The ANC’s capitulation in KwaZulu-Natal will boost the power of the right

In little over a year, the ANC is likely to lose the national elections. This is now accepted wisdom supported by all the best available polling. Some have suggested the ANC is also likely to lose KwaZulu-Natal. This would be an extraordinary change for a province that, not long ago, was seen as the ANC’s strongest base.

In fact, one analyst argued that during the Zuma period the country was run from Durban rather than Parliament in Cape Town, the seat of government in Pretoria or the financial capital of Johannesburg.

But Durban and much of KwaZulu-Natal have been hit really hard by the failure of 2022’s tourist season, the recent floods, the riots in July 2021 and the incredibly brazen criminality that is now very common in and adjacent to the ANC.

Durban is the original home of the izikabi, the professional assassins who moved from the taxi mafias into the political mafias, and also of the “business forums” that openly shake down legitimate business.

Many of KwaZulu-Natal’s residents are exhausted, scared and desperate to finally be rid of the ANC. Of course, we must be mindful of the fact that the deepest loathing is for members of the so-called RET faction of the ANC, who are simply known as amasela (thieves) these days.

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At the recent elective conference more than 60% of KZN delegates supported Zweli Mkhize, who as well as being personally compromised had also put up his hand to lead the amasela. But all the din of all the RET noise has drowned out the fact that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s support in the KwaZulu-Natal ANC remains significant.

Now that it is clear that the RET faction is a sinking ship, it is possible that the Ramaphosa-aligned faction in the KwaZulu-­Natal ANC may make a bid for more power in the hope that it could hold the province for the party.