Analysts say corruption, weak unions and failing rural municipalities expose deep fractures in the ANC’s revolutionary project and long-term survival.
Has the ANC’s electoral collapse exposed the failure of its National Democratic Revolution (NDR), or is the party simply succumbing to the inevitable decline that shadows every liberation movement after decades in power?
This was the central question at the ANC’s national general council in Boksburg, where leaders wrestled with the meaning of dwindling support.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and others admitted the NDR faces a “total onslaught” from opponents.
Leaders admit the ANC’s revolutionary project is faltering
Since its inception, critics have cast the NDR as a Trojan horse for socialism, echoing apartheid’s “Rooigevaar” propaganda.
Yet the fiercest blows have come from within.
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A political analyst noted that the Jacob Zuma era’s corruption left the ANC morally compromised and the 2024 election results confirmed that “the chickens have come home to roost”.
ANC secretary‑general Fikile Mbalula pointed to weak unionisation and distressed rural municipalities as structural failures undermining the NDR.
Rural communities, once the ANC’s strongest base, remain poor despite democratic gains in clinics, schools and grants.
Rural decline
Without a united labour movement or sustainable rural development, the revolution’s promise of economic emancipation falters.
The ANC’s trajectory after 1994 leaned toward neoliberalism, with Growth, Employment and Redistribution policies of privatisation and liberalisation.
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Cosatu and the South African Communist Party (SACP) condemned this as a betrayal of the NDR’s socialist ideals, but continued to cooperate within the alliance.
That cooperation is now fraying.
Under Solly Mapaila, the SACP plans to contest local elections independently, signalling the alliance’s possible unravelling.
‘Renew or perish’ – Zikalala
Veterans like Snuki Zikalala warn the ANC must “renew or perish”.
Whether renewal means recommitting to the NDR or reinventing beyond liberation‑era frameworks remains unresolved.
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He said what is clear is that the ANC faces a painful reckoning – either salvage its revolutionary vision or accept that its liberation credentials no longer guarantee survival.
