The ANC has acknowledged its underwhelming performance in KwaZulu-Natal and indicated that significant changes to the provincial leadership are imminent. The ANC’s 67-member KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Task Team (PTT), led by veteran Jeff Radebe, hasn’t yielded the expected results and will be changed significantly, says ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula. Briefing journalists on Wednesday, 10 December, on the third day of the ANC’s National General Council (NGC) in Gauteng, Mbalula said, “I can assure you that there’s going to be changes in KZN.
That structure is too big, and we are going to make it leaner.” This year, the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) replaced the provincial executive committees of Gauteng and KZN with PTTs after the two provinces suffered major electoral losses in 2024. KZN is the ANC’s largest province by membership, but it was the hardest hit by the rise of the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party. The ANC’s share of the provincial vote in KZN dropped from 54.22% in 2019 to 16.99% in 2024.
When the ANC announced the KZN PTT, it said, “This intervention, framed within the constitutional mandate of the NEC, reinforces the principles of unity, renewal and organisational rebuilding.” But the party has continued to struggle in the province. In the most recent by-election in KZN, in November, the ANC lost Ward 17 in the iLembe District Municipality to the MK party. Its share of the vote plummetedfrom 65%in 2021 to only 30%.
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On Wednesday, Mbalula said the PTT would be disbanded after its initial mandate expired. Changes to the provincial leadership would occur in February 2026, he said. “We are not happy about our performance there.
We thought we were bringing a Ferrari, but I think now that is a [Toyota] Tazz that is operating,” said Mbalula. “We need to get out of that particular situation. We have not been doing well.
We are facing an existential crisis there, the tsunami. It’s a big disappointment for the ANC, and then we’re going to deal with it.” He said the PTT was “fighting over who must lead, not the task we gave them”. Mbalula said the party was going to “fetch” people who would build the ANC in KZN and appoint them to lead the party in the province — “root and branch, not people who are concerned about who must lead and all of that and just leave and abandon the task”.
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