KZN loses love for son of soil Zuma
The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government on Wednesday welcomed the decision by the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) to recall President Jacob Zuma.
KwaZulu-Natal is Zuma’s home province and his key political base.
It supported Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, his preferred candidate to succeed him in 2017’s party elections, but she lost the ANC presidency to Cyril Ramaphosa in a tight election.
The province’s decision to welcome the recall, together with Dlamini-Zuma’s call for the president to resign, further alienated Zuma on Wednesday night as the deadline given to him by the ANC approached.
Until recently, Zuma’s KwaZulu-Natal backers had argued strongly for him to remain in office to the end of his term in 2019.
A wounded Zuma on Wednesday told an SABC interviewer that he would not resign. He said “nobody in the party has told me what I have done wrong”.
The KwaZulu-Natal government on Wednesday hosted a three-day lekgotla attended by MECs, department heads, senior government officials, mayors and senior municipal officials to thrash out the government’s programme for this year.
Premier Willies Mchunu told the gathering the provincial government supported the decision of the NEC to recall Zuma. “As ANC deployees we all are subject to the direction and disci-
pline of the organisation. It is a developing story and, like the rest of the country, we are watching developments with interest and wish for a speedy return to certainty,” he said.
“I must say that this situation does not affect government in the province. This matter is raised because we do realise that this development may have led to some confusion across the length and breadth of our province. That we are gathered here today is proof that government programmes, processes and functions remain unaffected by any political developments at the level of the ruling party,” the premier said.
“Our gathering today takes place in the midst of challenging times in the history of our country. At the political level, the provincial structure of the ruling party has been suspended and replaced by the provincial interim committee,” he said.
Mchunu said that despite these political challenges, his government will soldier on with its goals and objectives.
He implored government officials to help fight crime and corruption, ensure that education is sustainable and work towards improved agriculture and land-use management.
“In this lekgotla, we are also going to consider an analysis of the global macroeconomic environment, as well as the current and projected fiscal status. We will also deliberate on the appropriate provincial communication plan for 2018,” he said.
“As indicated, this lekgotla of the provincial executive council has a duty to assess progress made since the last lekgotla, but more importantly since the last state of the province address.”