African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for the removal of underperforming party officials deployed to municipalities, citing poor governance, decaying infrastructure, fiscal mismanagement, and internal leadership squabbles as crippling challenges at the local government level.
The president was speaking at the opening of the party’s special National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Boksburg, convened to address the widespread failures within municipalities that have sparked violent service delivery protests across the country.
However, a governance expert has sharply criticized the meeting as a “reactionary” political stunt ahead of next year’s local government elections, asserting it will have no meaningful consequence for underperformers.
In his address, Ramaphosa pointed to damning audit reports and a clear lack of service delivery, stating that party deployees who are failing the public must be held accountable.
Responding to the news, Professor Kedibone Phago, Director of the School of Government Studies and Public Administration at North West University, offered a scathing critique of the NEC’s gathering.
“What we know for sure is that this is just very reactionary and will not have any form of consequence to municipalities that are underperforming because this is not a new matter. Our local government is not just dysfunctional, it’s actually on its knees,” Phago stated during a television interview.
He alleged that the core issue is systemic corruption, where supply chain management has been “hijacked by politicians and their cronies” to enrich themselves rather than serve the public.
“It is not really a genuine NEC sitting that seeks to solve problems for South Africans but it is an NEC that seeks to advance the interest of the ANC cadres who do not have any interest whatsoever to the service delivery needs of South Africans,” Phago said.
The professor dismissed the notion that the meeting would devise a credible action plan, calling it “very late” and “disappointing.” He placed direct blame on President Ramaphosa for failing to use his constitutional powers to hold local government to account, despite having the legal frameworks to do so.
“All what he’s saying is platitudes… He is not going to do anything to these municipalities that are underperforming but just giving us nice speeches to listen to,” Phago said.
With the ANC’s electoral support having dipped below 50% nationally in the previous election, the party is under significant pressure to regain public trust ahead of the upcoming local polls. Professor Phago, however, expressed skepticism that the party was heeding the message sent by voters, suggesting that South Africans may need to “intensify this and teach the ANC a lesson” at the ballot box.
The special NEC meeting continues this weekend.