ANC leadership shake-up: Disbandment of regional committees in KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal ANC coordinator Mike Mabuyakhulu and convener Jeff Radebe are under pressure from Luthuli to revive the party in the province.
Image: Supplied
After reconfiguring the provincial executive committee four months ago to rebuild structures following last year's humiliating defeat, the KwaZulu-Natal ANC has disbanded regional executive committees, which will be replaced with task teams.
The decision was made recently, and the process was expected to kick off in KwaDukuza, where the party's national leadership was expected to announce that members would form the regional task team on Monday.
The ANC provincial spokesperson Fanle Sibisi confirmed that the party has decided to disband the regions, adding that most of them, if not all, have had their terms lapsed.
'Yes, the process will affect all the regions, and we hope by the end of the month, we will have finished the process,' said Sibisi.
Video Player is loading.
Play Video
Play
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
-:-
Loaded :
0%
Stream Type LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan
Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque
Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
Advertisement
Next
Stay
Close ✕
He said the party has not decided whether it will allow the regions to go to their elective conferences before next year's local government elections or hold conferences after.
Sources within the party said the decision was prompted by branch audit outcomes, which the reconfigured provincial task team undertook after it was established.
The sources said the audit outcomes revealed that many branch executive committee members were sympathetic to the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, and the ANC felt it should disband regional executive committees as they appeared to have lost control of the branches.
According to the sources, the party's focus will be in eThekwini and KwaDukuza.
Although the ANC did not perform badly in KwaDukuza, the municipality with a budget of R3.2 billion rand is seen as one of the strategic municipalities that the party wanted to keep at all costs.
The eThekwini, which is the only metro and one of the largest regions in the country, with a voting population of close to two million, is the party's main strategic point.
The region, which has been the party's stronghold for decades, fell to former president Jacob Zuma's MKP in last year's elections, which relegated the ANC to third place. The region is expected to be a battleground between the ANC and the MKP.
The eThekwini regional executive committee's term expired in April. It has been under former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, who has been a 'ceremonial' chairperson after she was forced to step aside soon after she was elected in 2022 because of corruption charges she was facing.
Gumede is still on trial for the R320 million Durban Solid Waste tender scandal.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Citizen
an hour ago
- The Citizen
Cyril must seize opportunity
Iran's vulnerabilities have been exposed and its confidence has been shaken. The Israel-Iran war lasted only 12 days but its consequences will reshape global politics for years. One positive is that the battering taken by South Africa's ally, Iran, could paradoxically greatly benefit this country, if President Cyril Ramaphosa had the wit and courage to seize the opportunity. SA-Iran ties The greatest impediment to a good relationship with the United States has been SA's support of Iran. It is hardly surprising, then, that SA's increasing alignment with Iran's 'axis of resistance' and its self-appointed role as a spokesperson for the global south in siding with Russia and China against Western democracies, has caused the US steadily growing concern over the past dozen or so years. This came to a head in February under the combative presidency of Donald Trump, who issued a punishing executive order against SA. Despite these substantial economic costs caused by the order and Ramaphosa speaking fervently about the need to 'reset' ties with the US, the government seems paralysed. It boils down to the fact that foreign policy is not determined by pragmatism and national interest, but by ideology and party interest. The foundation of SA's post-1994 risky friendship with Iran stems from an anti-Western ideological outlook that the ANC has historically shared. This has been amplified by a powerful Islamist clique within the department of international relations and cooperation that is strong enough within ANC party structures to dictate a harder line on Middle East matters than many in the Cabinet would choose. ALSO READ: Iran voices 'serious doubts' over Israel commitment to ceasefire Iran's vulnerabilities have been exposed The drubbing that Iran took in the 12-day war changes everything. Iran's new precariousness as a functional state, its wavering status as a revolutionary beacon and its more circumscribed financial circumstances reduce Monday 10 30 June 2025 its usefulness to the ANC on all fronts. Whether its nuclear programme has been destroyed or only set back months, Iran undoubtedly will have reduced capacity for mischief-making in the Middle East, while preoccupied with internal reconstruction. Infrastructure has to be rebuilt, lost nuclear and military expertise replaced and weaponry stocks replenished, all while fretting whether the ayatollah's government might be toppled in a popular uprising. Iran's vulnerabilities have been exposed and its confidence has been shaken. Israel effortlessly thwarted its much-hyped missile barrages, while the US demonstrated decisively that it would not sit idle while Tehran lashed out. The loop of perpetual Middle East conflict has been