Thami Ntuli's Historic Win in a Tumultuous Province

Thami Ntuli, an Inkatha Freedom Party member, was elected premier of South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, defeating the candidate from Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto we Sizwe party. Ntuli secured 41 votes, forming alliances with other parties to secure a majority and govern a pivotal region, rich in economic significance.

South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature on Friday elected Inkatha Freedom Party member Thami Ntuli as its premier, picking him over the candidate put forward by the uMkhonto we Sizwe party led by former President Jacob Zuma.

Ntuli got 41 votes, with the support of other parties, against 39 votes for the MK candidate to run the province, an MK stronghold. No party had won an outright majority in the 80-member provincial legislature in the May 29 election, forcing political forces to forge alliances to govern the province.

MK got most of the local vote with 45.4%, trouncing the IFP, which got 18.1%, and the African National Congress (ANC) which came third with 17.0%. KwaZulu-Natal is the province where the economically important ports of Durban and Richard's Bay are located. The IFP, ANC, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the National Freedom Party (NFP) - with 41 seats in total - agreed to work together in the province, giving them a slim majority over MK and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) combined provincial seats.

Political analysts said such an anti-MK alliance could cause serious trouble in KwaZulu-Natal, where Zuma supporters rioted and hundreds of people were killed in violence in 2021 following news that he had been jailed for refusing to give evidence at a public inquiry into corruption during his time as president. Zuma came to power in 2009 but was forced to quit in 2018 following a string of scandals. The ex-president, who has always denied any wrongdoing, has since fallen out with the ANC.

Zuma's MK, which came a surprisingly strong third in the national election - winning 14.6% of the vote which translated into 58 seats in the 400-seat National Assembly, is also not part of the national unity government

championed by the ANC.