It has emerged that ANC heavyweight Zweli Mkhize tried to convince the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal to mend relations with former president Jacob Zuma after his announcement he would be voting for the MK Party.
The Sunday Times can reveal that Mkhize penned a letter to the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal leadership on New Year’s Day, warning them about their attacks on Zuma after his announcement. Mkhize, in the letter addressed to provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo, said Zuma’s decision would spell disaster for the party, both in the province and nationally.
Mkhize requested a meeting with the provincial leadership, but was ignored. Insiders said Mkhize has been vindicated by the ruling party’s poor showing in KwaZulu-Natal as the MK Party appears to have eaten into the ANC’s support base.
Mkhize declined to comment when he was approached this week. The ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson Mafika Mndebele said he was not aware of Mkhize’s letter.
In his letter, Mkhize warned that Zuma’s announcement raised serious concerns about how “critical matters” were being handled by the current ANC leadership.
“These concerns are shared by many, like myself, who have served in this organisation for several decades. The five issues highlighted in his statements, the basis of his distrust of the ANC, are part of a longer list of issues that have been raised by members and supporters as causing disaffection between the ANC as [an] organisation and [its] membership, as well as people in general,” he said.
Mkhize said Zuma’s announcement on December 16 that he would back the MK Party required the ANC to make an urgent intervention.
Foreseeing the impact of Zuma’s announcement on the ANC’s electoral fortunes, he questioned why the ANC had not sought to discuss the matter with him, as it had done with other senior party leaders who had previously aired their dissatisfactions with the party’s leadership.
He pointed out how the ANC had swiftly called for a meeting with veteran member Mavuso Msimang, who had resigned from the party, and managed to convince him to retract his resignation.
He also spoke about the meeting the ANC held with former president Thabo Mbeki just days before the party’s 2022 Nasrec conference after he wrote a letter to Deputy President Paul Mashatile complaining about how the party had handled the Phala Phala scandal.
In his letter, Mkhize asked why the party had not acted with the same urgency in calling for a meeting with Zuma
In his letter, Mkhize asked why the party had not acted with the same urgency in calling for a meeting with Zuma.
This meeting, he said, should have taken place long before party leaders started commenting on his announcement in public.
“I believe the announcement and the state of affairs it generated called for an urgent engagement between the provincial and national leadership, and former president Zuma long before any substantive public statements were issued,” he said.
“Despite the gravity of the announcement by former president Zuma, I haven’t heard of any engagement, despite the fact that he announced he was not resigning from the ANC. This offered [the party] an opportunity for an immediate engagement to precede any other statements by the ANC on this matter.
“I expected that this established approach would be immediately rolled out [to] address the disquiet that followed the shocking announcement by the former president. This has not been done. Why one may ask? I have no idea what outcome this would have resulted in, but without it we may never know.”
Mkhize said he told Mtolo a day after Zuma’s announcement that he should try to meet the former president before hosting a press briefing, but this suggestion appeared to have fallen on deaf ears.
“In my conversation also with the provincial chairperson, I warned against issuing statements in haste by leadership both at provincial and national level on a matter I considered tricky, delicate and complex. This advice was obviously disregarded,” he said.
“Now I have heard disturbing reports about regional meetings hosted to brief the branch leadership. As [a national executive committee] member I am unaware of the guidance from the national leadership on this matter, nor am I aware of the resolutions of the provincial leadership that preceded the regional briefings.”
Mkhize also told Mtolo he had warned them about several issues that had further created a divide between the ANC leadership and its supporters.
“Some of the issues created a perception of the political leadership undermining the state officials. Without knowing [the] details, I may say these may have created a wrong perception [in the mind of] the public, such as the reshuffle of [the] cabinet, the school nutrition debacle, the celebration of the Springbok victory and other similar examples. A number of these issues created unnecessary misconceptions which eroded confidence in political leadership,” he said.
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