The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) in KwaZulu-Natal was by late on Thursday afternoon immersed in an eleventh-hour attempt to unite the province ahead of Friday’s national elective conference, which is threatening to tear the league’s KZN structure asunder.
With three candidates — former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini, deputy minister in the Presidency Sisisi Tolashe and ANC MP Thembeka Mchunu — as front-runners for the league’s presidential contest, ANCWL conference delegates from KZN are yet to reach a consensus on which candidate to back.
Delegates from the province’s major ANCWL KZN regions of eThekwini and Moses Mabhiba are torn between supporting Mchunu and Tolashe, while some of the province’s regions are behind Dlamini.
According to delegates from the Moses Mabhida region, attempts to have two of KZN’s influential regions to unite behind a single candidate have so far failed.
We in the Moses Mabhida region have resolved to support Mchunu, who is the daughter of this province of KwaZulu-Natal.
“Yes, the Moses Mabhida region would have liked other regions, particularly eThekwini, to also move with us. However, what is clear is that eThekwini has other ideas — they have chosen to throw their weight behind Tolashe,” an ANCWL delegate from Pietermaritzburg said.
Dlamini, who like Mchunu hails from KZN, was the ANCWL president until April last year when the ANC national leadership dissolved the ruling party’s women wing leadership structure.
The former social development minister, who previously had KZN as her stronghold, is regarded as a staunch supporter of former president Jacob Zuma.
Should Dlamini emerge victorious at the ANCWL conference, due to kick off in Johannesburg on Saturday, her win will bolster Zuma’s support within the ANC. On the other hand, Mchunu — who is the wife of water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu — is perceived as a supporter of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The national conference, which will see several KZN ANCWL members — including Mooi Mpofana mayor Maureen Magubane — vying for national leadership positions, will pave the way for ANCWL provinces to convene their provincial elective conferences.
In KZN, a record four candidates would be vying for the ANCWL provincial chairperson position in the provincial elective conference, scheduled to take place in the coming weeks.
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