The ANC in Gauteng is set to push for the direct election of ANC leaders at its national general council (NGC) next week, with provincial co-ordinator Panyaza Lesufi saying the party could face demise in the next 15 years without it.
Lesufi said the province would lobby other structures to back a sweeping change that would allow all ANC members to vote directly for national and provincial leaders, replacing the long-standing delegate-based system.
The proposal would require the approval of two-thirds of the over 1,500 delegates at the conference in December to pass.
“We also want to [tell] the other structures of the ANC that the leadership of the ANC must no longer be elected by delegates of the conference. All members of the ANC must vote on who must lead, because no-one is going to buy all of us, and no-one is going to abuse delegates, and there will be no-one who will take advantage of our delegates,” Lesufi said.
Lesufi, who is also premier of Gauteng, was addressing the opening session of the ANC’s Johannesburg regional conference on Wednesday.
The delegate system, Lesufi said, had become vulnerable to manipulation, patronage and vote-buying by party power brokers, warning some delegates routinely defied branch mandates without consequences and, in some cases, disrupted proceedings when their positions were threatened.
“There are many people [who] mandate them what to do. When they come here, they do the opposite, and there are no consequences,” he said.
Gauteng will have 100 representatives at the NGC, where the ANC will take stock of its policies. It will be the first NGC the party has held since the establishment of the government of national unity in 2024.
The meeting is the ANC’s midterm review gathering, which has previously centred on leadership issues, and this year’s gathering is expected to be no different as the party looks towards the local government elections in 2026 and its internal leadership contest in 2027.
“This NGC… is going to determine how best, as the ANC, we can confront the next stage of our revolution,” Lesufi told delegates. “If we can’t change the manner that we elect our leaders, comrades, it will be the end of all of us.
His push for reform comes as the party’s Johannesburg region elects new leadership, which could impact on the future of the province’s economic hub. The incumbent mayor, Dada Morero, faces off with finance MMC Loyiso Masuku in a high-stakes leadership battle.
Over 300 delegates from the region will vote for their preferred candidate.
“It’s a contest, so I suppose every contender believes they are winning, so we will see the results when they come in tomorrow,” Morero said. “I have done my best, I have done my lobbying, and I am ready to go in.”
Whoever wins is likely to be nominated as the party’s mayoral candidate for the 2026 local government elections.
“If one is not nominated, it’s not the end of the world. I was not born a mayor; I was just at the right place, having led the ANC. I have political credentials and work credentials. It is the ANC that said come in,” he said ahead of the vote.
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