By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider
President of the African National Congress (ANC), Cyril Ramaphosa, addressed the National Executive Council (NEC) Lekgotla in Boksburg, 25 January 2025, as various members of the ANC across the nation have gathered to discuss ideas in regards to matters pertaining to the party and government in a space of three days.
“Communities need to be mobilised, through our community policing forums and other means to work with the police to fight crimes in their areas. CPFs must be resourced and Empowered, as where they are well resourced and supported, we find that community members on a voluntary basis do good work in combating crime in their area. We must use the findings and recommendations of the Madlanga Commission and Ad Hoc Committee to decisively tackle areas of the rot in our criminal justice system.” said Ramaphosa when addressing the Lekgotla.
Ramaphosa highlighted that combating crime is an imperative as he mentioned that these were the concerns raised by their Roll Call meeting in September 2025.
“Our main task this year is to fix local government and to fundamentally transfer our economy and all our actions must be geared towards that. Sometimes we are tempted to try and do everything, if we focus on these, all the other tasks and issues will fall into place. So during this Lekgotla we must make sure that we come with an implementation plan. It should be a clear template so that we can ensure that we start off the year much more effectively” said Ramaphosa.
As much Ramaphosa’s appearance presented a notable intention for change within the party, there are still concerns over the certainty of his future at the party and whether or not there are some worthy successors in the process.
Ramaphosa also addressed the necessity of having state entities to go into concession deals with private sector organizations. The reason for these concessions is to ensure that the private-public work in conjunction with another to ensure that certain frameworks and projects are implemented such as energy upgrades and road repairs.
The President also highlighted that there needs to be more urgency surrounding the confrontation of right-wing imperialism and to protect the sanctity of democracy.