Johnathan Paoli
President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed his confidence over an electoral victory for the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, and said his party has maintained a dominating presence despite the feeble attempts of smaller parties to make inroads in the province.
Ramaphosa said this on his second day of his campaign trail in the province on Saturday and visited the communities of eThekwini’s KwaXimba, Kwa-Mamdekazi, Marianhill Park and Kwadukuza. On Friday he was in Inanda, north of Durban.
The President predicted that the ruling party enjoyed a great hegemony in the province and would emerge winners, to the surprise of everyone with a clear majority.
“The ANC has an overarching presence in KZN, all the other political parties that are emerging yesterday and so on are trying to nibble at the edges of the ANC, and all they will ever do is nibble at the edges,” he said.
Ramaphosa said because of the love the people of KZN and South Africa as a whole have for the ruling party, the emergence of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party would not intimidate or be seen as a threat to the ANC’s path forward.
The ANC campaign follows the recent campaigns by the EFF, IFP, ActionSA, Patriotic Alliance and the National Freedom Party within the highly contested province, with some predicting that there will be no clear winner come 29 May.
KZN is the second most populous province in the country and after Gauteng, whoever gets a majority in these two regions, stands a better chance of coming up tops in the national and provincial elections.
The Inkatha Freedom Party and Democratic Alliance are gunning to take control of the provincial government while newcomers like MK are also providing stiff competition for the governing party.
The ANC performed poorly in the 2021 municipal elections, losing significant voter support, and subsequently had to labour to convince voters to keep them in power.
Last year, Ramaphosa promised the ANC KZN leadership that he would campaign with them ahead of the 29 May polls.
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