ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu says concerns over leadership changes ahead of elections are unfounded, insisting the party is focused on rebuilding structures and strengthening organisational capacity in KwaZulu-Natal.
Image: IOL
The African National Congress (ANC) has recalibrated its leadership structure in KwaZulu-Natal to make it more effective and better positioned for upcoming electoral work, according to national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu.
Bhengu was speaking on the sidelines of the Secretary-General’s Office engagement in Durban on Wednesday, where she addressed the party’s organisational challenges and efforts to rebuild in the province.
The visit forms part of a working programme led by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, who is leading a delegation from the Secretary-General’s Office (SGO) to KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday and Thursday, aimed at strengthening structures and improving organisational effectiveness.
Bhengu said the reconfigured Provincial Task Team (PTT) was not made up of new individuals, but had been streamlined to improve efficiency.
“It’s not strangers from the previous PTT, but it is a PTT that has been made to be far more leaner to make it easy to take decisions,” she said.
She added that the structure would also improve the party’s ability to service all 11 regions in the province.
She acknowledged that while work had been done by the previous PTT, it had been “insufficient to take us, to leapfrog into an effective elections campaign.”
Bhengu said national leadership had raised concerns about the “slow pace with which work was happening” and that the previous structure was “generally unwieldy in terms of the size.”
“And so what we have done now is to really prune it so that it is fit for purpose,” she said.
Giving an assessment of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, Bhengu said the party remained aware of its challenges, particularly in light of election outcomes, but stressed that it was not the first time the ANC had faced difficulties in the province.
Responding to suggestions that the changes were a scramble ahead of the local government elections, she said, “we’re not scrambling for anything, we’re building the organisation, we’re rebuilding the organisation.”
On the loss of members, including those who have joined former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party), Bhengu said this was not new in the ANC’s history.
She cited the formation of the Congress of the People (COPE) as an earlier example of a breakaway from the party.
Bhengu confirmed that the newly appointed PTT had already begun its work, saying members were “already hitting the ground running.”
She said the team would undergo an induction programme and engage with the Secretary-General’s Office, after which a programme of action would guide the province’s activities going forward.
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
IOL Politics