With barely a year and a half remaining before the 2024 general elections, newly elected KwaZulu-Natal premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube has a mammoth task of arresting the ANC’s electoral decline in the province, and appeasing the organisation’s Taliban faction.
Dube-Ncube has already made bold public statements endorsing the radical economic transformation lobby group and ensuring that women benefit substantially in the economy by opening up procurement opportunities for women-owned enterprises.
Her ambitions to become first ANC woman chairperson in the province during last month’s elective conference were foiled after delegates rejected her candidature.
However, Dube-Ncube made an unexpected return to domestic politics when she was
elevated to be KZN’s citizen number one by the grouping known as the Talibans.
The governing party’s faction that emerged in the lead-up to the ninth provincial congress has advocated for anti-privatisation, radical economic transformation, land expropriation without compensation and the formation of a state bank as their key non-negotiables.
Dube-Ncube looks set to toe the line after announcing she intends taking a leaf from the resolutions taken during the conference. She said rebuilding the economy and creating decent jobs in the formal and informal economies are her top priority. “A strong focus will be directed into unlocking opportunities available through integrated government investment, infrastructural development and targeted implementation of radical economic transformation programmes across all corners of the province,” she said.
Dube-Ncube also wants the roll-out of women black industrialists to be one of her legacies. “Through the department of economic development, tourism and environmental affairs, we are determined to increase the participation of women in the black industrialist programme,” she explained.
Other responsibilities that will be weighing heavily on Dube-Ncube’s shoulders is the elimination of violent crime and sexual-related offences in KZN townships. The aftermath of deadly floods and July killings in Phoenix remains a highly divisive issue that she also needs to tackle.
Meanwhile, the cabinet reshuffle this week, which was prompted by the abrupt resignation of former premier Sihle Zikalala, has ruffled feathers in some ANC structures.
Senior party leaders in the province who spoke to Sunday World said those who were perceived as political opponents of the winning cabal were being purged.“Comrades who are leading the province are out in full force purging those who differ with them politically. There are young and energetic MECs who were excelling in their portfolios, but they were recalled because they belong to a different faction. We’ve also heard that some mayors will lose their deployments. This is not the way to go about building unity,” lamented one
senior leader.
Another senior leader said while the elevation of women to constitute over 50% of the provincial cabinet should be hailed, there are concerns over the criteria used to assess the performance of party deployees who were sacked.
“The new leadership has just come into the office and concerns are being raised from branch members as to when they found the time to monitor and assess the performance of comrades who are deployed to government. It will be difficult to convince other comrades to campaign for the 2024 elections and we might lose the province,” he said.
The ANC in KZN has redeployed Zikalala to head the department of co-operative governance. Amanda Bani-Mapenda has been appointed MEC for sport, arts and culture, while Mbali Frazer has been named eduction MEC.
But the frosty relations between the party and its alliance partners in KZN entered another episode, with union federation Cosatu questioning the competency of some appointments.
“We have serious reservations about some appointments. We are also concerned about how the performance (appraisal) of MECs was conducted,” KZN Cosatu secretary Edwin Mkhize told Sunday World.
He also lamented that the ANC in the province had a tendency of what he called defining Cosatu out the party internal politics. “As one of the key alliance partners, we believe we should have been consulted and made our inputs before a cabinet reshuffle was announced. We think this new leadership did not start on the right foot.”
At the heart of the federation’s discord is the appointment of KZN ANC treasurer Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba as MEC for human settlements and public works.
Cosatu said he does not have a good track record in dealing with worker struggles.
The ANC will also have to strategise on how to counteract the IFP’s support.
The IFP has regained lost ground and is now hoping to lead the province. The party is the official opposition in KZN and has also snatched several councils from the governing party.
During the 2021 municipal elections, the ANC’s support in KZN plummeted to a paltry 41.44%. In the 2019 national poll, the party in the province recorded 55.47% from 65.31% in the previous election.
The share of votes in KwaZulu-Natal, as the second-biggest populous province after Gauteng, also impacts the national picture.
In eThekwini, the party’s crown jewel, it failed to attain majority and had to rely on a pact with smaller parties to govern the metro.
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