With a few months left before the 2024 general elections, KwaZulu-Natal ANC chairperson Siboniso Duma believes the governing party will record a landslide victory.
Duma insisted that the ruling party does not need allies to retain power in the province.
“While we support interventions to aid coalitions at local government level, we
maintain our position that the ANC does not need a coalition to govern in relation
to 2024 general elections,” he said.
“The national leadership agrees with us when we state that we will campaign for a resounding victory in the 2024 general elections. We want KwaZulu-Natal to contribute significantly towards national numbers.”
Duma was addressing the media in Durban on Tuesday where the provincial executive committee was recapping its first year since assuming office.
Duma and his cohort, who branded themselves the Taliban, made a clean sweep during the party’s provincial elective conference in July 2022.
Leading up to the conference, premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube led the pack as the potential candidate to emerge, which would have made her the only female ANC chairperson in the province since the dawn of democracy.
But the strong Taliban force brought the winds of change, defeating both Dube-Ncube and former provincial chairperson Sihle Zikalala.
Former secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli was also eliminated narrowly by Bheki Mtolo, who at the time was the mayor of Kokstad.
So severe was Dube-Ncube’s trashing such that her name could not even make it onto the ballot box, failing to meet the minimum threshold of nominations.
The Talibans, however, came to her rescue, surprising many by endorsing her candidature as the political head of the province, replacing Sihle Zikalala who voluntarily relinquished the post after the embarrassing defeat of his faction.
Duma said on Tuesday despite recent electoral misfortunes, the party will go all out to mobilise support to ensure that it regains its majority.
He said this was possible with the backing of the party’s alliance partners, the SACP and trade union federation Cosatu.
“As this generation of leaders of the ruling party, we want to fulfil the historic mission of the ANC. We commit to do things differently to restore the hope of our people in the ANC.
“ANC members in KwaZulu-Natal are called upon to lead the way and make a decisive contribution that will save our province and strengthen the alliance,” he said.
The recently signed service delivery pact between the DA and the IFP has made KwaZulu-Natal one of the provinces to watch leading up to the 2024 general elections.
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