By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has reiterated the need for the African National Congress (ANC) to renew itself, saying the liberation movement must be united around its values and principles.
Ramaphosa was speaking at the party’s National General Council (NGC) held in Birchwood hotel in Boksburg, East of Johannesburg.
He gave his NGC Political Overview, which kicked off the party’s 5th NGC meeting.
It is a mid-term assessment by the party between its national conferences. National conferences hold significant importance as electoral gatherings, whereas an NGC serves a different purpose: it assesses policy and evaluates the party’s progress in fulfilling its resolutions.
However, NGCs have been a proxy for how well the party’s president is doing and what the rank and file are thinking about the president’s performance.
At previous NGCs, it was possible to perceive the growing discontent surrounding former president Thabo Mbeki, signalling the emergence of the Jacob Zuma era.
Ramaphosa said that for the party to return to its former glory, petty political squabbles must end and the renewal process of the ANC must triumph.
Renewal requires that we reaffirm the organisational culture and traditions of the ANC as a movement rooted among the people, representing their interests, concerns, and aspirations,” he said.
The ANC’s membership system was being overhauled to ensure that it attracted people willing to serve the people of South Africa, he added.
“A renewed ANC must impose discipline in the ranks of our membership. As renewal gains momentum, those whose conduct conflicts with our values and principles — the criminals, the corrupt, the careerists, extortionists, factionalists, and those who actively work against the organisation — should find themselves outside of the ANC,” Ramaphosa said
The party, which has governed South Africa since the advent of democracy in 1994, is still taking stock after its support slumped to around 40% percent at last year’s general elections, forcing Ramaphosa to form a government of national unity with nine other parties, including the former official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).
He defended the GNU saying, the ANC national executive committee agreed that the election results placed a responsibility on the ANC to ensure unity, stability, peace and progress in the country.
To tackle misconduct and corruption, Ramaphosa said the public procurement system must undergo substantive reform.
National Treasury is preparing to implement the Public Procurement Act, which will introduce a new framework and establish a Public Procurement Office.
“We need to ensure that procurement is used as an instrument to build black- and women-owned companies that produce the products and services government needs. Too many tenders are issued to ‘middlemen’ without the necessary competence,” he said.
This wastes public funds, encourages corruption, and undermines genuine economic empowerment. Outsourcing has also weakened the state, stripping public institutions of the skills and capabilities they require and opening the door to tender manipulation, bribery, overpricing and fronting.”
It also makes those who work for the entities we outsource to vulnerable, because their job security is always tied to the tenders those companies receive. Once the tenders come to an end, they become unemployed.”
He said the ANC must act to end the outsourcing of core state functions and rebuild in-house capacity.
Meanwhile a small group of disgruntled staffers picketed over the non-payment of salaries.
The group, supported by the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU), said some ANC workers are still waiting for their salaries.
They have staged their picket near the entrance of the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg, where the ANC’s fifth NGC is taking place.
The party’s four-day NGC comes at a time when it has been beset by internal discussions on who is likely to succeed Ramaphosa, with the party saying those talks will only be entertained in 2027 at its next elective conference.