The role of of Zandile Gumede, once a powerful ANC chairperson of eThekwini region and its former Mayor, appears to have hit a dead end in the region’s politics following her exclusion from the soon-to-be announced new regional task team.

In the leaked list, Gumede who is currently on trial for corruption involving the R320 million Durban Solid Waste tender scandal, has been left out of the regional task team and the additional members list, apparently ending her political role in the region’s politics. Also excluded from the list is Gumede’s once deputy chairperson Thembo Ntuli, who assumed the acting role in her absence.

After she was arrested and charged for corruption, Gumede was subsequently removed from her mayoral position in 2018 and was also placed on the party’s step aside policy, which effectively stripped her of her political powers. However, in 2022 she made a strong comeback when her faction elected her as regional chairperson, although she was absent from the conference because of the step aside rule.

Topping the regional task team list as convener is Nigel Gumede who is making a strong political comeback in eThekwini politics. He was in charge of the Human Settlement Committee when James Nxumalo was the mayor of eThekwini and was in the faction that lost to Zandile Gumede in the 2022 elective conference. Nigel Gumede was in the faction that was viewed as being aligned to President Cyril Ramaphosa during the eThekwini elective conference and sources said his appointment will give the president direct control to one of the biggest and most influential regions in the country.

Both Gumedes did not respond to requests for comment. 

The ANC held a service delivery summit in Durban on Sunday and the provincial task team coordinator Mike Mabuyakhulu said the process to appoint a new regional task team had been completed but the party will publicly announce the names next week after formally informing branches.

“In line with the ANC protocols, we are not going to announce the names of the people that will lead our regions as task teams before informing our branches first. Next week we will begin that process and announce the names,” said Mabuyakhulu.

Although all the regions’ terms had already expired, the party had an option to retain the regional committees until the next elective conference, however, sources within the party said the decision to remove them was prompted by branch audit outcomes.

Sources said the audit outcomes revealed that many branch executive committee members were sympathetic to the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), and the ANC felt it should disband regional committees as they appeared to have lost control of the branches.

EThekwini, which is the only metro in the province and one of the largest regions in the country, with a voting population of close to two million, is the party’s main strategic point.

The region, which has been the party’s stronghold for decades, fell to former president Jacob Zuma’s MKP in last year’s national general elections, relegating the ANC to third place in terms of electoral support. The region is expected to be a battleground between the ANC and the MKP ahead of next year’s local government election.

Despite the ANC’s insistence that regional task teams are an opportunity for renewal, others view them as a strategic decision by Luthuli House to have direct control over branches in the province ahead of the party’s elective conference in 2027.

Sources said the changes will give party Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula an edge over other potential presidential candidates since he will have direct control of branches.

Mbalula, Senzo Mchunu, and Kgosientsho Ramokgopa have been touted to replace Ramaphosa, who is serving his last term as ANC president. 

willem.phungula@inl.co.za

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