Siboniso Duma rose up to unseat KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Premier Sihle Zikalala in a tension-induced African National Congress (ANC), where President Cyril Ramaphosa was clearly unwelcomed.
Watch: Cyril Ramaphosa heckled at ANC KZN conference
In the 11th hour, the party’s current incumbent surfaced on stage, surrounded by bodyguards and a handful of his loyalists. Immediately, the crowd erupted into a raucous chorus, Wenzeni uZuma.
It was pretty clear, at that point, that Ramaphosa was nowhere near gaining the favour of one of the party’s strongholds at the national conference later this year.
Shortly after unseating Zikalala as chairperson of the ANC’s constituency in KZN by 930 to 665 votes, Duma took it in his stride to ensure decorum was upheld when Ramaphosa, who escaped other commitments to attend the all-important regional conference, took to the podium to deliver his closing address.
“He made an effort to address cadres personally. Comrade president is going to make remarks in this plenary and whoever loves the ANC as a disciplined member of the movement will behave because he understands that our issues will be addressed,” Duma charged.
The confidence he exuded worked like a charm as Ramaphosa was allowed an audience to deliver his address.
“Part of renewal is intensifying political education to improve the understanding of our history, values and practices amongst the membership and broader society. We must ask ourselves what role we all must play in providing the healing and regeneration of our movement. The ANC does not exist for its own sake,” the president noted.
Five things to know about Siboniso Duma
Duma is part of the ANC’s newly-elected generation of leaders with the duty of upholding the ruling party’s status as the most influential in South Africa. Alongside him, Nomagugu Simelane, the only female official who was in contention, was elected deputy chair, and Bheki Mtolo, who makes up the ANC faction renowned within branch circles as the ‘Talibans’ took over Mdumiseni Ntuli’s seat as the party’s provincial secretary.
Here are five things to know about Duma:
He joined KZN’s legislature eight years ago
Duma became a member of the province’s legislature in May 2014 and, over a period of five years, assumed the following roles:
- Chairperson of the transport committee
- Member of the rules committee
- Member of the programme committee
- Member of the disciplinary committee
He’s already picked up a bad rep on social media
During his closing remarks at Sunday’s fiery conference gathering, Duma went viral for falsely claiming that South Africa’s women’s football team, Banyana Banyana, beat Morocco three goals to nil when, in fact, the Women’s African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) final was anything but a clean sweep.
Duma is a staunch member of the ANC’s ‘Taliban’
Duma is part of an ANC faction renowned within branch circles as the ‘Taliban‘, a group of ‘radical economic transformation’ or RET members with deep-rooted loyalty to former president Jacob Zuma. The faction is named after the Sunni Islamist nationalist and pro-Pashtun movement founded in Afghanistan in the early 1990s.
He is the leader of the ANC’s constituency office in Inanda
Duma is the main member and primary contact of the ANC’s constituency office in Inanda, a region that is marred by political killings. In February 2022, six ANC members were arrested and charged with the murders of three comrades who were viciously shot in a drive-by shooting in September 2021.
He serves as a member of the KZN standing committee on oversight
Duma has been a member of the oversight committee since November 2021.