A stark internal report presented by ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula has laid bare significant challenges within the ruling party, from economic management to electoral decline. The assessment was delivered on Tuesday to roughly 2000 delegates gathered at the Birchwood Hotel for the party’s National General Council (NGC), a key mid-term policy review forum.
The Secretary General’s report, described as painting a “bleak picture,” tackled a wide range of pressing issues. These included the state of the nation’s economy, the ANC’s recent electoral losses, and the dynamics within the governing alliance. Mbalula also addressed the party’s controversial decision to form a Government of National Unity and discussed proposals to strengthen its much-criticized Integrity Commission, an body often labeled as “toothless.”
The NGC’s proceedings were immediately overshadowed by a significant rift within the ANC’s long-standing alliance. The South African Communist Party (SACP), a core partner in the tripartite alliance, faced direct backlash from ANC delegates after announcing its intention to contest future elections independently.
SACP First Deputy General Secretary, Madala Masuku, defended the decision before the ANC assembly, arguing it was essential for his party’s survival and mission. “We are saying, comrades, the decision to contest elections is not to contest the ANC,” Masuku stated, to a mixed reaction that included some applause. “This matter… is a very critical matter because it has to do with the existential being of the party. If the party cannot introduce socialism as a path, its existence will mean nothing. So these elections are meant to do that.”
The announcement has caused clear consternation within the alliance’s leadership. Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) President, Zingiswa Losi, publicly implored the two parties to find common ground, warning that separate campaigns would weaken the collective. “If we do it differently and separately, I think we’re only weakening ourselves,” Losi said. She pressed the SACP for clarity, asking, “If the SACP says it’s going to contest elections independently but it’s still in alliance then how do we make of that?… voters will make a decision. What will be the impact?”
Losi also directed criticism at the ANC leadership itself, following a picket by ANC staff members outside the venue. The workers are protesting unmet conditions of service. “COSATU, we stand for the rights of workers. It does not matter who the employer is, including ourselves,” Losi asserted. “These people they borrow to come to work… they are not volunteers.”
As the NGC continues, delegates are tasked with deliberating on the organization’s strategic path forward amid internal discontent, a fraying alliance, and a sobering self-assessment of its standing and performance.