By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General, Fikile Mbalula has warned party members whom are concerned with campaigning for internal positions than doing the work of strengthening branches and winning public trust.
Mbalula delivered the keynote address at the Andrew Mlangeni Memorial Lecture that took place at Boiketlong Community Hall on Saturday, 21 June 2025.
“Being appointed as a leader in the ANC is a small thing…Let us focus on building the party. When the time is right, we will discuss leadership,” he said.
“The urgent task before us is to rebuild our organisation—root and branch. This is not the time for distraction or division. Those preoccupied with succession debates must understand: such discussions have their rightful place, and their rightful time. For now, our focus must remain firmly on renewing the ANC and restoring the trust of our people through action, discipline, and unity.”
His remarks come amid mounting pressure on the ANC, now reliant on coalition partnerships to govern in several municipalities after suffering major electoral losses.
Taking a swipe at breakaway formations like the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, Mbalula dismissed the idea that new political projects posed a serious threat to the ANC.
“Do not be misled by cults of personality masquerading as political parties. Ours is a movement rooted in values, history, and the collective will of the people—not in the ambitions of individuals seeking power without principle.”
Mlangeni was not a political grasshopper moving from one organisation to another, seeking greener pastures or self-aggrandisement. He was the embodiment of a disciplined cadre, the kind that we seek to develop through ongoing political education.”
Despite his criticism, Mbalula highlighted signs of progress, citing the ANC’s recent by-election victory in Mpumalanga’s Ehlanzeni region as proof the party still enjoys grassroots support.
Mbalula’s speech highlighted Mlangeni’s selfless dedication, noting, “He asked nothing of what the organisation must do for him, but what he must do for the organisation.” He also used the platform to address the ANC’s current struggles, urging members to rebuild the party “root and branch” to regain its strength after a tough electoral loss in 2024.
Mlangeni spent 20 of his 26 years in jail on Robben Island alongside fellow triallist Nelson Mandela and other luminaries of the ANC. He symbolised the generations who had joined the ANC during the most dangerous period of resistance to apartheid.
They joined the movement to overthrow apartheid and build the South Africa envisioned in the Freedom Charter of 1955, the ANC’s blueprint for a free, democratic South Africa.
When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, he was elected as an ANC member of parliament, serving until the 1999 election. He later served a second term, from 2009 to 2014.
He repeatedly criticised his own party in public, regardless of the tensions that would cause with some members of his own caucus. Up to the time of his death, he chaired the ANC Integrity Committee.
Mlangeni was awarded the Order for Meritorious Service, gold class, in 1999 by President Mandela, the first head of state of democratic South Africa. In 2016 he was granted the Freedom of Johannesburg and the Freedom of the City of London and received the inaugural George Bizos Human Rights Award, named after the veteran human rights lawyer who represented the Rivonia triallists.
In 2017 he appeared in the documentary film Life is Wonderful, along with the then two other living survivors of the Rivonia trial, Ahmed Kathrada and Denis Goldberg.
In 2018 Durban University of Technology conferred an honorary doctorate in Education on him; in the same year, Rhodes University granted him an honorary doctorate in law. The ANC awarded him its highest honour, Isithwalandwe-Seaparankoe, in 1992.
Mlangeni, anti-apartheid activist and politician, born 6 June 1925; died 21 July 2020.
He is survived by three children, Maureen, Sylvia and Sello. His wife, June (nee Ledwaba), whom he married in 1950, died in 2001 and his son Aubrey also predeceased him.