Durban: ANC members have described the recent outburst by ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo, demanding that the party’s president take responsibility for the May electoral setback, as a self-serving attempt to draw public sympathy.
A video has been circulating, recorded at the meeting of the party’s Gen Gizenga Mpanza Region, where Mtolo can be heard saying that party President Cyril Ramaphosa and Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula should also take the blame for the party’s performance.
The ANC at the national level dropped below 40% in the recent general elections and suffered catastrophic losses in KwaZulu-Natal, where it was upstaged by its breakaway party, Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP).
The ANC KZN Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) were in a meeting with the party’s National Working Committee yesterday to discuss the election losses. It had been reported that the PEC was being summoned to be disbanded following its poor performance.
Members said Mtolo’s remark represented a massive fall-out between KZN ANC and national structures, noting that the province had been full of praise for the president just recently, even after the election loss.
“What he said is true, but why has he been quiet all this time? He is only speaking out now when his leadership team is about to be dissolved. He is speaking now as a play for sympathy,” said an ANC member speaking on condition of anonymity.
“We should take what he is saying with a pinch of salt because he is not speaking out with the purest of intentions,” another member commented.
“What Mtolo is doing would be akin to if the president were stripped of all his business investments and shares in companies and then turn around to complain that the economy in the country is controlled by white people. He would be correct but only speaking out because he has lost what he was getting,” the source said.
The source also said the Mtolo-led ANC was not popular with the KZN residents, especially in the run-up to the May elections.
“They also contributed immensely to the losses. President Ramaphosa was not involved in that mic-grabbing incident. They behaved rudely at the event where the president and King Misuzulu were in attendance.
“They did not feel the need to apologise and only provided a half-hearted apology to Cogta MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi when they needed to negotiate the sharing of seats in the Government of Provincial Unity.”
Another ANC member reiterated this view: “It is for the first time in history that I can recall where the PEC in its entirety has been summoned. That should tell you that there is something extraordinarily wrong.
“It’s quite clear that someone has been told that this decision (to dissolve the PEC) is going to be taken, and that is why they are now going out to play for sympathy by going against the president to achieve this.”
“Not so long ago, in the run-up to the elections, the same people were going around saying the president is an honest and ethical man, and people in the country do not like him for that. After the elections, the same people were publicly thanking the president and the secretary-general saying they had helped a lot with the election. The question that needs to be asked is, what has changed now from those statements to the ones they are making now?” said the member, who also spoke anonymously.
An ANC NEC member described the KZN leadership as deeply unpopular but said disbanding them would be unwise. “At the moment, the politics have become so competitive; if they disband them, they could just move to the MKP and cause further problems.
“These members are extremely unpopular; they are disliked by the masses, and we were receiving letters of complaints from ordinary members who said these leaders are not valuable. Even if you look now, what work have they done?
“They have not done anything.”
She said while it is hard to predict what might happen in these situations, “it is unlikely they will be dissolved”.
“I suspect that deployed members will be brought in to assist them, and the real power to make decisions will now lie with the deployees from national,” said the member.
“The KZN region is known to be arrogant; while they have moderated that behaviour somewhat, it is still not enough. They need to do much more,” she said.
Political analyst Musa Xulu said Bheki Mtolo in his capacity as the provincial secretary was frustrated by the apparent blame which they may be receiving from some within the NEC.
Xulu said while the ANC lost 17% of the votes nationally, falling from 57% in 2019 to 40% in 2024, it would be unfortunate to blame only the KZN PEC for that.
“I cannot even imagine the president being angered by the views and cries of the ANC KZN PEC or Mr Mtolo as a result of the democratic centralism which the ANC practises. However, even if the current PEC is disbanded, it will be realised later that they were not the problem.
“The real problem for the ANC nationally is the elephant in the room, Mr Jacob Zuma and his style of politics. Zuma seems to understand the voter psyche, especially among black Africans in KZN, Mpumalanga, and Gauteng,” he said.
Approached for comment, ANC provincial spokesperson Mafika Mndebele said: “The ANC SG (Secretary General Fikile Mbalula) is the one authorised to speak on this matter of election outcome assessment.”