President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised a more genuine and aggressive implementation of his reform agenda even if it threatens his prospects for a second term as ANC boss when the party goes to its elective conference later this year.
Ramaphosa said at the ANC’s 110-year anniversary rally in Limpopo at the weekend that organisational discipline is a “non-negotiable” in 2022 and SA voters have clearly shown that a zero-tolerance approach to corruption is required.
He went as far as to say “if the finger is infected [perhaps we have] to cut it off to save the body”, adding that discipline is the way to ensure ANC unity.
“Once upper structures decide on matters, whether right or wrong, lower structures must abide by that, that is how the ANC has always worked. A departure from this practice constitutes ill-discipline, and that is what we must root out.”
The ANC is due to hold a leadership contest at the end of this year at which Ramaphosa is expected to seek re-election. He is likely to face opposition from a faction within the party for presiding over the worst electoral performance in the recent local government elections, as well as a failure to push through the party’s resolutions, which include amending the constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation and nationalising the SA Reserve Bank.
But his re-election for a second term appears to be a fait accompli as there is at present no strong contender, and some ANC leaders are so confident that they broke with tradition and came out ahead of the party’s nomination process to declare their preference for Ramaphosa as party leader.
ANC Limpopo chair Stan Mathabatha said the province would support Ramaphosa “when the time comes” and the party’s treasurer-general, Paul Mashatile, said a Ramaphosa second term “would not be a bad idea”.
This comes ahead of the opening of the ANC’s formal nomination process, when branches, regions and provinces will weigh in.
Touted as a leader that will lead both the party and the country to redemption after a series of sleaze and corruption scandals under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, Ramaphosa has faced accusations of being too slow to implement structural reforms. His detractors have lamented his administration’s poor track record in prosecuting corrupt officials and politically connected individuals.
The ANC broke with tradition at its January 8 rally on Saturday and for the first time in decades the party president did not deliver a speech recapping past successes but rather used the event to signal a new phase for the governing party. He committed to stronger implementation of existing policies and possible structural economic reform.
The governing party is now trying to reverse electoral losses which are threatening to send it into political oblivion. SA heads to a national and provincial election in 2024 and whoever the ANC elects this year could soon find themselves in the opposition benches, like many of the party’s leaders in towns and cities across SA after last year’s municipal polls.
Also high on the ANC’s agenda is the management of the Covid-19 pandemic. For the first time it endorsed vaccine mandates in the workplace, which signalled a firm stance on the issue despite some concerns by labour — which has been wishy-washy on support.
In arguably the most radical policy intervention, the ANC took a firm stance on the role of foreign nationals in the SA economy, going as far as to say townships and some sectors of the economy would in future only be able to hire South Africans.
“Stronger border management is already under way and soon we will finalise legislation to ensure special sectors are designated for South Africans,” Ramaphosa said.
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