The ANC’s top brass gathered on Thursday to discuss the way forward after the party lost its outright majority in May’s general election, confident that it still holds considerable sway over policy in a government of national unity (GNU).
The three-day meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) will no doubt spend much time reflecting on the party’s 17 percentage points slump to 40% of the vote, ushering in a coalition with nine other parties.
Still, delegates will be keenly aware of their ability to influence national policy, given that ANC support remains twice that of the DA.
“Our majority has been affected so we can’t do things as we have before. There’s nothing that can happen without us in the GNU,” ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said on the sidelines of the meeting.
The NEC’s three-day gathering will be followed by a three-day lekgotla that will be attended by the 80-member NEC, ANC deployees in government and alliance partners, Cosatu and the SA Communist Party.
The meeting is also being attended by party veterans including former President Thabo Mbeki.
“The national executive has started with the political overview of the president, which outlines the political situation in the country in the recent past including the elections. That will be followed by an in depth analysis and research presentation,” Mbalula said.
“The question is can the ANC do better with the 40% it has ... the reason we are meeting here is to ensue that we consolidate that power,” he added.
Assessment
The meetings will “consider the elections outcomes and take a deep dive into pieces of data from VD [voter district] level towards the local municipalities. Then we will come up with a concrete plan for structures after assessing the state of the organisation,” acting ANC spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi said.
“Over the past two months the NEC has engaged with structures of the ANC across all regions and we are now working on the basis of insights that we have derived from that level, and we’re quite confident that out of this meeting, we would have a very clear sense of what to do to regain the lost ground,” he added.
DA federal council chair Helen Zille has said the party would use its various cabinet position posts to cement its position as a governing party rather than an opposition party.
Zille added that the GNU should be referred to a coalition between the DA and the ANC because they are the two largest parties., while the other members of the power-sharing deal do not have leverage over the ANC because of their share of their vote.
“Helen Zille wanted a grand coalition ... we said ‘no, we have signed a statement of intent [with other parties] including the DA’,” Mbalula said.
“It’s not a grand coalition ... there is more than one political party that has come together to govern. We are a leading party, the largest one, the biggest expression of the will of the people. We are not going to be engaged in polemics with Zille or whoever else.”
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