KZN a spanner in the works for Zuma’s plan

Party deploys team to deal with discord •• Support split between two main candidates

Almost 100 KwaZuluNatal ANC branches have lodged appeals against the nomination process for the party’s national leadership in the run-up to the December elective conference.

The faction backing President Jacob Zuma’s preferred candidate, Nkosazana DlaminiZuma, is relying on KwaZuluNatal’s support — the governing party’s biggest and most influential province.

Support is said to be split between Dlamini-Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. In the tight race, 100 branch nominations could easily sway the vote either way.

The KwaZulu-Natal province has 870 branches.

The provincial executive committee was declared unlawful by the High Court in Pietermaritzburg earlier in 2017 after irregularities at the party’s 2015 conference were challenged by the losing faction.

This committee, led by Zuma-aligned Sihle Zikalala, is appealing against the high court decision and is still presiding over branch meetings.

There were some “troublesome” regions, which included eThekwini and Umzimkhulu.

“All other regions are doing well in terms of CR [Cyril Ramaphosa],” a national executive committee member told Business Day.

“The worst situation is 60%, but we expect 50/50.”

The ANC is believed to have deployed a team to KwaZuluNatal to deal with the disputes. The branch nomination process officially closed last Wednesday, but structures are allowed to conclude meetings set up to take place at the weekend.

ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said the party was still waiting for a report-back from the provinces on the branch general meetings and did not know how many had completed the nomination process or how many disputes were lodged.

The ANC’s national executive committee will meet again this weekend. It is unclear what will happen to branches that miss the deadline.

Last week, secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said that only 40% of the KwaZulu-Natal

branches had concluded the process. This was disputed by the provincial leadership, which reportedly claimed at the time that more than half had completed their branch meetings.

According to the Dlamini-Zuma faction, 100% of the KwaZulu-Natal branches that had made their preference known had nominated her. However, indications from the Ramaphosa camp are that 230 of the branches that had completed the nomination process by mid-November had picked Dlamini-Zuma compared with 203 for Ramaphosa.

Sthembiso Mshengu, the spokesman for the applicants in the court saga, confirmed that there were a few disputes, mainly lodged by those who believe “that the future is comrade Ramaphosa”.

The dispute-resolution committee was processing grievances and a decision was expected soon.

Mshengu said the worstcase scenario for the Ramaphosa camp was 45% to 55%. “Obviously, Dlamini-Zuma has an edge, given the fact that the unlawful [provincial executive committee] is dealing with the province; they have been in charge of the [branch general meetings] and all of that.”

The high court declared the outcome of the 2015 provincial conference null and void. This is being contested by the committee, with the backing of Zuma, and will be heard on November 30. The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is to hold its provincial general council one week before the national elective conference.