ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. Picture: Itumeleng English Independent Newspapers
Durban — The ANC’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, has warned that the ANC members who are allegedly collaborating with the Jacob Zuma-led uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) would be “cut out” from the struggling party.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Daily News, Mbalula said: “Zuma’s departure dented us, the ANC. We cannot harbour people who are working with Zuma. Those who have links with him will be cut out from the party. Zuma is our enemy.”
Mbalula was elected to the full-time position of secretary-general of the ANC during the party’s 2022 elective conference, which also saw Cyril Ramaphosa retaining his term as party president.
Mbalula also bemoaned the issue of factionalism that has been cited as the reason for the party’s election losses.
“We have to be frank and take the bull by the horns. Our party is facing a serious and difficult time. Factionalism and infighting are among the issues that have led to us losing support,” said Mbalula.
Mbalula was part of the ANC’s high-powered national working committee (NWC) to the crisis-riddled KwaZulu-Natal structures led by chairperson Siboniso Duma between Sunday and Monday.
The visit, the first after the party’s poor election performance in May, was part of the ANC’s post-election assessment, which saw the party losing its majority nationally, dropping from 57% to 40%.
The party was also found wanting in KZN, a province the ANC has governed with a comfortable majority since 2004, spectacularly sliding from 54% to 17%.
Duma had previously publicly said that some party members were actively working with MKP.
“It is not a secret that some of our members have been working with the MK Party to unseat us as the ANC. We will do everything to make sure that such elements are removed from our party,” Duma said during a media engagement with the editorial team of Independent Media in July.
After falling from the political throne, the party was forced to be part of the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) with some of its sworn enemies, including the DA, the IFP and the NFP.
“We will be doing such engagements with the branches to revive the party’s image and woo our voters back into the party fold,” said Mbalula.
Amid the speculations that the ANC would eject the provincial leadership and install an interim structure, Mbalula said the party would discuss how it countered the leadership setbacks.
“I know people, including you as a journalist, want us to act and remove leadership structures where he performed badly. The reason we engaged with our REC (regional executive committees) and branches is that we want to make changes – if we decide to – that are informed by proper assessment of the current situation we are facing,” he said.
Mbalula labelled Zuma, once the president of the ANC for two terms (2007–2017), as the party's “enemy number one”.
“Zuma was groomed by the ANC. We supported him when his political and personal life was threatened. Our anger was raised by him endorsing the MKP and later campaigning for the MK Party. No president of the ANC has ever done that,” said Mbalula.
He added that the ANC did not regret expelling Zuma.
“Zuma violated the ANC’s constitution. We had no choice but to expel him. Others left the ANC voluntarily, so they were not expelled. Zuma cost us a lot of support in KZN,” said Mbalula.
Zuma’s appeal window period expired on Sunday after the ANC’s disciplinary committee found him guilty of allegedly bringing the party into disrepute.
Some of the 11 regions were said to have told the party’s top brass that all party conferences should be halted until after the 2026 local government elections.
Ramaphosa held a meeting with the regional leadership of the ANC in the Moses Mabhida region (Pietermaritzburg), branch executive committees and the rank-and-file members on Sunday. The region is led by Mzimkhulu Thebolla, who is also the mayor of Msunduzi Municipality.
Addressing the media after the meeting in the Msunduzi Council chambers, Ramaphosa did not mince his words, admitting that the party “massively declined, particularly in KZN”.
“Our visit here as the NWC is to go to all the 11 regions of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal. It is part of the ANC to interface with our structures to enable us to get our membership to do a proper analysis of our performance in the elections as we have often said that the elections were a setback for the ANC,” he said.
The aim was “so that the ANC can be renewed and strengthened”.
“It is only when we have a renewed and strong ANC that we will be able to execute our tasks that are encoded in our manifesto.”
Meanwhile, speculation was hotting up that the ANC in KZN and eThekwini region – both once the party’s heartland – would be disbanded after the poor performance in the elections.
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