Ramaphosa will face no competition in 2024 election, ANC’s Bheki Mtolo says

ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo is not worried about 2024’s general election: he is certain Cyril Ramaphosa will again be sworn in as president and KwaZulu-Natal will have an ANC premier. 

As SA gears up for the 2024 national election, the KwaZulu-Natal ANC secretary is not concerned about opposition parties pulling off anything that resembles victory or his party losing enough voter share to necessitate a coalition.

“There will be no coalitions,” he told a media briefing on Tuesday. 

He aired his assertions at an alliance political council briefing that included SACP Moses Mabhida provincial secretary Themba Mthembu and Cosatu provincial secretary Edwin Mkhize. 

“We will win the province, we will win nationally, you will see Ramaphosa being sworn in again and there will be an ANC premier in KwaZulu-Natal. 

“[DA leader] John Steenhuisen, his dream of being a president will never happen. Francois Rodgers [DA KwaZulu-Natal leader] will never be a premier, but we need to organise ourselves and hit the ground running,” said Mtolo.

The briefing followed a two-day meeting of the council that the trio said was the beginning of promotion of a habit of discussing issues while robustly using internal processes.

According to Mtolo, the alliance agreed that “our approach moving forward is ... to ensure we collectively, as alliance partners, evaluate the performance of the ANC government in this province and at national level”.

“It is the view of alliance partners that the purpose of the state is to control and manage the available resources, guide their utilisation for the intended benefit of the citizens or electorate.” 

In the same breath, Mtolo conceded that support for the ANC has drastically declined in its historical strongholds, especially in urban townships, city centres and other working-class communities.

“We are concerned that members of our leading structures of the alliance tend to reside in areas where progressive organisations are nonexistent or weak. The leadership of our structures will be held accountable for mass [participation] and structural functionality in their branches,” he said.

The council resolved that alliance partners must work collectively to ensure local government remains the centre of popular participation in a programme of action aimed at strengthening service delivery. It is concerned about political instability created by coalitions that has led to service delivery collapse.

The council also agreed that ANC municipalities must be at the forefront of service delivery, ensure good governance and that councillors must remain within their communities at all times.

It further resolved to fight public- and private-sector corruption. 

“The political alliance takes seriously the task of holding accountable all leaders deployed by the ANC into different structures within the state,” Mtolo added.

“The responsibility to ensure the ANC-led government delivers lies in the hands of the alliance partners more than it does with the opposition.”

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