In a bruising defeat, KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala has been ousted as the ANC’s chair in the province at a highly contested provincial conference.
Analysts have said his leadership had been marred by a series of challenges including the July 2021 political unrest, severe floods and poor service delivery that led to disenchantment with Zikalala in KwaZulu-Natal.
His successor to the top job is ANC MPL Siboniso Duma, who won with 930 votes compared to 665 for Zikalala.
Current health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu was elected deputy chair.
In his brief acceptance speech, Duma said: “We want to take the ANC back to where it should be in KwaZulu-Natal.”
The ANC registered significant loss of support in municipalities across KwaZulu-Natal in the 2021 local government elections.
“We are going to build [and] develop the province of KwaZulu-Natal. We will take this province back to where it belongs,” Duma said.
Apart from dealing with matters around the inclusion of women, the executive will also focus on its relations with stakeholders including the royal households and traditional leaders.
The new provincial secretary is Bheki Mtolo — the mayor of Kokstad — who beat Ramaphosa ally Mdumiseni Ntuli.
The only one to return to the provincial executive was co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Sipho Hlomuka, who held on to his position as deputy provincial chair. The position of treasurer went to former Newcastle mayor Ntuthuko Mahlaba.
Later on Sunday morning the conference is expected to elect additional members for the provincial executive committee.
Duma, a former ANC Youth League leader, represents the so-called “Taliban” faction linked to former health minister Zweli Mkhize, and the victories by him and his colleagues represent a landslide victory against those linked to the “Ankole” faction of Ramaphosa, who is expected to close the conference on Sunday.
It was a highly contested provincial conference, with 1,607 voting delegates
Another big shock was the losses suffered by current MEC for finance Nomusa Dube-Ncube, who was touted for the position of chair but failed to muster the numbers from the floor to be on the ballot.
But insiders in her camp said she was “holding her own and knows she has run a clean race”.
Analysts commented that the region ran a clean election with minimal delays and interruptions.
The province is the biggest ANC region with more than 200,000 members, and is expected to play a significant role in the upcoming ANC national elective conference in December.
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