SAMKELO MTSHALI
AmaZulu Football Club owner and ANC KZN chairperson hopeful Sandile Zungu says if he is elected provincial chairperson, one of his main priorities would be to work closely with the party’s 11 regions and focus on building greater hegemony and harmony in KZN.
Zungu is set to go up against KZN Finance MEC Nomusa Dube Ncube and incumbent provincial chairperson Sihle Zikalala in the running to become ANC provincial chairperson at this weekend’s 9th provincial conference in Durban.
He said that the people of KZN did not feel the ANC was as close to them as it used to be. He added that it was important that if he was entrusted by branches with the responsibility of leading that the key priority should be to bring the movement closer to the people.
“No region must feel left out, even the one that would not have supported my campaign. Secondly, I want to make sure that we start campaigning for 2024 now, and therefore, it’s very important that, whilst focusing on rebuilding our structures, we want to make sure that all the regions are properly resourced to fulfil their mission,” Zungu said.
He lamented that following last year’s local government elections, the ANC no longer had district municipalities in some of the regions, particularly the loss of major towns such as Richards Bay, whose municipality, the City of Umhlathuze, was won by the IFP, as well as Newcastle.
“The base which was there as the holder of state power is lost, so the resource allocation across all the regions becomes very important. That would be my responsibility: to lead that collective to ensure that we build strengths in all the regions.
“We must not just focus on major towns like eThekwini, Pietermaritzburg and Richards Bay, but even towns like Ulundi and KwaNongoma, must feel they are loved by the provincial leadership, and they get the support that they need to participate in by-elections,” Zungu said.
He said that the presence of the ANC should be felt across the province and to achieve this, it was critical to work as a collective. As a leader, he said, he would not shy away from setting the tone.
“Setting the tone that we need to have an ANC that oozes integrity at all levels of government,” said Zungu.
He said he was concerned about the ANC being at the centre of state capture, according to the report on State Capture and its members implicated in corruption.
“It explains why there is so much social distance between the ANC leadership and the people that they are supposed to lead. The ordinary people say that “this leader of society, we don’t see ourselves in them, the way they conduct themselves doesn’t make us feel proud, they are not the kind of individuals we can tell our young people to look up to”, we need to change all of that.
“I can never do it alone. I’m not coming in as a Messiah, not at all, far from it, but I’m bringing my credibility and let’s trust that the ANC can leverage on it, and if I’m the chairperson, I’ll obviously be setting the tone and leading the charge and ensuring that there’s no disconnect between who we are and our conduct,” Zungu said.