ANC KZN chair reads the riot act to disruptive delegates from his province

Mawande AmaShabalala Political journalist

ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial chairperson Sboniso Duma laid down the law to delegates from the province attending the party's national conference in Johannesburg, telling them to cease disrupting the conference if they do not want to miss out on an opportunity to deal with what he termed the weakest NEC ever.

Duma was addressing KwaZulu-Natal delegates after party president Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his political report on Friday evening.

Ramaphosa's speech was disrupted by some delegates from KwaZulu-Natal who broke out in songs that were anti-Ramaphosa and pro his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

Duma, his deputy Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu and provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo had their hands full throughout Ramaphosa's speech calling disrupters from the province to order.

When Ramaphosa finished his speech and ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe adjourned the gathering for the day, Mtolo called for KwaZulu-Natal delegates to remain behind.

According to delegates at the meeting, Duma wasted no time cautioning them that should they continue to be disruptive, they ran the risk of being thrown out of the conference which continues on Saturday morning.

According to Duma, their unbecoming behaviour would cost them in many ways.

“When we came here, other provinces were singing and provoking us and the NEC members did nothing. And our KZN delegates fell for the trap and wanted to respond — which is going to cost us conference comrades. So we must decide what is it that we want,” Duma was heard saying in a recording captured by sources at the meeting.

“The environment and material conditions of the ANC tell us that the movement is weak. So comrades we must try to behave so we can fix this.

“This conference is very critical for us and anything can happen. By December 20 we should have rescued the ANC so that we stop the privatisation of Eskom. Let us behave.”

Simelane-Zulu urged KwaZulu-Natal delegates to protect their accreditation tags, saying they were aware of news being spread that KwaZulu-Natal wanted to steal the tags of other provinces.

“The intention is to create an impression about KZN that we want to steal tags so let us guard our tags with jealousy so that we remain a strong and big delegation because they have been trying to cut down our numbers,” said Simelane-Zulu. 

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