With the municipal elections looming, the ANC, leading the Government of National Unity (GNU) is in distress after some members of the ANC’s national executive committee (GNU) disagreed with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s stance that the GNU would not fall apart.
The party on Sunday completed an NEC meeting that will be followed by Lekgotla of which its members deployed to government would convene to set the way forward in the National Assembly.
Speaking to The Star on Sunday, a member of the NEC who requested not to be named for fear of reprisals, said members of the executive were not impressed with the marriage of the party with the DA.
“Comrades do not like that Helen Zille has power against us. The president is forcing this… We may still have time to talk about this but the matter is that the president is with GNU, and with Zille,” he said.
The ANC appears to be anticipating the worst in local government and will now dispatch its national task team on coalitions to “stabilise” hung municipalities, starting with the City of Joburg this month.
Ramaphosa disclosed this in his political overview while addressing the opening of the party’s Lekgotla on Sunday.
The party was reflecting on its poor performance in the May, 2019 local government elections where for the first time it failed to secure enough votes to form a government. The party is also racing against time to improve its fortunes at the local government elections in 2026 elections.
In his address, Ramaphosa said together with ANC alliance partners they have agreed that municipalities were most critical for creating conditions for business to grow and great jobs.
“We have seen the impact of the failure of local government in the election results. We know that a lot of people withheld their vote because of the disappointment and dissatisfaction with the provision of services and the (poor) state of infrastructure at the local-level where they live.
“Our analysis of the election result shows that the ANC experienced the greatest decline in its share of votes in the metros. The instability, dysfunction and poor performance of metros like Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini and Buffalo City are clearly reflected in the election results. We therefore need decisive interventions in these metros,” he said.
This was necessary not for the ANC’s electoral prospects but for the sake of inclusive growth and ensuring job creation.
“The NEC made an assessment in all hung municipalities and has decided to intervene and work with a range of parties to stabilise municipalities countrywide. During this month, the national task team on coalitions will be starting in Johannesburg and it will help restore and rebuild and renew various structures, so that we better serve our people,” said Ramaphosa.
The NEC meeting took place days after the ANC expelled its former president Jacob Zuma, who is now leader of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party. While Ramaphosa did not directly address the expulsion, he did blame ANC’s declining electoral support on internal “weaknesses”.
“The people of South Africa can see and have punished us for the erosion of our values and principles, the deterioration of our organisational capacity, the prevalence of corruption, patronage, divisions and factionalism,” he said.
“One of the central tasks of the movement now is to take decisive action to rid our movement of practices that undermine our ability to build a united, non-racial democratic non-sexist and prosperous society. The recurring theme of the NEC in the past three days is that we must be rigorous and earnest about accountability and consequence management for acts of ill-discipline, and those who transgress the rules of our movement.
“Leaders and public representatives must be held accountable through organisational process. We have resolved that this is precisely what we are going to upgrade to take to a higher gear, because it is in this area where there is lack of accountability and where there is lack of consequence management that contributes to the decline of our movement and to the standing of our movement in the eyes of the public,” he added. | Additional reporting by Staff Reporter
The Star