ANC in KZN backs Zweli Mkhize
The province’s leadership said ‘the horse has bolted’ despite criticism from Kgalema Motlanthe
Many people might regard quoting former president Jacob Zuma on morality and matters of principle as laughable, but in the context of the ANC presidential race, perhaps the wily politician from Nkandla knows best: it’s all about power and horse trading.
This week, the ANC in Zuma’s home province of Kwazulu-natal called the media to explain its nomination of former health minister Zweli Mkhize for ANC president — running against incumbent Cyril Ramaphosa — at the party’s elective conference in December.
Sources had already told Mail & Guardian that the Kwazulu-natal top brass met with at least three influential provinces in the ANC — Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga — saying that they do not wish to see a second term for the ANC’S — and South Africa’s — president.
The public announcement followed a chiding by former president Kgalema Motlanthe, who heads the ruling party’s electoral committee. Motlanthe said the committee was “extremely disappointed” that some provincial and regional ANC structures had made public their preferred leadership candidates, calling this premature and undemocratic.
Motlanthe’s rebuke and fear that pronouncements threatened to sway ANC branch delegates mattered little to the party’s Kwazulu-natal wing, which said “the horse has bolted” and provinces had already expressed their preferences.
It defied Motlanthe’s instruction and publicly backed Mkhize who, while not criminally charged, is embattled by the Digital Vibes corruption scandal that rocked the health department under his charge and led to his resignation.
The ANC in KZN responded to Motlanthe privately in a 40-minute telephone conference, saying that the former president’s words, while correct, were uttered a little too late, said provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo. The ANC provincial executive committee convened a special meeting to discuss national leadership preferences “as articulated by the branches of the ANC”.
At the core of the KZN ANC’S argument is that branches will have the final say on who will lead South Africa’s ruling party — something heavily disputed by critics. The provincial party leadership said it was encouraged by how ANC branches and regions had managed robust leadership discussions under the theme of a “Festival of Ideas” held from 19 September.
Flowing out of that, Mtolo said the ANC in KZN wanted to “ensure that we provide a blow-by-blow account of all aspects of the outcome on the discussions of leadership preferences as mandated by the branches”. His news conference attempted to give unequivocal support for Mkhize, but under questioning the provincial secretary couldn’t say how many of the ANC’S 877 branches backed him.
It was “overwhelming” he said, but not unanimous. And, he added, ambiguously, the province’s position was not cast in stone. Mtolo seemed to contradict the province’s declared support of branches having the final say when he said that the ANC in KZN was “not stubborn … we can be persuaded”. He added that the ANC in KZN was in talks with the Eastern Cape around its leadership choice.
Journalists made much of a letter issued this week by the Jacob Zuma Foundation that endorsed the former president’s ex-wife, cabinet minister Nkosazana Dlamini-zuma’s own bid to lead the ANC. At one point an irked provincial ANC spokesperson Mafika Mndebele said: “This is a provincial executive committee press conference, not a Jacob
Zuma Foundation press conference.”
Zuma’s statement said contrary to views that had been expressed on social media, his preference for ANC leader was his former wife. He stopped short of accusing her opponents of bribing their way ahead.
“I have heard some few comrades raising some issues with regards to her, but unfortunately they all failed dismally to present a better candidate with better credentials than hers except those who have a lot of money,” he said, adding that having “money … counts”.
Branches, Zuma pleaded, had to be given “space to do their work without being coerced or manipulated and without the use of money to influence nominations and votes”.
Mtolo was mum on that, but did say Zuma knew that nobody in the ANC anointed leaders. It was Zuma’s right, he added, to nominate his exwife at his ANC Nkandla branch.
In December the ANC expects a total of 4 250 voting delegates to settle the leadership issue. At the last elective conference in 2017, Ramaphosa narrowly beat Dlamini-zuma while Mkhize withdrew from the race months before the final countdown when he saw the numbers were against him.
The reaction to the KZN endorsement of Mkhize has drawn fire from political observers.
Analyst Protas Madlala said KZN was the only province that supported Mkhize for president, adding: “I don’t think it augers well for them. They seem to be going against tide.”
In KZN politics, Madlala said, “raw power” trumped policy and pragmatism. “I see emotion and very little reason and the country is falling apart.” Madlala said he had little faith in ANC branches, noting that then ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe had in 2010 described branches as tender committees that can be bought.
“KZN is going rogue. Politics is gangsterised. People are in the pockets of others and councillors are being killed because of it. At the ANC leadership conference in KZN earlier this year the president was harangued and people sang ‘What has Zuma done?’ It is immature and it is not getting us anywhere,” Madlala said.
University of Western Cape political science
professor Bheki
Mngomezulu said Mkhize’s nomination didn’t come as a surprise. He was entitled to compete against Ramaphosa. Both were engulfed in scandal but neither men were criminally charged, he said, alluding to the Digital Vibes case and the controversy around theft at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm.
Until such time as criminal processes were instigated both men would stand and compete in the leadership race along with Dlaminizuma, Mngomezulu said, adding: “My view is that it would have been better for KZN to decide to field (either) NDZ or Mkhize, but that is their choice. If they want both they do so to their detriment. It will split the vote and enhance the chances of Ramaphosa being re-elected.”
University of Kwazulu-natal (UKZN) research fellow Dr Imraan Buccus said backing Mkhize rather than Dlamini-zuma was expected, saying she was “old, tired and has very little patronage to dispense”. Buccus said Mkhize might muster limited support from other provinces, but KZN’S decision to back him was “the only realistic prospect, even though a distant reality” in the challenge against Ramaphosa.
“It’s not like they love Mkhize … in the absence of any other choice, he becomes the imperfect choice. He will be hobbled by graft allegations throughout what remains of his political career,” he added.
UKZN political scientist Zakhele Ndlovu said the province’s support for Mkhize was predictable as he was known to have funded the “Taliban” faction that recently won power in the province and they wanted to “retain their power and lines of patronage”.
“Whatever they do now will be with an eye on the future … although they haven’t properly differentiated winning battles from winning the war. Zweli Mkhize has absolutely no chance of winning. Ramaphosa might have his problems, but Mkhize is tainted by the Digital Vibes scandal. So, I think it is myopic on the part of the KZN leadership to support him. They say they aren’t stubborn, but they are. No other province supports Mkhize.”