The national leadership of the ANC has expressed a degree of satisfaction regarding the efforts that have been made to address some of the thorny issues that were pitting the people of KwaZulu-Natal against the governing party.
This is while the party still believes that it has to reconnect with all cultural and linguistic groups in the province.
This was said by the party’s national executive committee (NEC) member, who is also the party’s national spokesperson, Hlengiwe Bhengu-Motsiri, on Wednesday in Durban.
This was the second day of the party’s delegation, led by secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, as they visited the province.
The visit started on Tuesday, when the party trekked to Nongoma in the north of the province and had a private audience with Zulu King Misuzulu KaZwelithini at KwaKhangelamankengane royal palace.
On the second day, Mbalula and his team met with public office bearers of the ANC to assess progress made by the provincial government in addressing several issues of concern.
The meeting also looked at the issue of good governance in all spheres of government, starting with municipalities.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, Bhengu-Motsiri said the last time they were in the province, it was battling with the schools' nutrition crisis, which has since been resolved along with many other issues.
"When we were here, we had a big challenge around the school nutrition programme, which, as you know, had been historically, one of the ANC’s foremost achievements since 1994.
"So, of course, as the national leadership, we were really pained how things panned out as far as the school’s nutrition programme is concerned.
"But we are quite happy with the intervention that was made through the collaboration of the national Department of Basic Education with our local chapter here.
"And I think, whilst we can’t say it’s a thing of the past, I can say there is a lot of stabilisation effort as far as that is concerned," she said.
Bhengu-Motsiri said the "mutterings" around the perceived bad treatment of the Zulu King have been addressed, and King Misuzulu KaZwelithini is now a happy man.
"We are also happy to say that there has been a great deal of coherence as far as that is concerned, and certainly His Majesty emphasised that point in expressing his happiness at the speed with which the provincial government attended to the concerns that he has raised," she added.
She conceded that despite these achievements, much more work could be done, adding that the national working committee of the party will come back to conduct follow-ups.
Regarding the loss of the key Indian vote that once helped the ANC wrestle the province from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in 2004, Bhengu-Motsiri said they want to "rekindle" their relations" with the minority group that has since fallen into the orbit of the DA.
"Those are some of the things we are looking at, and I suspect that those are some of the things that are going to be ventilated quite strongly in this interaction that is taking place."
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