The reconfigured ANC provincial task team in KwaZulu-Natal wants former members who dumped the party to return to its fold.
Image: IOL / Independent Newspapers
Doubts have been expressed about whether or not the reconfigured ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial task team (PTT) can achieve its aim of reversing the party’s decline largely due to the uMkhonto weSizwe Party’s (MKP’s) emergence.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula this week announced that former Cabinet minister and party veteran Jeff Radebe had been removed and replaced by erstwhile MEC and deputy provincial chairperson Mike Mabuyakhulu, who was previously the PTT coordinator.
Former eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo was named the new PTT coordinator and Mbalula is expected to return to KwaZulu-Natal in the coming week to announce additional task team members.
In an interview this week, Nxumalo said the previous PTT was too big as it had about 66 members and the ANC felt it had to trim down to around 30 or 35.
He said Luthuli House was also unhappy with the slow process of implementing directives given to the previous PTT for the rebuilding the ANC, uniting the organisation and starting preparations for the upcoming local government elections.
“We don’t have time, as you know we will be going for the forthcoming local government elections between November up to January 2027,” Nxumalo said.
He added that the reconfigured PTT was equal to the task.
“We must make sure that we win back the province of KZN into the fold of the ANC. The ANC was dislodged by counterrevolutionary forces including MKP,” Nxumalo said.
Nxumalo, the SACP central committee member and its former KwaZulu-Natal chairperson added: “Our task is to make sure that we bring back as many people as possible including members of the ANC who left the organisation and joined other political parties including the MKP and warmly welcome them back home to the ANC.”
Nxumalo said the reconfigured PTT was prepared to deal with issues that concern former ANC members who left the party and that it must make it able to rebuild the organisation and provide services to the people.
However, University of KwaZulu-Natal-based political analyst Zakhele Ndlovu was not hopeful that this goal was achievable.
“I don't see this reconfiguration helping the ANC to regain the support it has lost, particularly, to the MKP. I think this change is necessitated by the frustration of not making progress in convincing those who left to come back,” he said.
Ndlovu said he does not think the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal can rebuild and unite.
“Some of its members even sympathise with the MKP,” he stated.
Political analyst and director of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy at the Nelson Mandela University Prof. Bheki Mngomezulu said the ANC has struggled to deal with the MKP and to explain to the public why it colluded with the DA and the IFP to deprive former president Jacob Zuma’s party of the opportunity to constitute the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government although it obtained the highest number of seats.
He said, in principle, the ANC's decision to reconfigure the PTT was understandable.
“Jeff (Radebe) and Mike (Mabuyakhulu) had different approaches. Mike wanted the ANC to humble itself before the voters and rebuild itself. Jeff seemed impatient saying that those who did not toe the line would be expelled,” Mngomezulu explained.
He, however, said the change is too little, too late.
“The same Mbalula who announced the change is on record saying the PTT was a (Toyota) Tazz, not the Ferrari Luthuli House had hoped for. There's trust deficit between Luthuli House and the KwaZulu-Natal PTT,” said Mngomezulu.
He stated that the ANC’s challenges in the province are a replica of its challenges nationally.
“Until the ANC reorganises itself nationally, the KwaZulu-Natal PTT will not perform miracles,” Mngomezulu explained.
He said some of the people in the trimmed PTT have failed to deliver services in their previous and current portfolios.
Mngomezulu asked: “What will make them efficient and effective now that they are part of the (reconfigured) PTT?”
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za