Mbalula expresses confidence in KZN ANC leadership despite by-election losses

Despite being humiliated by Umkhonto weSizwe Party in three recent by-elections in KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC national leadership said it still has confidence in the reconfigured provincial executive committee under Jeff Radebe and Mike Mabuyakhulu.

Speaking on the sidelines of his meeting with the provincial leadership in Durban on Thursday, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said although the party is concerned that former president Jacob Zuma’s party snatched three wards from them in the recent by-elections, it was not a train smash as the ANC managed to win a ward from the IFP and retained some of its wards.

“The situation is fluid. There is no complete erosion of the ANC support in these recent by-elections because while we lost some, we have won others. Despite by-elections losses, the comrades led by Jeff and Mike have done a good job in the short space of time since they were appointed and the national leadership will continue to support them,” said Mbalula.

Accompanied by his first deputy Secretary-General Nomvula Monkonyane and several National Executive Committee members, Mbalula said the purpose of the visit was to get a progress report and reinforce the work of the provincial task team.

The provincial task team was expected to brief Mbalula on the status of the branches amid the humiliating losses in the by-elections and the performance of the three MECs the party has in the government of provincial unity as well as in the municipalities under the party.

Mabuyakhulu said the branch audit assessment is nearing completion and will soon be presented to the national leadership. Mabuyakhulu also discussed another report that the party initiated in KwaDukuza Local Municipality following the emergence of allegations of abuse of power in the municipality, allegedly by the executive leadership. Last month it emerged that the municipality was paying R173,000 a month to a Durban-based security company which supplies eight security guards to safeguard the mayor’s house.

When the provincial task team was appointed in February, Mbalula directed the team to first audit branches to ascertain whether the party still had relevance following the drastic loss in the last year’s general elections where the party dropped from the 57% it had received in the 2019 general elections to 17%, which left them with only 14 seats in the provincial legislature.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za