ANC national working committee member Mdumiseni Ntuli explaining the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng reconfiguration to ANC branches in Pietermaritzburg. Picture: Supplied by the ANC
RECONFIGURING the ANC provincial structures in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng was not an attack on certain provincial top leaders who have now been demoted to ordinary members, but was to rebuild the party, said Mdumiseni Ntuli, national working committee (NWC) member.
On Saturday and Sunday, Ntuli was one of several top party leaders sent to go throughout KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng to explain the newly adopted changes to the provincial executive committees of both provinces.
The meeting was not to debate the already sealed decision, but to inform and listen to the views.
Hundreds of regional and branch executive members of the Moses Mabhida Region gathered at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall desperate to hear whether they would also be restructured.
The reconfiguration has led to KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng former provincial secretaries Bheki Mtolo and Thembinkosi Nciza respectively being reduced to ordinary members and their structures being disbanded to be replaced by the provincial tasked teams (PTTs).
Ntuli said the NEC may announce the lifespan of the PTTs on Tuesday..
In KwaZulu-Natal, former provincial chairperson Sboniso Duma would co-lead the PTT as the deputy convener along with party veterans, former ANC head of policy Jeff Radebe, as the convener, and former provincial deputy chair Mike Mabuyakhulu as the coordinator.
When asked how the former members of the defunct structures took their demotion, Ntuli said: “I don’t know, I never had the fortune of talking to any of our comrades who were officials of the leadership that is being reconfigured, I never heard their views.
“Secretary (Mtolo) is not the organisation, the organisation encompasses all its members and the secretary is one person in the organisation. A decision is not for or against the secretary, it is the decision to re-enforce the organisation.”
The reconfiguration was announced early this week to put an end to speculation on what the national leadership would do to rebuild the party’s support base following the ANC’s dismal performance at the last general elections, where its support was reduced by 17% in KwaZulu-Natal and 34% in Gauteng.
This led to it being unable to govern alone and, therefore, forced into the Government of National Unity.
The NEC was yet to decide whether to cascade leadership restructuring down to the branches and regions.
“At the moment, the NEC has decided on provinces, which are the PECs.
“We will be guided by the national officials as the NWC (members) if any actions are required to be taken in terms of the regions and branches, but the mandate at the moment was about the PEC,” he said.
Ntuli said before the NEC concluded that it should reconfigure the provincial structures, it started by looking at the option of doing nothing, meaning leaving the structures to continue operating as they were.
“The debate was centred around ‘do you keep the structure, if you keep it, you keep it under what condition’.
“The approach was that if you reconfigure, you are doing so in the context of the ANC constitution, which therefore, says you will set aside the current structure, reappoint some of the members of that structure with additional comrades, including veterans,” he said.
He said there was also an option of bringing veterans to lead along the provincial leadership.
“But in that case, those comrades (veterans) would have no authority, never mind how senior they are, they might not enjoy the authority unlike if you set up a provincial task team, then you are going to have comrades who are leading together and who enjoy the same level of authority,” said Ntuli.
During the meeting, in which the media was not allowed, some comrades were heard saying the restructuring was long overdue.
They also cited service delivery and unequal treatment of comrades as problems in the ANC.
Ntuli was heard telling delegates that after the elections, the NEC had to act to save the ANC from losing control of Gauteng, which is the country’s biggest economic hub, and KwaZulu-Natal, the second biggest economic giant.
“We have to restructure because if we don’t come back (to power), it is not only our problem because that would be a defeat of the revolution,” he said.
He also explained other government decisions such as keeping the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo and postponing the budget speech to next month.
bongani.hans@inl.co.za
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