Ex-mayor Zandile Gumede will be in the dock as a co-accused in a fraud and corruption trial that gets under way in July. But this weekend, she is set to go head-to-head against eThekwini Municipality speaker Thabani Nyawose at the crunch ANC eThekwini regional conference this weekend – part of the buildup to the ruling party’s national elective conference in December, 2022.
The lead-up to the much-awaited eThekwini ANC conference has been characterised by threats of court action, excitement and accusations of wrongdoing from both opposing factions.
But eThekwini Municipality speaker Thabani Nyawose and his Renew, Revive and Unite (RRU) faction had a slight advantage over former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede and her Unity faction, edging ahead with 54 branch nominations to the latter’s 36 branch nominations.
eThekwini is the largest region in the ANC nationally, with more than 111 branches and more than 100,000 members. However, some of these branches have been disqualified from participating in the upcoming regional conference for failure to reach a quorum and hold branch general meetings.
The Unity slate has Gumede standing for the position of regional chairperson, Themba Ntuli as her deputy, Musa Ncika as regional secretary, Nkosenhle Madlala as deputy secretary and…