Durban — The ANC’s top structure, its national executive committee (NEC), has resolved that all the provinces that dipped below 40% must account for their mediocre performance in the May 29 elections.
Among them is KwaZulu-Natal, a former heartland of the ANC that dramatically plummeted from 54% to 17% of the votes during the elections.
This led to the toppling of the ANC from the political throne, a prime position it had enjoyed.
However, the party is still part of the provincial government by virtue of being a member of the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) alongside the DA, IFP, and the NFP.
Fresh from its bruising election defeat, the provincial party chairperson, Siboniso Duma, has already hatched a plan to reclaim the party’s lost ground in KZN.
He recently said the party would go back to grassroots level to hear from the people where it went wrong, and what led them to snub the party at the polls.
“The ANC’s most powerful tool is that we are able to go back to the people and find out where things went wrong. That is what we will be doing ahead of the 2026 local government elections to win back our voters, said Duma.
Duma said the party would leave nothing to chance and would rope in experts and academics as they embark on a post-election assessment.
“We aim to find out even from experts as to where we are going wrong. So that we can fix that and move on as the members of the ANC and its supporters. But I am certain of victory ahead of the 2026 local government elections,” added Duma.
Provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo was also optimistic that the party would woo back the voters, among others, those who voted for the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) led by former president Jacob Zuma.
“We will win back our votes because people will see in the next coming years that the ANC remains the only vehicle that they can use to attain true freedom.”
Both Duma and Mtolo were part of the party’s meeting at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni.
Nationally, the ANC also dropped from 57% to 40% during the May elections.
There have been reports previously that the ANC’s provincial executive committee (PEC) in KZN could possibly be disbanded owing to the disastrous election performance.
But KZN is not the only province that plunged below 40%. Gauteng, led by Panyaza Lesufi, dropped from 53.6% which it garnered in 2019 to 36% during the recent elections.
The Western Cape bagged 21% of the votes after a slide from the 21% it mustered in 2019.
The first secretary-general of the ANC, Nomvula Mokonyane, said the party has embarked on a post-election introspection to curb any further voter downward slide.
However, she stressed that the party would not rush to disband the provinces and regions that fared poorly.
“We are not going to rush to disband our provinces. The aim of this meeting is to find solutions, not to penalise our comrades.
“We are taking collective responsibility as the party, and we will come back stronger,” said Mokonyane at a media briefing on the sidelines of the NEC meeting.
KZN, where the ANC once jealously guarded its dominance, has been losing its grip on supporters, with many ditching the party in favour of the Zuma-led MKP, which won many wards in the coastal province in the May elections.
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