Ramaphosa said there is no room for ‘malfeasance' and failing ANC deployees must be removed.
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa has issued a stern warning to the party’s leaders, saying underperforming and corrupt councillors must be shown the door.
Ramaphosa was speaking at the ANC’s special national executive committee (NEC) meeting in Boksburg on Saturday, where the party is reviewing the state of local government.
Protests
The two-day meeting was attended by several mayors from ANC-led metros and their MMCs.
The meeting takes place amid widespread, volatile protests over service delivery in several areas.
The ANC is preparing for the upcoming local government elections in 2026, which is expected to be a tough one for the party amid declining support over the years.
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‘ANC failing’
Opening the special sitting of the ANC’s NEC, Ramaphosa called for a bold and targeted action plan to turn around failing municipalities
The ANC president said all the failures at the municipal level feed into the perception that the ANC is failing.
He said the failures represent not only a service delivery crisis, but also an existential political risk to the party ahead of the local government election.
“This failure at local government level feeds into a narrative about a failing and declining ANC, and thus provides further ammunition for our detractors.
“The ANC, therefore, needs to be bold in taking action to resolve the dysfunctionality at the local government level by dealing with this elephant of corruption and malfeasance,” Ramaphosa said.
Corruption
Ramaphosa said “all too regularly” corruption, mismanagement and outrageous lack of consequence management and accountability allow dysfunctionality to continue with impunity, thus prolonging the suffering of people living in affected communities.
“Now this must end, and this NEC must take bold decisions on how we are going to address this.”
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Local government
Ramaphosa stressed the importance of local government service delivery and called for a bold and targeted action plan to turn around failing municipalities.
“Local government should be the rock bed of ensuring accountability through elected councillors who represent communities working together with a professional and capable civil service cohort.
“Municipal oversight structures should vigilantly monitor budgets and how money in local government is spent. They should monitor service delivery, and should also ensure that corruption does not take place,” Ramaphosa said.
Accountability
Ramaphosa said officials who are meant to assist citizens are often not capable of addressing people’s concerns or are working against the people.
“If the people who are deployed get involved in acts of malfeasance and stealing money from the public purse… They must also be removed without failure, and this is the real heart of accountability and consequence management.
“We all need to know that if we do not act in accordance with what is expected and if we do not give high performance for the tasks that we are meant to… be it elected officials or representatives, or appointed officials… we should now know that the concept of consequence management exists. And accountability is now going to have big legs, and people will be held accountable,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa said the ANC needed to get into “top gear” to ensure that it did what people expected the party to do.
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