Showdown for KZN ANC

SUMMONED: CALLED TO ACCOUNT FOR VOTE

- Eric Naki

It would be wrong of the ANC to punish the party's KwaZulu-Natal leadership for their poor performance because it's the Jacob Zuma factor that defeated the ANC in the province.

This was the view of University of KwaZulu-Natal politics lecturer Zakhele Ndlovu, who said Luthuli House should not make the party's provincial executive committee a scapegoat for the ANC's failure.

He said the ANC performed poorly countrywide and that should not be blamed on one structure, but the entire organisation.

Ndlovu's statement was in reaction to Luthuli House's decision to summon the ANC's KZN provincial executive committee (PEC) to Johannesburg to answer for the province's 17% showing in the 29 May national and provincial elections.

The ANC was trounced by both Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe party (MKP), which received 45% of the vote, and Inkatha Freedom Party, that obtained 18% followed by the ANC (17%) and DA (13%). The ANC lost power in the province, which it had governed since 2004.