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Thabo Mbeki’s powerful words of anger point to the ANC’s bleak future

Thabo Mbeki’s powerful words of anger point to the ANC’s bleak future
Stephen Grootes
By Stephen Grootes
16 Sep 2024
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While much of the current political focus is on the national coalition, an intriguing question is whether the ANC is capable of recovery. One of its most popular leaders, former president Thabo Mbeki, has proposed what he believes the party needs to do to recover — including a suggestion that the ANC should concentrate on improving the lives of citizens.

On Sunday, News24 published a report based on a speech given by former president Thabo Mbeki during a Gauteng ANC leadership workshop at the weekend — one of a series of meetings ANC leaders have been holding after the elections.

Mbeki asked, “What is it that we must do to ensure that we turn the page, and actually deliver the goods and services expected of us in the provincial, national and municipal levels?”

His point was that if the ANC were to deliver for the people, then they would vote for the party.

While it beggars belief that political leaders need to be told this, Mbeki clearly felt that this obvious point needed to be spelt out.

One can understand why.

News24 reported that Mbeki then “relayed a story told to him by an unnamed provincial ANC chairperson, who informed him about a region where ‘every single ANC branch is led by a criminal’. ANC leaders in the room started laughing.”

He also said (without evidence) that the ANC did not campaign in Newcastle (KZN) in the 2021 local elections because had it done so, it would have had to install criminals as local councillors.

Deep-rooted criminality


We can glean much from this.

First, a former leader of the ANC believes criminality is deeply rooted in the party, perhaps to the point where it cannot be removed.

Second, this did not come as a surprise to ANC leaders.

Over the years, Mbeki has often been critical of ANC leaders for allowing the party to descend into corruption and incompetence. He refused to campaign for the party while Jacob Zuma was leader and only did so again in the run-up to this year’s general election. 

Still, it is well known that the slide to dereliction began while he was the leader of the ANC. It was his secretary-general, Kgalema Motlanthe, who famously said in 2007 that “the rot is across the board”.

While Mbeki is correct in saying that the ANC needs to improve the services it provides for people, there is virtually no evidence that it is capable of doing this, despite public reiterations by the current ANC leader, President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa has stated, many times, that the ANC is on the path to “renewal”. And yet, Malusi Gigaba still represents the party in the National Assembly and David Mahlobo is still a deputy minister in Ramaphosa’s government. 

This kind of cynicism is now pervasive in the party.

Mired in scandal


After Mbeki’s speech, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said, “Our agenda is renewal and in the process, if we create enemies, history will apologise on our behalf.”

But Lesufi is the leader of an ANC province that has been mired in scandal for decades.

Whether it be the problems in the Gauteng Department of Health (thrown into sharp relief by recent reports from Helen Joseph Hospital), the Life Esidimeni scandal (after which Qedani Mahlangu was re-elected to the PEC of Gauteng) or any other scandal you care to think of, it is impossible to imagine the Gauteng ANC changing course overnight.

The best indicator of this is the fact it has refused to follow the national coalition model and has actively worked to keep the DA out of the provincial administration.

If the Gauteng ANC is unable to reform, it will pay the price at the 2026 local elections.  

This would be a significant step down the road towards a scenario that the chair of the DA’s Federal Executive, Helen Zille, has painted several times: that the ANC will continue to fracture and lose votes, to the point where it becomes increasingly powerless.

The challenge for her party is to grow its share of the vote and perhaps one day become the biggest party in Parliament.

Returning to Mbeki: if a former leader of a political party, who still polls as the most popular political leader in the country, says his party is filled with criminality, does that party have any future?

Many people believe the ANC ceased to be a political party a long time ago and turned into a criminal organisation.

Several years ago, when people raised this issue in public, many in the ANC would come to its defence, often with angry diatribes.

But now, it’s being said by a former president of the party. 

The ANC is incapable of recovering and will not do what Mbeki is asking it to do. Barring the unexpected, its slide into electoral oblivion will continue unabated. DM

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