The ANC’s four-day National General Council is being billed as a decisive moment for an organisation fighting sliding support, internal fractures and a fast-approaching elections calendar. ANC secretary-general,Fikile Mbalulasaid its four-dayNational General Council(NGC), is being billed as a decisive moment for an organisation fighting sliding support, internal fractures and a fast-approaching elections calendar. Starting on Monday to Thursday, the conference will be proof that the party still has discipline and credibility to renew itself, Mbalula said.
He set the tone, “This is not the time for leadership battles.” Instead, Mbalula said, delegates must focus squarely on organisational renewal and preparing the ANC for the election cycles ahead. Addressing journalists on Sunday, he insisted the party is “ready for the NGC” and is intent on tightening its machinery. He dismissed any speculation aboutPresident Cyril Ramaphosa’s future, emphasising that the president “will finish his term” and that succession chatter is “misplaced” and “unhelpful”.
His directive comes at a moment of profound strain for the ANC. The party is navigating historic electoral decline, volatile coalition arrangements, corruption fatigue among voters and lingering factional mistrust. Renewal, invoked repeatedly since Nasrec — has become the ANC’s mantra, but its implementation has been inconsistent. The party’s own assessments cite weaknesses in branch organisation, lapses in discipline, blurred lines between party and state, and recurring ethical failures.
