The African National Congress (ANC) launched its three-day lekgotla on Thursday with a sharp rebuke from its Secretary-General, Fikile Mbalula, aimed at members already campaigning for top positions ahead of the party’s 2027 national elective conference.
Addressing attendees in Boksburg, Mbalula stated the party’s immediate and sole priority must be the upcoming 2026 local government elections. He warned that internal leadership ambitions are a dangerous distraction from the party’s core electoral responsibilities.
“Without securing success in the 2026 polls, any focus on the leadership race is meaningless,” Mbalula said.
The lekgotla, a continuation of the agenda set in the ANC’s January 8 statement, focused on themes of renewal and fixing local government. President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his address, echoed the need for discipline, calling for an end to factional hiring practices and highlighting ongoing challenges such as state capture, COVID-19 corruption, and past load shedding.
However, political analyst Professor Kedibone Phago of North-West University, providing analysis on the proceedings, expressed skepticism that the leadership would succeed in halting early campaigning.
“This has been normalized for many years,” Prof. Phago said. “It’s going to take a lot from the SG and the leadership of the ANC to convince members that they should not be starting with campaigning and vying for leadership positions at this point in time.”
He explained that potential candidates often feel that waiting until 2027 is too late to position themselves. “I do not think he will win this battle,” Phago added, noting the party may lack the will to discipline members who defy the directive.
The analyst linked the internal maneuvering to the ANC’s broader decline. He stated that whoever eventually takes over the party will inherit an organization with dwindling public support, in need of significant revival.
The discussion turned to the party’s key challenges, with Ramaphosa acknowledging “slower than expected progress” in the City of Johannesburg. Prof. Phago identified this as a critical failure.
“If the ANC… is failing to understand that the biggest show is around Joburg… tells you that the party is completely incapacitated and is struggling to actually find itself. It’s just a shell of its former self,” he said.
On the issue of corruption and state capture, Phago suggested a lack of decisive action was indicative of deeper entanglements within the party’s ranks.
“The fact that they are not taking actions on those that the Zondo Commission report has fingered, the COVID corruption has fingered, tells us that many of them may also be entangled in those,” he said.
President Ramaphosa also warned of “forces of right-wing imperialism” globally and domestically being on the offensive. Prof. Phago argued that these forces gain traction precisely because of the ANC’s own failures in service delivery and economic transformation.
He pointed to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) as a policy that has “failed to transform the economy,” benefiting only a politically connected few while the majority of Black South Africans continue to struggle.
“People have lost a lot of hope in the ANC,” Phago concluded, stating this loss of faith creates fertile ground for opposition movements.
The ANC lekgotla continues as the party attempts to forge a unified strategy for the 2026 elections amidst visible internal tensions and longstanding systemic challenges.