By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider

Monday kicked off the first day of the fifth African National Congress (ANC) National General Council (NGC) which is being held at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg, and the leaders have expressed that corruption within senior positions, as well as state capture has contributed heavily to the decline of the ANC.

“Against this backdrop, the ANC has articulated a renewal mission structured around two interlinked objectives -the first is to reroute the ANC among the people as their servant with ethical and capable cadres working alongside communities to address their daily struggles, the second is to harness the natural and human endowments of SA to accelerate the resolution of ending unemployment, poverty, and inequality and to build a sovereign non-racist, non-sexist, democratic prosperous state. To achieve this, the organisation must strengthen its grassroots structures.” said Secretary General Fikile Mbalula at a press briefing about the general consensus of the convention.

 ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa has emphasized the imparity of the ANC being actively involved within communities especially ahead of the upcoming municipal elections.

 “In the last elections, comrades, if we are to be honest with each other, our door to door culture was not at its best. We did not do vigorous door to door and as a result of the election, that’s why we saw so many people staying away from the polls and, in part, it was largely because they had never been touched by the ANC visiting their homes and various locales that they go to. We must ensure we go back to basics, go back to what has made us a strong organisation: being strongly connected to our people.” said Ramaphosa during his address.

Mbalula has noted that the party’s decline dates back to 2016 as also dissected between the party’s mid-term reviews of 2022 and 2027 national elective conferences.

“The electoral setback suffered by the ANC and the democratic movement began in 2016 with the loss of major metros, accelerating with the emergence of over 80 hung councils after the 2021 local elections, and culminated in the 2024 strategic setback when the ANC lost its outright majority in Parliament, Gauteng and KZN” according to Mbalula.

The Moonshot Pact which was later renamed as the Mulit-Party Charter, was an agreement forged by parties such as the DA, ActionSA, IFP, Freedom Front Plus, and various more in order to attempt to unseat the ANC if they could develop enough numbers.

“Objectively, this campaign produced a counter-revolutionary convergence between right-wing parties and breakaway parties formed by former leaders of the liberation movement” said Mbalula. Mbalula has also noted that the inclusion of the ANC to the Government of National Unity (GNU) has enabled the ANC to maintain its survival and has further expressed that this was not a sign of weakness from the organisation.

“The electoral setback of 2024 initially gave these forces the illusion that the ANC had reached its end. The ANC’s swift tactical manoeuvre to rally parties around an inclusive unity government defeated this pre-election strategy. Their shared goal of eliminating the ANC from governance did not materialise” Mbalula said