When two former ANCYL
presidents, with a combined experience of over 60 person-years as national
leaders, call for the NEC, of which they are members, to resign, it is a
seismic event. This signifies a monumental shift within the NEC, which we might
see the full extent of at the mooted December 2025 National General Council of
the ANC. These eruptions open the muted leadership debate within the ANC,
raising questions about the calibre, breed, or character of individuals needed
to ensure the organisation’s survival in the current times.
The
new era, a post-Ramaphosa reality, will undoubtedly be shaped by increased
multipartyism and a more diffuse state executive authority. Voters’ power will
determine who is suitable to lead South Africa. The reputations of leaders or
individuals within political parties will be weaponised to move voters away
from established political brands. This necessitates a fresh leadership
approach, one that is responsive to the changing political landscape.
For
over a century, the ANC, as a political brand, held moral high ground because
of its championed cause. But after it became the governing party, it became
dangerously entangled with the sins of incumbency, shifting its focus to
defending the interests of its leaders and members more than the people’s. This
erosion of support saw its approval drop to 40% in 2024, and polls are already
projecting less than 30% overall in 2029.
Given
the integrity-impairing reports from formal commissions of enquiry, Chapter 9
institutions, and evidence-based media reports, the ANC’s leadership supply
side requires a complete overhaul. Career politicians, such as Malusi Gigaba
and Andile Lungisa, are finding it hard to advance their careers in a party
where leadership conflicts with societal ethical expectations. ‘Innocent until
proven guilty’ has become a euphemism for tolerating and defending misconduct
without considering the reputational damage done to the party.
The
courage to challenge the criminal justice system, once seen as a virtue of
leadership when apartheid criminalised the freedom struggle, has now been
weaponised to defend post-apartheid unlawfulness. A breed of impunity has emerged
that elevates the worst elements of society to the status of celebrities and
leaders.
The
call from Gigaba and Lungisa urges the ANC to transform itself into an
institution that rejects the worst and wrong elements of society in its
leadership or aspirations. Though they may, for some reason, be unqualified to
lead the charge, their conscience remains human enough to push them to pursue
what is right. Their call highlights their willingness to tell uncomfortable
truths, risk their careers for the right cause, take responsibility for the organisation’s
mistakes, and confront themselves—including those in power. It exposes how
policy dishonesty has become so persistent that it now conflicts with their
core instinct of being intolerant of injustice, which is increasingly becoming
an asset for a better ANC. The silence of many within their ranks will be
short-lived.
The
renewal of the ANC will not occur if its members do not lead it. If none among
those in leadership discuss the organisation’s challenges, it would be a sign
of a movement or house without mirrors. Malusi and Andile are standing in front
of the proverbial mirror. What they see in the mirror has led them to conclude
that the entire NEC must resign. It is a radical proposition, which might be
influenced by what they see.
In
an interview on the NEC, Gigaba laments the decline in the quality of discourse
within the ANC, especially in its highest decision-making body, the National
Conference. He observes that conferences have ceased to be gatherings of ideas.
They are no longer platforms for establishing policy directions. He argues that
they have taken on the character of leadership confirmation events and are
losing the essence of the ANC’s policy hub.
He
argues that this exemplifies organisational decay and has made it unable to
respond to challenges it previously could address. The centre, which, along
with Andile, they agree must resign, has long ceased functioning. The spirit of
truth-telling underpinning the call for the NEC to resign is already
influencing leadership.
According
to him, the coalition arrangements with the DA are one of the significant
political sins committed by the ANC. As it stands, the DA is positioning itself
as the rescuer of an otherwise vote-shedding ANC. The challenge of selecting
candidates for the upcoming municipal elections is one area where discontent
signals the last chance to either rectify or press the proverbial
self-destruction knob.
Discontent about the current NEC is no longer a hushed-up matter. ANC Stalwarts have been raising it, and disturbing news is that the discontent has reached senior levels of the security cluster. This context might have led to speculations of a coup by the Minister in the Presidency.
Malusi
Gigaba is a product of a profoundly nurturing ANC NEC. He lived through a Mbeki
Presidency. He experienced the so-called nine wasted years and the current
Ramaphosa period, which has yet to be clearly defined. He literally knows what
the successive ANC NECs, including the Ramaphosa-led one, failed to do for the
country to reach its current state. Andile was part of the ANCYL, whose call
for renewal of the ANC, before it became fashionable, was met with disbandment
and the subsequent rise of the EFF.
Both of them have the
credentials to sound a call to action as drastic as the one they have made. As
former ANCYL leaders, they have pointed out the ANC’s broken compass on one
occasion or several times and demonstrated that it might have ignored the organisation’s
actual liabilities. Their warnings might have either been fudged or outrightly
concealed to let the then incumbent generation prevail.
The multiparty reconfiguration of political power has forced the RSA’s democratic and political order to enter a dramatic and unprecedented period of change. What worked when South Africa was a multi-party one-dominant-party state can no longer work. The majority of leaders still in the system would require a unique way of responding to the reality of a coalition.
Since the older
generation cannot be interchangeable and easily replaced, coalitions present an
opportunity to insource capability unencumbered by the traditional ANC way of
doing things. This makes the call for resignation an essential mechanism for a
fresher look at what is at stake. The enemy might suddenly become a critical
leverage to continue influencing state power.
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