KZN ANC secretary-general Bheki Mtlo with provincial spokesperson Mafika Mndebele. Photo provided
After days of silence ahead of the crushing election defeat for their Umkhonto we Sizwe party, the ANC leadership in KwaZulu-Natal has finally broken its silence and taken the election results as a “message” from voters.
The party has ruled the province with an overwhelming majority for the past two decades but after Wednesday's vote its share of the KwaZulu-Natal vote fell to 17 percent, compared with MK's 45.9 percent.
The party had monopolized 44 of the 80 seats in the state assembly but its grip has now crumbled and it is set to win around 14 MPL posts when the first assembly convenes to swear in the new government.
While provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo and provincial chair Siboniso Duma did not respond to requests for comment on the ANC's dismal result and were not present at the Results Announcement Centre (ROC), the ANC released a video clip on Saturday of spokesperson Mafika Mdebele conceding defeat.
In his remarks, Mndebele said the results were a message from his supporters and that they needed to be heeded.
“The message that the public has given us has been very clear,” Mndebele said. “They have been telling us for some time now that we love the ANC but we need to act, we need to change, we need to fight corruption and we need to focus on serving the people.”
Mndebele said the ANC needed to “correct itself” and “not just talk about it but be seen to be doing it”.
He said the ANC in the province saw the result as “a protest from our people saying we still love the ANC but something has to be done”.
“Whoever we send to Congress, it can't be business as usual. We can't blame people or label them. Instead, we have to say there's something wrong with us and we need to change,” he said.
Mndebele said voters had switched to MK because “they are saying they want to fix the ANC”.
“They voted for change in the ANC and we have to get this right. This is a call for action,” he said.
ANC provincial officials met on Saturday afternoon to discuss how to respond to the results, ahead of the final results being announced on Sunday once their challenge to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) is resolved.
The current leadership came to power in July 2022 when so-called Taliban factions seized control of the ANC in the province, wiping out the support base of then-chairman Sihle Zikalala.
They recalled Zikalala and appointed Nomsa Dube-Ncube, who ran for the speaker position but was unsuccessful, to replace him.
Duma was made MEC for economic development and head of government business but came under fire for handling the role clumsily and for a series of incidents that stole the spotlight from the premier.
Their relationship with the Zulu king has deteriorated during their tenure, and a number of disastrous decisions have been made during their time in office, including an overhaul of school nutrition programs last year that led to millions of pupils going hungry for long periods.
The Taliban initially had the support of former President Jacob Zuma, visiting him shortly after his election, but relations with him have also deteriorated.
They refused to nominate either Mr Zuma himself or Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as candidates for the December 2022 ANC chairperson election, instead backing Zweli Mkhize, who lost to Ramaphosa.
Their alienation of Zuma and his supporters, combined with the province's water supply crisis and failure of service delivery between municipalities, appears to have taught voters the same lesson they taught Zikalala in 2022.
