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ANC turn to old hands Jeff Radebe and Amos Masondo to revive Gauteng, KZN

ANC turn to old hands Jeff Radebe and Amos Masondo to revive Gauteng, KZN
(From left) Siboniso Duma, ANC KZN chairperson; Bheki Mtolo, ANC KwaZulu-Natal secretary; and Fikile Mbalula, ANC secretary-general. (Photo:Darren Stewart / Gallo Images)
Nonkululeko Njilo
By Nonkululeko Njilo
18 Feb 2025
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With local government elections less than 18 months away, the ANC has deployed veteran politicians to bolster its structures, reverse its electoral decline and prepare for elective conferences in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal as part of its renewal efforts.

Former Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo and former ANC policy head Jeff Radebe are making a powerful political return after being appointed as convenors to lead the revival of the party’s provincial structures in, respectively, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

The provincial executive committees (PECs) will now be replaced with task teams and additional members, which are yet to be finalised. On Tuesday, 18 February 2024, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula met the former provincial leaders to brief them on the outcome of Monday’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting in Cape Town and to outline the next steps of the reconfiguration. 

A former PEC member, who previously told Daily Maverick they would approach the court if the structure was disbanded, said: “We do not have any view at the moment. We will communicate our position once all the nitty gritty details have been finalised. For now, there are still a lot of issues and the meeting will continue tomorrow.”

Read more: ANC in KZN and Gauteng told to suspend activities ahead of ‘reconfiguration’

Masondo served as Joburg’s mayor from 2001 to 2011, making him one of the longest-serving mayors in the city’s history. He has also served as a former chair of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in Parliament, a position he held between 2019 and 2024.

File photo of Amos Masondo when he was Johannesburg Mayor.



Radebe, meanwhile, has previously served as the ANC’s head of policy and occupied several ministerial positions, including energy, justice, public enterprises and minister in the presidency.

In 2019, Radebe was not reappointed to the Cabinet by President Cyril Ramaphosa, marking the end of his tenure in government. In 2022, he lost his position in the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

gauteng water Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi addresses a media briefing on water supply challenges and interventions at Johannesburg Water head office on 11 November 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle)



In a significant twist, Panyaza Lesufi, the Gauteng ANC chairperson before the intervention, and his counterpart in KZN, Sboniso Duma, have survived the chop. Lesufi will now be the co-convenor alongside Masondo in Gauteng while Duma is set to take up the position of deputy convenor in KZN.

ANC shake-up (From left) Siboniso Duma, ANC KZN chairperson; Bheki Mtolo, ANC KwaZulu-Natal secretary; and Fikile Mbalula, ANC secretary-general. (Photo:Darren Stewart / Gallo Images)



However, the provincial secretaries of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, TK Nciza and Bheki Mtolo, have been shown the door. 

Instead, former KZN deputy chairperson Michael Mabuyakhulu has been appointed co-ordinator of the province’s new structure while former Gauteng provincial secretary and MP Hope Papo has been appointed as that province’s co-ordinator. 

Mbalula had previously said that while the provincial structures were being reconfigured, the party would not interfere with government processes and officials deployed in government would retain their positions.

Election fallout


The decision to “reconfigure” the structures follows the two provinces’ dismal electoral performance in the 29 May 2024 general election, although it has since become clear that the structures in the two provinces had, in fact, been disbanded. 

KwaZulu-Natal is the ANC’s largest province by membership, but it was the hardest hit by the rise of the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party. The ANC’s share of the provincial vote dropped from 54.22% in 2019 to 16.99% in 2024. 

The party was reduced from a commanding position to only 14 seats in the 80-seat provincial legislature. This forced it to become a weaker partner in the Government of Provincial Unity led by Premier Thami Ntuli of the IFP and comprising members of this party, the ANC, the DA and the National Freedom Party. 

Meanwhile, the ANC in Gauteng, the province with the biggest population of about 17 million, saw its share of the vote drop from 50.02% to 34.8% in 2024. 

While there were initial fears that the disbandment of the structures would further divide the party, the national leadership has insisted that there were serious organisational, political and service delivery weaknesses that had to be tackled head-on and that radical action was the only way. 

In December, Mbalula said: “We are not going to fold arms and wait for the total extermination of the ANC.”

On KZN specifically, Mbalula emphasised the need to contain the dominance of Zuma’s party in a province that was once the ANC’s stronghold. 

“We are fighting a Ferrari there with a Conquest; we need to match a Ferrari with a flying machine that moves faster in seconds to surpass what is happening there.”

Read more: ‘The situation is dire,’ says Mbalula as ANC considers disbanding party’s KZN leadership

Old hands


The party’s choice in the interim structure is somewhat commendable as the leaders hail from the respective provinces, bringing extensive experience in both government and politics, along with a solid understanding of local dynamics.

In addition, they are unlikely to have ambitions of leading the province again. However, there are question marks over some members, and it remains uncertain whether their appointments will result in meaningful outcomes.

Mabuyakhulu, for instance, a former ANC treasurer in KZN, left politics in 2018 under a corruption cloud. Daily Maverick reported he was among 24 accused brought before the Pietermaritzburg High Court to face a raft of charges, including fraud, corruption and money laundering.

Despite KZN’s misfortunes, Mtolo said that if electoral decline was the main reason for disbandment, then the party’s national leadership, specifically the NEC, ought to be held accountable and dissolved as the ANC’s national support had dropped from 57% to 40%.

Mbalula is expected to brief the media this week on the full details of the disbandment. DM

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