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President Ramaphosa calls for South Africa's ‘enormous' challenges to be addressed with urgency

President Ramaphosa calls for South Africa's ‘enormous' challenges to be addressed with urgency
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers ANC NEC opening remarks at Esselen Park on 29 Jamuary 2023.Photo:ANC DIP
Velani Ludidi
By Velani Ludidi
29 Jan 2023
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Cyril Ramaphosa has asked for urgency in dealing with the country’s problems in his speech at the ANC NEC Lekgotla in Esselenpark. South Africans are losing hope fast, and he knows it. The ANC president said the by-product of a renewed party would be a renewed South Africa in which the lives of many will improve. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa has repeated the call to renew the ANC, and called for urgency in dealing with rolling blackouts, crime, lack of service and unemployment in the country. 

He said the electricity crisis continues to undermine economic growth as well as investments: “Load shedding damages businesses and continues to disrupt the livelihoods of our people.” 

Ramaphosa was delivering his opening remarks at the party’s two-day National Executive Committee (NEC) lekgotla at the Esselenpark Conference Centre in Gauteng where they are discussing interventions in the country’s electricity crisis, including the shift in political oversight over Eskom. 

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula gives a keynote address at the Peter Mokaba Memorial Lecture at Paradise Hall in Bochabelo, Bloemfontein, on 7 January 2023. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)



The lekgotla takes place ahead of the expected Cabinet reshuffle with Deputy President David Mabuza and Fikile Mbalula expected to be reshuffled along with some ministers and deputies who did not make it on to the NEC. 

Deputy President David Mabuza during the nomination process of the Top Seven as delegates called for his removal at the ANC's 55th National Conference at Nasrec in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 17 December 2022. (Photo: Leila Dougan)



Read more in Daily Maverick: Grim Reippp(er) — undoing the choke-hold on SA’s renewable energy programme 

Ramaphosa said the by-product of a renewed ANC would be a renewed South Africa in which the lives of many will improve. 

“We must accelerate the work to end load shedding and, thirdly, we must mobilise social partners to increase their cooperation and collaboration with the view of addressing the challenges of unemployment and also bring more investment to our economy.” 

Ramaphosa also called for the improvement of service delivery from his party members serving in government. The President’s mind was on the 2024 national elections. Many believe the ANC might struggle to convince South Africans to keep them in government. 

“The scale of the challenges, comrades, before us is enormous. We cannot do everything that needs to be done all at once, especially taking our resource challenges into account.”

He said this can be done by choosing areas of prioritisation and once this has been done, the party needed to be honest with the public about its decisions, plans and targets so that it could be judged by the work it has done towards achieving them by the 2024 elections. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the ANC NEC's opening remarks at Esselen Park on 29 January 2023. (Photo: ANC DIP)





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He said the 2024 elections will probably be the most difficult campaign the ANC has fought and will have “profound implications” for the country.

“Although no party has had an official launch, we observe that the campaigns for the 2024 elections are well under way. We need to get into election mode without delay,” he said.

Outside the venue, party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula introduced the ANC’s new national spokesperson to the media. Mahlengi Bhengu takes over from Pule Mabe, who has been party spokesperson since 2017. Mbalula said she would be working with a team of spokespersons, “which will be announced on Tuesday when we give you (the media) the results of the National Executive Committee and the lekgotla”.

Bhengu was the first chairperson of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund before it was renamed the National Youth Development Agency in 2009. She is also a former Youth League leader and board member of the ANC’s OR Tambo School of Leadership. She was elected to the ANC NEC at the party’s National Elective Conference in December 2022.

The ANC also elected new members of the National Working Committee. Mbalula said the ANC was concerned about the poor: “The question we seek to address here is how do we cushion the poor whilst we address and attack head-on these challenges we are faced with.”

The lekgotla will discuss various policies and challenges faced by the country. On Tuesday, the outcomes of the discussions will be announced. DM

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