The KwaZulu-Natal provincial leadership has been thrown a lifeline after ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile announced on Tuesday that there were no plans to disband the province.
Speculations have been rife that the governing party’s top brass would disband the structure following a mediocre electoral showing, especially in KZN.
ANC lost majority votes in the May elections
The ANC lost its majority during the recent provincial and national elections. It only managed a 17% vote share in KwaZulu-Natal.
This is in sharp contrast to what the party had garnered in the 2019 general elections. It obtained a 54% electoral success for the province.
The 2024 election outcome means the ANC saw a decline of 37 percentage points of votes in the province. The same province which was once its happy hunting ground.
“Overall, as the ANC we did not do well. We do not want to blame KZN, Gauteng or any other province. And we are not dissolving anyone,” Mashatile said on Tuesday.
Mashatile, who also serves as the country’s second in command, was in KwaZulu-Natal conducting a door-to-door visit in Msunduzi local municipality.
The municipality under the ANC’s influential Moses Mabhida region is expected to hold a key by-election in Ward 2, which forms part of Sweetwaters.
Mashatile a favoutire in the region
KwaZulu-Natal has traditionally thrown its weight behind Mashatile when it comes to internal party elections.
This was also the case when several branches in the province supported his candidature for the ANC’s deputy president post during the 2022 Nasrec elective conference.
He explained that the deployees from the National Executive Committee (NEC), the party’s highest decision-making body, were working together with the provincial leadership to reflect on what could have gone wrong.
“We see this period as an important exercise of self-reflection. Our aim is to recover lost ground and we have no time to blame one another,” Mashatile said.
It is the former President Jacob Zuma’s party who orchestrated the demise of the ANC. His MK Party recorded 45.3% of votes in KwaZulu-Natal and giving the new kid on the block 37 legislature seats.
GPU coalition saved ruling party
The ANC’s saving grace came courtesy of the government of provincial unity (GPU). The pact brings together the ANC, DA, IFP and NFP.
The by-election in Sweetwaters was created when IFP councillor Sibusiso Ntuli was last month shown the door by his party.
The ward is considered a battleground in Msunduzi. It boasts a population of over 20, 000. And it also has seven voting stations. The ward is tipped to fall to anyone between the MK Party, IFP or the ANC.
