In a final push to retain power in KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC will deploy to the province all its 80 national executive committee (NEC) members, leaders of all its leagues and the tripartite alliance, for seven days.
The decision was made at a special NEC meeting held virtually to finalise strategy for the last 40 days of the campaign ahead of the May 29 elections.
The meeting, parts of which have now been leaked, decided that the importance and vast nature of the province required the entire leadership of the party to descend on the province.
In his briefing to the meeting, the party's head of elections Mdumiseni Ntuli said this would happen in May to help the provincial leaders intensify the campaign.
“At some point within the next few weeks, especially in the early days of May, all NEC members will be deployed to campaign in KZN for a full seven days,” he told the meeting.
“And the reason why we need to go back to KwaZulu-Natal, the momentum that was created towards the manifesto launch which to some extent has [been] sustained by the PEC, must be intensified. The province is big, the province has got so many people who are registered, we need to go back there and when we go back there for seven days in the same way we are going to do in Gauteng leading to siyanqoba (victory), each NEC member will have to be assigned to a maximum of two VDs [voting districts].”
He said the NEC's of all its tripartite alliance partners, including Cosatu, SACP and Sanco, as well as NEC's of the women's league, youth league and veteran's league would be critical in the next few weeks.
“Comrades by that we would have achieved what the province alone can never manage to achieve. Which is reaching out to the majority of the VDs where the ANC has the biggest support base and engage with the electorate there,” he said.
This, Ntuli told the meeting, would be done two weeks ahead of the party's Siyanqoba rally at the FNB Stadium on May 25.
Provincial elections organiser Nhlakanipho Ntombela said: “We are refocusing the campaign for the next 40 days. Priority is of course on eThekwini with the highest population, Moses Mabhida Pietermaritzburg, Tolomane Mnyayiza in Port Shepstone, General Gizenga Mpanza in KwaDukuza and Harry Gwala Umzimkhulu areas,” he said.
“Targets are areas with the highest population voting for the ANC, places where people will go out in numbers to vote for the ANC, those numbers are in those five regions. We are on the back foot in areas such as Newcastle, Richards Bay and in such areas we will campaign, but the priority will be the five regions.”
KZN is one of the ANC’s most important provinces as it accounts for the second highest number of registered voters after Gauteng.
All other political parties that are emerging are trying to nibble at the edges, that is all they will ever do — the ANC has great hegemony here and we will emerge victorious because the people of KZN and indeed the people of South Africa love the ANC.
The party is working against time to counter what could be its greatest political threat, the emergence of the MK Party led by, former president Jacob Zuma.
Senior leaders from the ANC NEC spent this week in Durban and held a meeting aimed at helping the province refocus the campaign for the remaining 40 days.
The ANC will intensify its efforts in KwaZulu-Natal for the remainder of the campaign period, with a strong focus on five regions likely to improve their chances in the province.
One such area is eThekwini — where President Cyril Ramaphosa spent the weekend on door-to-door campaigning, addressing community meetings, doing walkabouts and taxi ranks in iNanda, KwaXimba, Hammarsdale, Clermont.
Among top service delivery issues in eThekwini are water provision, exacerbated by the metro’s failure to repair infrastructure damaged during the 2021 floods. Ramaphosa says the ANC government has a plan.
The presidential working group on eThekwini, established by Ramaphosa earlier this year, has begun addressing water, electricity and infrastructure challenges, including bridges washed away by the floods.
“We are busy at work,” said Ramaphosa. .
“As it is now the water issue is being addressed, we are bringing out these big tanks that are going to be installed in a number of places — procurement has already happened. We are going to have up to 400 and more tanks that will be installed so that people don't have to keep following the water tankers,” Ramaphosa said.
He did not identify areas where these tanks would be installed or provide timelines, but emphasised that it would be an interim solution until repairs to the infrastructure washed away by the floods
“KZN and eThekwini especially is a disaster-prone area and we now need to have a more long term plan and this is what the presidential working group is going to be looking at, bringing together business, government, unions and community-based organisations so that we have a holistic plan of addressing these problems. No other party has the capability to do so.”
The party is under immense pressure, with opposition parties such as the IFP also strengthening their campaigns and the threat posed by the MK Party growing through Zuma's popularity in the province.
But Ramaphosa said the ANC was not threatened by the MK Party.
“All other political parties that are emerging are trying to nibble at the edges, that is all they will ever do — the ANC has great hegemony here and we will emerge victorious because the people of KZN and indeed the people of South Africa love the ANC. We are going to surprise many who think the ANC is not going to have a clear majority — the MK Party will feel what the ANC is all about, even here in KZN. I have no doubt about our strength, our support here is quite strong.”
Ramaphosa told congregants during a church visit that it was “God’s will that the ANC governs after the election. I am still going to be president”.
He assured communities he visited across Durban that in addition to social security programmes, his next administration would create jobs.
Explaining why unemployment rose during his first term, he said: “In the past five years we were fixing things that were broken, in the next term we will create jobs because that is our number one priority from the municipal level — many projects will be created because we want to lower the unemployment rate.”
He said his government healthcare system would be better with NHI — which he promised to sign into law.
“We want to sign the NHI — so that you can access any specialist without paying — many political parties are fighting against NHI — that is why we say vote ANC,” he added.
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