The odds are against the ANC rebuilding in KwaZulu-Natal in time to regain lost support in the 2026 local government election — but it took a significant step towards the goal this week, announcing a far-reaching overhaul of party structures.
The ANC’s setback in the 2024 general election was prompted by the formation of Jacob Zuma’s MK Party, which obtained a clear majority in KZN — 45%. The ANC’s support in the province declined to 17% from 53% five years prior. Zuma’s fledgling party achieved its stunning success by infiltrating the ANC itself, turning entire structures against their own leaders.
That MK was able to do so was mainly due to the weakness and fallibility of ANC structures in KZN, which Zuma and his allies themselves played a significant role in shaping for almost two decades.
The KZN provincial executive committee (PEC) claimed Zuma’s creation of a rival party caught it by surprise, but it did little to combat his resistance to the new party leadership in the aftermath of the 2017 and 2022 elective conferences, and even backed him.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula announced the overhaul of party structures in the province at a media briefing on Tuesday, and the process is set to begin on March 3 with an audit of every branch.
“The ANC is embarking upon a massive rebuilding programme … We must patiently build the ANC root and branch and not be controlled by other political parties. Our agenda is to build the ANC as a force and when we look at post-election, we realise that here in KZN, we need to do that and that’s what we’ve done now,” Mbalula said.
“Our response to the situation is a response with modesty, but with the determination, root and branch, to build the ANC.”
The overhaul entails disbanding the PEC and handing control to a newly appointed task team, which will reform party structures. However, key leaders from the disbanded PEC will join the reconfigured leadership structure.
The 67-member task team is a mixed bag of the old and new, with former cabinet minister Jeff Radebe at its head. The provincial co-ordinator, Mike Mabuyakhulu, who will oversee the rebuilding of structures, was a close ally of President Cyril Ramaphosa ahead of the ANC’s Nasrec conference in 2017.
He was acquitted of corruption in 2023 after he and 15 others faced charges linked to a R28m jazz festival that never took place. A court found insufficient evidence to prosecute all of the accused.
Mabuyakhulu served in the KZN provincial legislature for 22 years, 17 of them as an MEC. Bheki Ntuli, another opponent of the ANC faction linked to Zuma, is set to lead the party’s efforts to restore voter support as head of elections. The party’s former eThekwini regional secretary, Ntuli was removed from that post by allies of corruption-accused Zandile Gumede, a Zuma loyalist.
Ntuli will play a key role in the task team, as the ANC repositions itself to win back eThekwini, the only metro in KZN. The ANC’s support in the city dropped in 2024 to just 14% from 54% in the 2019 election and 42% in the 2021 local government election.
“Leadership cannot be paralysed and suffer from political paralysis when they are faced with a situation,” Mbalula said. “The reality is we went to an election, we got clobbered here in KZN, and it has actually shown some defects in terms of our state of organisation that required leadership to act to strengthen the organisation.
“It’s a mammoth task, it’s not a small task. The time to lament the loss and kowtow to other political parties is over. Our task now is to rebuild the organisation in KZN and that will begin in earnest and that is why on Monday they will meet to give an expression to the very tasks that we’ve actually given them.”
The intervention in the province comes as MK faces internal difficulties of its own. Simmering tension between Zuma’s daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla and the party’s secretary-general, Floyd Shivambu, erupted in public in mid-February when Duduzile launched a vituperative social media attack on the former EFF deputy president.
The time to lament the loss and kowtow to other political parties is over. Our task now is to rebuild the organisation in KZN
— Fikile Mbalula
Zuma summoned the pair to a meeting, at which Shivambu’s backers hoped Duduzile would be summarily expelled. Instead, she is being hauled before a disciplinary committee.
Zuma backers in KZN remain unhappy that the party was unable to form a coalition to take control of the province, despite its overwhelming support. The province is being run by an IFP-led coalition that includes the ANC and the DA.
While the ANC is making the right noises in the province, the performance of the government it forms part of will be critical in rebuilding its support.
Organisationally, Radebe and other party elders in the task team have proved ineffective in the past — the rebuilding mission will mainly be left to Mabuyakhulu and Ntuli.
Despite the substantial effort put into KZN by both the ANC and MK, the IFP is quietly winning back some of the support it lost to the ANC after Zuma’s rise to the presidency in 2009. KZN and its municipalities are officially in play ahead of the crucial local polls next year.
The battle will decide the fate of both the ANC and MK nationally.
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