By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted that the 2026 local government elections will be a defining moment for the African National Congress (ANC).
The president was opening the ANC national executive committee (NEC) lekgotla at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre in Boksburg.
Ramaphosa acknowledged that political interference, corruption, weak administration and flawed tender systems had hollowed out municipalities and eroded public trust, saying that fixing local government must be the ANC’s central priority.
“2026 must be the Year of Decisive Action to fix local government and transform the economy,” he said.
The Lekgotla has reviewed economic developments, noting four consecutive quarters of growth in 2025, South Africa’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force grey list, a sovereign credit rating upgrade and a year largely free of load shedding.
However, Ramaphosa cautioned that unemployment, inequality and crime remained stubbornly high, warning that recent gains would count for little unless they were felt by ordinary citizens.
He added that ANC candidates for the local elections would face stricter vetting, compulsory ethics training and tighter enforcement of accountability measures.
Delivering the party’s mid-term report at the party’s NGC in December, secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party’s decline had been long-standing rather than a sudden rupture.
According to Mbalula’s analysis, a mid-term review between the party’s 2022 and 2027 national elective conferences, the ANC’s misfortune dates back to 2016.
The electoral setback suffered by the ANC and the democratic movement began in 2016 with the loss of major metros, accelerating with the emergence of over 80 hung councils after the 2021 local elections, and culminated in the 2024 strategic setback when the ANC lost its outright majority in Parliament, Gauteng and KZN,” reads his 294-page report.
In Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Nelson Mandela Bay and eThekwini metros, the ANC lost control in the 2021 local elections and was pushed to the opposition benches. Of SA’s eight metros, it only won above 50% in Buffalo City and Mangaung.
With the next round of local elections coming up, the party is determined not to let history repeat itself.
Ramaphosa has often said that public trust in local government was undermined by councillors who were distant, and as such, he urged councillors to reconnect with their wards to rebuild public trust, warning that those who failed in their duties or engaged in corruption should be removed from office.
In September last year, Ramaphosa summoned more than 4,000 councillors to Nasrec and delivered a blunt warning: “Without you doing anything, we are dead; we might as well pack up.”
At that meeting, he did not shy away from the ANC’s local government failures, citing crumbling infrastructure, poor service delivery and declining audit outcomes. In a striking admission, he even acknowledged that DA-run municipalities often outperformed their ANC counterparts. He added Local government has a central role in economic development and job creation.