Ramaphosa urges ANC to act on policy as vote looms

President Cyril Ramaphosa urged his party to improve policy execution as it looks to reclaim voter trust following the historic loss of its parliamentary majority last year.

With local government elections set to take place as early as next November, the African National Congress is meeting to review its recent performance. Its so-called National General Council comes weeks after Ramaphosa faced off with internal critics pushing for his exit — two years before his mandate as leader of the country’s biggest political party ends.

Delegates at the gathering are assessing progress on key commitments made in 2022, including expanding the South African Reserve Bank’s mandate beyond maintaining price stability to one that includes fostering job creation, and advancing a long-debated basic income grant. The party has been faulted by investors about the slow pace of economic reforms, while facing criticism from voters about its failure to deliver basic services like water and sanitation.

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“The lack of implementation is a disease that we must rid ourselves of,” Ramaphosa said at the meeting near Johannesburg on Monday.

Delivering on the party’s policy commitments would help spur faster growth at a time when South Africa’s economy — which has expanded by less than 1% a year on average for more than a decade — is showing tentative signs of accelerated growth.

The four-day gathering is the ANC’s largest since the party last year lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid more than three decades ago. That forced the ANC to form a coalition with rival parties, including the Democratic Alliance and eight other groups, which will compete for control of the nation’s municipalities in the forthcoming election.

The NGC also provides an early glimpse at the ANC’s succession battle before its elective conference in two years’ time.

A small group of senior party figures have been mobilising to force Ramaphosa out before his term as party president ends in 2027, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be identified as the discussions aren’t public.

At a closed session of the ANC’s top leaders last month, Ramaphosa urged those seeking to oust him to challenge him openly, according to three people who attended the 14-16 November meeting of the National Executive Committee.

Since then, the ANC Women’s League has rallied to his defence, warning against “those who meet in dark corners and connive for the demise of the president,” adding that only the NGC or an elective national conference can remove a party leader.

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said on Sunday that succession won’t be discussed at the NGC. “That discussion belongs to branches at a certain stage relevant to it, which is in 2027.”

Those in line to take charge of the party once Ramaphosa leaves include Deputy President Paul Mashatile, who’s been embroiled in scandals though he denies wrongdoing and hasn’t been prosecuted and Mbalula.

The president’s allies had considered positioning suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu as a candidate, but an ongoing judicial inquiry into police corruption has derailed that prospect for the time being. Some of Ramaphosa’s supporters have also floated the idea of National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza being a potential contender, though people close to her say she is reluctant to run.

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