KwaZulu-Natal ANC provincial co-ordinator Mike Mabuyakhulu said the party enters the forthcoming local government elections with confidence, grounded not only in the rebuilding of its structures but in a renewed focus on service to the electorate.

Speaking from the ANC’s provincial office in Durban on Wednesday, Mabuyakhulu emphasised that renewal within the party extends beyond holding branch, regional, and provincial conferences to addressing the pressing concerns of the community.

“We are very clear that our task of renewing the ANC is not only focusing on rebuilding the structures of the ANC, the branches of the ANC, having regional conferences and also having a provincial conference. We are also talking about taking up the people’s issues. The ANC exists to serve our people,” he said.

Reflecting on the 2024 local government elections, Mabuyakhulu acknowledged that the ANC had lost ground, prompting a strategic rethink.

Nationally, the ANC’s vote share collapsed to roughly 40% down sharply from the 57.5% it recieved in 2019, forcing the party to enter coalition negotiations for the first time in its post-apartheid history.

In KwaZulu-Natal, the party suffered a historic setback when uMkhonto weSizwe (MK Party) emerged as the largest party with 45.4 % of the vote, which translated into 37 seats, only four seats short of getting the outright majority in the provincial legislature with 80 seats, and placing the ANC at third place at 17%. 

In KZN, the MKP scored the most votes at 45.4%, which translated into 37 seats, only four seats short of getting the outright majority in the provincial legislature with 80 seats.

As a result, the province is now governed under a Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) arranged by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in alliance with the ANC, the Democratic Alliance (DA), and the NFP coalition.

Mabuyakhulu noted that the party has already held a local government alliance summit on the 20th to the 21st June 2025, and more recently has finalised its election strategy.

“So the ANC has its own strategy, its own plans how we are going to fight the elections. So we are not finding our hands in the dark. So we have crafted our own battle plan,” he said.

“Now, there is nobody who goes to war and diverge the elements of their battle plan. You only reveal them in action in the battle itself. Let’s wait for the battle.

”Let us look whether our battle plan was as good as we think it is. And we can say with a lot of conviction that we have a very good battle plan,” Mabuyakhulu said.

hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za

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