, [as well as those] from the branches of our organisation.”
Formed on December 16 2023, the MK Party shocked the political establishment in the 2024 general elections, where it won 45.3% of the vote in KwaZulu-Natal and secured 37 seats in the provincial legislature, while also becoming the third-largest party nationally. Its emergence rattled the ANC, which for the first time since 2004 lost its grip on power in the province. The ANC has struggled to recover, appointing a provincial task team that was split into regional task teams across all 11 regions, and then into branch task teams, as many of its former members defected to the Zuma-led MK Party.
Insiders say that, while co-operation between the KwaZulu-Natal ANC and the MK Party is gaining traction on the ground, the Ramaphosa-led ANC national leadership has shot it down, refusing to have anything to do with the Zuma-headed party. This widening gulf between provincial pragmatism and national resistance underscores the ANC’s internal contradictions and sets the stage for a bruising December NGC.
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