Hopes for solution to KZN faction impasse

National officials ‘listen for first time’

A political solution is on the table after the ANC leadership met warring factions in KwaZulu-Natal yesterday.

The party’s top six leaders, including President Jacob Zuma, as well as its deployees from the national executive committee (NEC) to KZN, were locked in a meeting until late into the evening to iron out the impasse between warring factions.

KZN was plunged into crisis after the 2015 election of its leadership aligned to Zuma was declared unlawful and void by the Pietermaritzburg High Court – just months before the ANC’s elective conference in December.

The Zuma faction have been pushing for the judgment to be appealed, while their opponents in the NEC prefer placing the province under a provincial task team represented by both factions.

Zuma ally and former ANC KZN chairman Sihle Zikalala as well as his opponent and former chairman Senzo Mchunu – whose supporters brought and won the court case – were unavailable for comment yesterday, with their aides saying they were locked in meetings.

But Mchunu supporter Sthembiso Mshengu was optimistic that a political solution and not a legal one may be on the cards. He said yesterday was the first time the ANC’s national officials had listened to Mchunu and his supporters’ side of the events which took place in KZN.

“We’re were happy at the way we were received, in fact it was for the first time with the national officials,” he said.