The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal will make history this week by choosing the province's first female premier.
All three names that the new provincial executive committee (PEC) sent to Luthuli House to replace Sihle Zikalala, who is stepping down after failing to retain the position of ANC chair two weeks ago, are women.
Finance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube and MPLs Mbali Fraser and Amanda Bani were set to be interviewed for the job yesterday. Dube-Ncube is the favourite for the job, given her seniority and experience in government.
Zikalala made his intentions to quit as premier known to his party on Thursday — the day the new PEC met for the first time.
Yesterday, new provincial chair Siboniso Duma told the Sunday Times the party tried to persuade Zikalala to stay on. “We met him, he is one of our own, he is our senior comrade and we gave him an option to lead until 2024 because we know the good that has been achieved during his tenure,” said Duma.
“We wanted to back him as the newly elected leadership, but due to the circumstances he highlighted he concluded that it is better he resigns — we are hurt, but he pledged to work well with us, that gives us hope that the ANC will not suffer divisions,” he said.
Zikalala told the Sunday Times that there was no bad blood between him and the newly elected office-holders and his decision to resign was not an act of spite but was taken with the best interests of the ANC at heart.
Zikalala highlighted three issues underlying his decision to resign: alignment of the provincial government with the party, his lack of authority as he was not in any structure of the ANC and “mobilisation” against him by those who accuse him of having betrayed Jacob Zuma.
Zikalala said the party and government needed to be aligned for proper functionality and that can be achieved by having Duma in the executive council.
He said a concerted campaign to paint his leadership collective as anti-Zuma had created animosity.
“In preparation and post-conference it was used to mobilise against us. I decided to assist the ANC. Instead of the party going about explaining to people that I did not betray Zuma because I am still premier and my face is there, I felt it necessary to exit.”
He said the accusation that he betrayed Zuma was “a lie” and he did not know why the campaign against him had been launched.
“It is total misinformation. I supported him from June 14 2005, that was the day he was recalled from being deputy. I doubt there is anyone in this province who attended Zuma’s rape case like I did — from the beginning till the end, including assisting him as the previous PEC, we have done our part,” said Zikalala.
“I am not bitter, I am comfortable with the decision I have taken, it was the appropriate route to take for the ANC.
“I will participate at the legislature and that will give me more opportunities to work in the constituency office in Ndwedwe,” he added.
Rumours are rife in the province that a cabinet reshuffle is imminent. Duma said Zikalala’s resignation meant changes would have to be made but “I don’t want to set the cart before the horse and talk about reshuffles”.
The new leader's focus, he said, is going back to basics, uniting the party and embracing all stakeholders.
“It helped that we took a resolution not to purge — be deliberate about that and embrace each other despite the pre conference preferences, we have experience that if you get elected and start purging there will be disunity.
“Our work is going back to basics, to branches and have active branches that will monitor service delivery and mobilisation — the mood in the province is that people have new hope — we account to society and those stakeholders are being brought closer to the ANC,” said Duma.
Despite KZN losing the fight for the step aside resolution at last week’s policy conferences — the provincial chairperson said the province is positive that they can canvass for two candidates for election in the national top six come December.
“KwaZulu-Natal has a role to play in the officials, our province and Gauteng are the biggest provinces in terms of population so the mobilisation strategy becomes easy and well co-ordinated, we might even have two candidates from KZN in the top six,” he said.
Asked if he was concerned about projections that the ANC could fall below the 50+1 majority to govern KZN with an outright majority, Duma reduced the downward trend to just a “narrative of coalition is driven by captains of industry because they want a weak ANC that is not radical.”
" We are driving a radical socioeconomic transformation, the ANC is the vehicle that our people trust to better their lives so we are still going to win in 2024, we will not lose,” he added.
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