KZN, GP division may weaken ANC in 2019 elections - analyst

The KZN conference is going ahead despite chaos erupting last month, when ANC's national chairperson Gwede Mantashe was booed off stage by supporters of former president Jacob Zuma. 

Speaking to Jacaranda FM News earlier, the provincial task team coordinator Sihle Zikalala said the conference would go ahead without interruptions.

He added the aim is to come out of the conference as a united party.

Listen below:

In Gauteng, the High Court on Wednesday ruled against an application to prevent the ANC’s elective conference from going ahead. 

ANC members in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, approached the court seeking to halt the conference.

This against the backdrop of a pending a review application the disgruntled members intend to file soon.

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga says divisions are high in both provinces as they head to their respective conferences.

Mathekga adds the aim of both conferences is for the ANC to come out unified ahead of the national government elections.

"The more divisions they are experiencing, the weaker are in terms of structures," says Mathekga.

He adds at the centre of the factional fighting within the provinces is the struggle for power and resources. 

"In KZN, Mr. Zikalala knows if he not among the top leadership, his national leadership aspirations are dead. He needs to retain that power within the province." 

Mathekga says when a person has power and influence in a province, he or she also controls access to resources. 

He says in the case of Gauteng, David Makhura seems to be a preferred candidate to lead the province but there is contestation for the other positions. 

In the 2016 local government elections, the ANC lost control of Johannesburg and Tshwane to a DA-led coalition. 

In KZN former President Jacob Zuma remains an influential figure in spite of his recall by the ANC at the start of the year.  

Mathekga says KZN has a high concentration of ethnic-based politics and Zuma is good at appealing to ethnic identity in the province. 

"What we see in KZN are people rallying around Zuma as a symbol or resisting (President Cyril) Ramaphosa and some resisting being investigated."

He believes Zuma will naturally lose his influence and is at this point being used a rallying point. 

Ramaphosa made last-minute changes to his schedule to address the KZN ANC elective conference. 

Mathekga believes this is a strategic move on Ramaphosa's part, to seem in charge of the province.

"He needs to get the bigger part of KZN behind him... if there is a place that he needs to be? It has to be KZN because this is a province that seems to be drifting away from the ANC."

Listen to the full interview below: