ANC provincial secretary in KwaZulu-Natal, Bheki Mtolo, is in hot water with President Cyril Ramaphosa after he presented a report saying the president’s weakness contributed to the party’s dismal showing in the province in the May elections.
Three insiders who are privy to the matter said Ramaphosa was irritated by the report Mtolo tabled at a recent provincial executive committee (PEC) meeting, which he attended with several national working committee (NWC) members, including Zizi Kodwa and Sibongile Besani.
According to insiders, the report was not approved by the top five provincial officials.
The report is said to have detailed Zuma’s strength in the province, while painting Ramaphosa as weak.
“The president said this is not a report we can distribute to the organisation. It basically said Zuma is more powerful than Cyril and the ANC was defeated by Zuma alone. So, no matter what we can do, the person who defeated us is Zuma, nothing else. When you listened to it, it was saying ‘president you are weak, and Zuma is strong,’” the insider said.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya referred requests for comment to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula’s office, which had not responded by the time of publication.
The NEC led by President Cyril Ramaphosa and ... Mbalula lost the country with that 40%; they must take that responsibility
For his part, Mtolo sought to downplay the matter. “Those people who told you that must visit the Fort Napier hospital,” he said, referring to a mental hospital in Pietermaritzburg.
The insider said the top provincial officials were surprised by Mtolo’s presentation and could not defend it.
This comes as ANC leaders in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are preparing for a showdown on Monday, when they will be presented with one final chance to plead their case against an onslaught of NWC members itching to have them disbanded.
The ANC has held several meetings with both provinces in an effort to ascertain whether a disbandment is necessary.
Paramount in the minds of ANC leaders is the stability of the party in their historical base of KwaZulu-Natal, where Zuma’s party won the biggest slice of the vote (45.3%) in the elections.
While Gauteng is less of a headache for the party as it enters these negotiations, some in the national executive committee say it is not yet off the hook.
For KwaZulu-Natal, however, many believe the likelihood of them escaping the guillotine is slim. The ANC lost power in both provinces, garnering 30% of the vote in Gauteng, while in KwaZulu-Natal it was obliterated, winning 17%.
This poor showing contributed to a national vote count of 40%, closing a chapter on its 30-year span as a majority party.
The losses in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal have been attributed to weakened structures, a failure to campaign and disunity in ANC ranks.
The debate over the fate of these two provinces appears to have divided the NEC, with high-ranking ANC leaders, including deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane, likely to fight against disbandments, while another camp, including Mbalula, appears set to argue for them.
Ramaphosa has previously hesitated from disbanding the two provinces during NWC meetings. However, one NWC member said it was likely Ramaphosa would not block the move after Mtolo’s report.
Mtolo will also be in the doghouse after he lashed out at the ANC this week for failing to take accountability for its decline.
Speaking at a meeting of the party’s Gen Gizenga Mpanza Region, Mtolo said Ramaphosa and Mbalula should take responsibility for the ANC’s national election results.
“The NEC led by President Cyril Ramaphosa and ... Mbalula lost the country with that 40%; they must take that responsibility,” he said.
One high-ranking provincial leader in KwaZulu-Natal said his speech irritated some within the PEC, who in their WhatsApp group cautioned him to stop using public platforms to make accusations against the party leadership.
“Honestly, there was no need for him to say those things. We said in the PEC group that what he did was unnecessary, but he defended himself,” the source said.
Branches have collapsed and are nonexistent, your membership has dropped; if you can get the membership from Luthuli House, it will tell you we are no longer No 1 on membership
Some KwaZulu-Natal leaders believe the ANC has collapsed in the province, going so far as saying there is no organisation.
“Branches have collapsed and are nonexistent, your membership has dropped; if you can get the membership from Luthuli House, it will tell you we are no longer No 1 on membership. So, structures have collapsed; worse, MK Party has decimated you in the election campaign, which shows you how much collapse there is,” said one PEC member.
“Well, you can’t tell the NEC what to do, but you need a proper overhaul in KwaZulu-Natal. You need to start the ANC afresh in [the province], including the recruiting from the branch level; anything that is a structure must start afresh, but whether the ANC will have the balls to do that we don't know.”
Another problem for some KwaZulu-Natal leaders has been the government of provincial unity, given that the ANC is now being led by an IFP premier.
They say this decision was not properly discussed with the structures, and the two parties are still suffering from the aftermath of their acrimonious history and the violence in the early 1990s.
However, some NEC members are against a disbandment, arguing it will not fix the party’s chronic problems.
“Whether we dissolve or not is immaterial. Whatever is being discussed now is not helpful, it’s not about building an organisation. The problem is that there is no organisation in both provinces, absolutely no organisation. To think that the current leadership will build an organisation for you is a daydream.”
Another NWC member said disbanding would be unfair as it would give others an unfair advantage to put in their own people.
They said another problem was that the national officials, led by Ramaphosa, had failed to bring a clear report to the NEC on what they believed ought to happen to the two provinces.
ANC Gauteng head of elections, Lebogang Maile, arguably one of the most powerful leaders in the province, dismissed the notion that he and the provincial executive had failed to campaign effectively.
Maile and the province failed to regain its Soweto stronghold during the elections, while in KwaZulu-Natal its leaders were only able to retain Kokstad, the home of provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo, and Umzimkhulu.
Maile defended the Gauteng leaders, saying the campaign in the province had included several high-profile ANC leaders, including Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe, David Mabuza and Tokyo Sexwale.
“People who are very simplistic. Sometimes people who are lazy to think would not want to have an appreciation of the material conditions we find ourselves in. You have to analyse [these] and then make a determination of why we have performed the way we have,” he said.
Maile is likely to argue that the province’s battle for votes was severely hampered by national issues, including power outages, poverty and unemployment.
“There are a lot of issues that were beyond us, that it doesn't matter what we have done, those issues were stubborn and difficult,” he said.
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