ANC can’t lose power in Gauteng, KZN like it did in WC, says Mbalula
In 2024’s general elections, the ANC lost its majority in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng for the first time in democratic South Africa.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi at the ANC NEC meeting. Picture: Thabiso Goba
JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC) said it cannot allow Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal to go the way of Western Cape, where the party has resigned itself to the opposition benches.
In 2024’s general elections, the ANC lost its majority in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng for the first time in democratic South Africa.
Support in Gauteng dropped to 35%, while KwaZulu-Natal dropped to 17%.
The party’s national leadership has been meeting at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg to consider whether it should dissolve the executive structures of the two provinces.
In 2009, the Democratic Alliance (DA) unseated the ANC as the governing party in Western Cape.
The DA has retained its majority in the province in three successive elections.
ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula said the party cannot allow a similar scenario to unfold in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
“As you know, we are highly challenged, and we lost power in the Western Cape, and we are struggling to come back. So, we don’t want what happened in the Western Cape must follow us to the two provinces.
"It’s important leadership takes decisions and gives guidance to the structures. You [the media] have been told many things that decisions are being considered for individual interests - that is gossip.”
The party’s national leadership will on Sunday decide whether to disband, reconfigure, or leave its Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal structures as they are following their poor electoral showing.
Mbalula said there are only three possible outcomes.
“The first option is to maintain the status quo, to do nothing about it in the provinces. The second option was of reinforcement and consolidating the structures in the province, and the third option was to dissolve the structures and start afresh.”