Durban - ANY ANC leader with ambitions to be the party’s KwaZulu-Natal chairperson has to be mindful of the massive influence wielded by former ANC president Jacob Zuma.
The ANC in KZN is set to hold its provincial elective conference in July.
As some ANC members from the Emalahleni region, which is made up of Newcastle and surrounding areas are visiting Zuma’s homestead in Nkandla today, analysts and party members say this show of support underlines the former president’s influence in the country’s body politics.
Last week, some of the province’s leading figures also converged in Nkandla under the banner of the SA National Civics Organisation (Sanco) for a prayer, and last year some ruling party members from eThekwini region had also visited the former president.
University of KwaZulu-Natal political analyst Siyabonga Ntombela said Zuma’s appeal was his easy accessibility and his commoner’s touch despite being out of public office since 2018.
Ntombela cited a case of how the ANC had performed poorly at the local government elections last November, barely holding on to the province’s richest region of eThekwini. The ruling party entered into a working agreement with Abantu Batho Congress, a party led by former ANC inkosi Bhambatha region chairperson, Philani Mavundla, an arrangement that was apparently facilitated by Zuma.
He added that owing to that move, many people looked at Zuma as an individual that had saved the ANC from humiliation of losing control of the strategic city of Durban.
The analyst also pointed to the victories that had been scored by the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction, which is aligned to the former president.
“When you look at the make-up of the ANC in KZN it is easy to see that President Cyril Ramaphosa does not enjoy as much support when compared to the RET grouping. That again speaks volumes of a man who left public office nearly five years ago,” the academic said.
He said many people realised that closer proximity to the former president would also swing political fortunes in their favour and that was the reason many ruling party members visited Nkandla.
“One of the endearing features lies in his pride about who and what he is, a man from the countryside who speaks his language without a sense of shame of who he is.”
Many ruling party members from different regions in the province agreed that the former president remained an important figure, stressing that his accessibility to the party’s rank and file was exemplary.
“When he became president at the Polokwane conference he gave an assurance that he would not be aloof and would always be reachable. Many years later we are still able to see him when seeking his council, and that is why we love him,” said an ANC member from Moses Mabhida Region, which is made up of Pietermaritzburg and surrounding areas.