By Sihle Mavuso
The ANC in the once mighty eThekwini region in KwaZulu-Natal has downplayed the departure of its former regional chairperson and mayor, saying it does not feel threatened at all and expressed confidence that it would win the upcoming local government elections without her.
The party made these comments on Friday while addressing the media following a meeting with NEC (national executive committee) deployees earlier in the week.
The regional convener, Thabani Nyawose, who was defeated by Gumede in 2022 boldly said that they “don’t feel threatened” by the recent developments which some political analysts said was a blow to the former governing party.
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According to Nyawose, the departure is a normal political defection that will have no impact on the ANC.
“We don’t feel threatened as the ANC. In fact, in our own assessment, Comrade Zandile left the ANC for her own reasons, we don’t want to worry ourselves in analysing and understanding why she has left the ANC. She has got her own reasons.
“But our focus now is to prepare ourselves to win the elections, hence we have outlined that in all 112 wards, ANC structures for the elections have been established. We have volunteers in each and every VD (voting district),” Nyawose said, adding that they are not worried about other parties and people who have left the ANC.
Echoing Nyawose, the regional coordinator, Thanduxulo Sabelo, said they have moved on and accepted that Gumede has left for the MK Party and stressed that she has not been utilized by the ANC for the past 8 years as she has been on step aside over corruption allegations.
He added that they knew long ago that Gumede will eventually join the MK Party and that was based on her public utterances.
“She has not been with us for quite sometime and there is no surprise to that and by the way, many of us knew that she was leaving,” said Sabelo who was once Gumede’s sidekick before they fell out in 2017.
Both Nyawose and Sabelo were in the same slate that was defeated by Gumede’s slate at the regional elective conference in April 2022 at the Durban ICC.
Meanwhile, the party has announced it has expelled the councillor of Ward 8 in eThekwini municipality, Marco Mbambo, saying he has been found to be a sleeper agent and a spy of the DA.
He has been expelled from the ANC and as a councillor in the municipality.
The party said more agents, traitors and spies within the party would be unearthed and expelled in the near future.
Nyawose even claimed that they have established intelligence units in all wards to weed out spies and sleepers after they learned hard lessons in the 2024 elections where some of their members campaigned for the MK Party while in ANC regalia.
“No infiltrator or sleepers will be allowed to operate within the ANC and sabotage our campaign,”’ Nyawose said.
Mbambo was not immediately available for a comment on the allegations made by the ANC against him.
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