Ramaphosa: ANC factions becoming a threat to our democracy

ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa has brought this weekend’s ANC lekgotla to an end. Ramaphosa delivered his closing address publically on Sunday and fired off quite a few explosive remarks. The president hit back at Lindiwe Sisulu and her moves against the Constitution. He also ripped into his party over several key issues.

Cyril Ramaphosa turns up the heat at ANC lekgotla

To end this week, the party held a lekgotla with members of the tripartite alliance. With Cosatu and the South African Communist Party in attendance, Ramaphosa had a lot of things to deal with. The situation around Sisulu and her attack on the judiciary and “mentally colonised” black judges was always going to be a top agenda item this weekend. According to reports from inside the ANC lekgotla, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi warned ANC members that failing to deal with Sisulu is “feeding a culture of mediocrity”.

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But what does Ramaphosa himself have to say about all things Sisulu? While he didn’t mention her name directly in the public closing address, he still made sure to hit back hard. As a result, one thing was clear, attacks against the Constitution will not be tolerated.

“Counter revolution is wearing a different countenance in our country. There are expressions of democracy under threat which are a result of loss of ethical
compass and moral direction. The ANC and the Alliance reaffirm our support for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the judiciary. We distance
ourselves from narratives that seek to negate its transformative intent and gains.”

Cyril Ramaphosa

NEC task force to deal with Zondo findings

Ramaphosa revealed that the ANC’s National Working Committee has agreed to the establishment of an NEC task team. This team will “guide” the ANC’s response to the findings made by the State Capture Inquiry.

As we all know, several key ANC figures are likely to be implicated in that report.

The NEC task team will create recommendations for the party to follow regarding affected members.

Ramaphosa slams ‘decay and degeneration’ in ANC

Ramaphosa arguably saved his strongest words for his own party. The president admitted that ANC factional battles are now a danger to the country’s democracy. The standout line in this section?
“Our credibility and legitimacy are being undermined by our inability to act.”

“Our movement is going through a period of decay and degeneration.The ANC has been able to extricate itself from similar situations in the past. The threat to our democratic gains is also a result of an era of loss of moral and ethical principles within the congress movement. Divisions and factions in the ANC are becoming a threat to our democracy. Our credibility and legitimacy are
being undermined by our inability to act.”

Ramaphosa continued

So will Cyril Ramaphosa act? Or will others act to remove him at the December ANC elective conference? What will Lindiwe Sisulu do next?

We’ll have to wait and see.