Hours before the choosing of the ANC’s new leadership, ANC KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Siboniso Duma is adamant that the province’s preference, Dr Zweli Mkhize, will be the next party president.
Mkhize is challenging incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa for the top position.
Duma was speaking to Independent Media on the sidelines of the party’s 55th national elective conference at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg, on Friday.
He said that because of the large numbers they had, Mkhize was going to emerge victorious at the conference.
KZN brings the largest number of delegates to the conference, while their ally, Limpopo, which is divided on who to support between Mkhize and Ramaphosa, has the third-largest number of delegates. The Eastern Cape comes in second.
“Comrade Zweli is definitely going to win because we have numbers. We are not just going to be antagonistic towards anything among ourselves because we don’t want to be still characterised as inward-looking. We embrace every comrade, we love every comrade but we have our choice which is Dr Zweli Mkhize when it comes to our candidate,” he said.
“We are going to make sure that we synergise. The conference should be smooth. The conference must address almost all the matters that are critical,” Duma said.
He added that the reality of the conference in the main was to achieve a milestone for the party.
“We won the political power in 1994 - now we must win the economic power. Our fixation is directly there - we are gazing towards that direction.”
Asked if the province was still behind Limpopo ANC chairperson Stan Mathabatha to ascend and be national chairperson, Duma said they were still consulting despite earlier supporting him for the position.
“We are still consolidating as provinces. Each province at this point in time is still deliberating on the candidacy, but we are working nicely with the Limpopo comrades,” Duma said.
The conference is expected to end on Tuesday next week.
Pretoria News