Of late, the ANC, which celebrated its 114th anniversary last Thursday, has shown an uncanny ability to make itself increasingly unloveable among its rank and file.
Worse, the party, which has governed South Africa for much of the past three decades, is becoming notorious for missing opportunities.
Last year, its president, Cyril Ramaphosa, rattled his membership when he suggested its deployees should learn from municipalities run by the DA. He was forced to backpedal on the gaffe.
In the build-up to the 114th anniversary festivities, the party’s high-ups hogged the media’s attention. In a rare sit-down interview with the public broadcaster, Gwede Mantashe, Ramaphosa’s ally and party chair, put his foot in it: he said black youths, who account for about 60% of youth unemployment, are too lazy to apply for public sector jobs.
Unsurprisingly, this insensitive remark came back to bite him. The party’s youth wing, the ANCYL, called him irresponsible. Others privately scolded him for offending the youth and distracting attention from the main rally in Moruleng, North West.
Mantashe’s remarks obscured the central message of the main rally on Saturday. Understandably, Mantashe, who has yet to apologise, has become a subject of public and social ridicule.
When Ramaphosa finally read out the party’s January 8 statement, the stadium was half empty.
During its decades-long exile, the ANC used the January 8 statement, broadcast on its Radio Freedom and shortwave radio platforms, to galvanise support of its members, supporters and the international community for the anti-apartheid struggle.
After the all-race elections in 1994, the statement was meant to set the tone of the priorities of the party and, by extension, those of the government it led.
Saturday’s statement, under the theme of fixing local government and transforming the economy, was hardly inspiring. It set six priorities, including improving basic service delivery, job creation, an inclusive and transforming economy, a fight against crime and corruption and building a South Africa that belongs to all through the national dialogue.
The party takes refuge in new plans. This helps it escape accountability for agreed plans.
The prose employed lacked empathy and proof points to connect it with the audience. On crime and corruption, for example, little mention was made of the ongoing public probes into serious allegations of corruption in the criminal justice system triggered by a press briefing by Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner, in July 2025.
Similarly, the many victims of crime and the unprecedented arrest of a high court judge found no place in the address.
Regarding the economy, the ANC fell into two common traps: first, a reliance on good news headlines such as a dip in unemployment, an end to rolling power blackouts and slight improvements in freight logistics; and second, its latest 10-point plan on fixing the economy.
The party takes refuge in new plans. This helps it escape accountability for agreed plans.
The text on the national dialogue was non-directional. The dialogue has been stalled in controversy and slipped down the agenda because of other priorities such as the hosting of the G20. The statement was a chance to signal clearly that this dialogue will take place and be concluded this year without being drowned out by other celebrations.
Also missing was a clear position on whether the NEC, the author of the January 8 statement, has given up on defending the government of national unity (GNU) and a crisper stance on whether the South African Communist Party will be shown the door for insisting on independently contesting the local government elections due later in the year. The GNU is a divisive topic in the tripartite alliance.
The statement offered no clues that the NEC regards the worsening relationship with the US as a national priority. Admittedly, it would be an inappropriate platform to announce the name of South Africa’s ambassador-designate to the US; yet, a broad indication of the significance of this matter would have been welcomed.
This is a sign of a party struggling to reconnect with reality.
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