broken, or at least dramatically reset. Iran's terror proxies are isolated, vulnerable and on the back foot. ALSO READ: Six Israelis detained for attacking soldiers in West Bank Israel's upper hand and mending ties For the first time in decades, the strategic initiative lies firmly with Israel. Militarily, the Jewish state has never been stronger but it is being comprehensively bested on the battlefield of international public opinion over the conflict in Gaza. With Iran down, for the moment, and Syria making noises, this is Israel's best window yet to resolve the Palestinian question; to trade restraint for recognition and to convert tactical dominance into a durable regional peace through a revitalised and expanded Abraham Accords. South Africa faces its own fork in the road. It can continue acting as a megaphone for radical Islam and a cheerleader for rogue states or it, too, can seize the moment. Re-establishing ties with Israel, mending its fractured relationship with Washington and offering itself as a credible, post-ideological broker in the Middle East would not only serve the national interest, it would rescue a South African foreign policy now adrift in ANC moral incoherence, under Ramaphosa's timorous captaincy. READ NEXT: Zelensky signs decree for Ukraine's withdrawal from anti-landmine treaty
The Star
7 hours ago
- The Star
Fikile Mbalula challenges DA to withdraw from Government of National Unity
Siyabonga Sithole | Published 6 hours ago ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula has challenged the DA to withdraw from the Government of National Unity (GNU) following the party's recent threats to boycott the upcoming National Dialogue. This confrontation between the two parties follows hot on the heels of President Cyril Ramaphosa's recent axing of former deputy minister Andrew Whitfield, who allegedly undertook an unauthorised trip to the United States. DA leader John Steenhuisen, addressing the media on Saturday slammed Ramaphosa's decision, claiming it was indicative of President Ramaphosa's inconsistent approach to governance while also "threatening to destabilise the GNU unless all so-called delinquent ministers are removed from their positions within 48 hours. However Mbalula who was speaking during the 3rd day of the OR Tambo Regional Conference in the Eastern Cape on Sunday stated that the GNU is not a permanent feature but a temporary partnership among all the coalition parties. Mbalula stated that the ANC and its President will not be bullied and disrespected by the DA and its leaders who continuously threaten to destabilse the GNU. "When the Government of National Unity was formed with the ten political parties, it was not a permanent feature. So, we will not allow for our President to be disrespected by his deputy ministers. "Even Nelson Mandela fired his own wife. My mother Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela Mandela. Mandela took him out of the cabinet. Thabo Mbeki as president also did the same when he fired Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. We can't then be disrespected by a small boy who is being protected by the DA. We are not in a marriage with the DA but we are in a coalition," he said. Mbalula who addressed delegates to one of the party's biggest regions in the Eastern Cape, the OR Tambo Region- which is one of the most influential ANC regions in the country said that those who had accused the ANC of selling out when it partnered with the DA in the GNU would soon realise that the ANC has an upper hand in the coalition. "They must know one thing. We are not at the mercy of the DA. We are in this coalition because we respected the outcomes of the elections and the interests of the people of South Africa. That is why we have characterised this as a strategic setback. "It is not a permanent feature. The GNU is not a melting pot. We did say that there are ten political parties in the GNU and the DA did not want this. Now, I see why they did not want this as they wanted to squeeze us and put us in a corner, but we turned the tables around and we put them in our own trap. Now they arein a deeper trap," he added. Mbalula's tough stance against the DA has been echoed by ANC spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri who on Saturday said it is the DA and not the ANC that went to the United States to complain about these redress policies and lobby other like-minded right-wing organisations in the U.S. "It is the Democratic Alliance that went abroad to the United States to complain about these redress policies and lobby other like-minded right-wing organisations in the U.S., not the ANC and mobilised against transformative policies. "The statement of intent is very clear. It says all the parties that are signatory to the statement will not tamper with redress policies. The DA has been to court I do not know how many times challenging the land expropriation act, the Bela act, the NHI act and the employment equity legislation. Those are but four major transformative legislation. They have also campaigned furiously against the BEE laws. "It is for South African to figure out who is violating the statement of intent," Bhengu-Motsiri told the SABC on Saturday. Efforts to reach both DA spokespeople, Willie Aucamp and Karabo Khakhau were unsuccessful on Sunday. [email protected]
eNCA
7 hours ago
- eNCA
Is the honeymoon over between ANC and DA?
JOHANNESBURG - Is the honeymoon really over for senior GNU partners? The DA and the ANC are at loggerheads, after President Cyril Ramaphosa fired Deputy Trade and Industry Minister Andrew Whitfield. READ: ANC taking DA threats to collapse GNU seriously - Mbalula In response, leader John Steenhuisen has now withdrawn his party from the National Dialogue, labelling it a waste of time and money. Political analyst Prince Mashele had a discussion with eNCA.
