As the ANC, we have been in power for almost three decades. Over this time, the balance of forces has shifted in favor of the forces of change. Since 1994, the ANC has managed to do a lot as the leader of the transformation project. We have assumed state power and used it to simultaneously transform society and the state itself. In this regard, a number of changes have taken place, namely;

• Institutional Reforms – We have laid the foundation for a democratic state, a growing human rights culture, and regular elections through which any government can claim legitimacy to govern on behalf of the
• The Constitution – We have established the Constitution as the supreme law of the land and thereby entrenched the principle of the rule of We are no longer a country of arbitrary or marshal law.
• A return to the global community of nations – We have led the return of South Africa as a full member and contributor to African and global politics, including at multilateral
• Management of macroeconomics – We have made progress in managing national debt levels, introduced sound fiscal policies, and ensured the steady growth of the GDP in the earlier
• Basic services – The massive roll-out of access to electricity, water, sanitation, bulk infrastructure, and other public goods has improved the quality of lives of our
• Social security – The implementation of a massive social security program to protect the most vulnerable people in our society.

All of these changes have endeared us in the hearts and minds of South Africans, a gesture we must never take for granted. These changes have consistently given the ANC massive approval as illustrated by every election victory that gave us an increasing majority until 2009. And as we have said in the last general elections, more still needs to be done to accelerate our program of change.

In recent elections though, especially since 2009, we have been seeing a steady decline in the electoral fortunes of the ANC. The ANC’s successive victories have meant that our people see us as a source of hope and a true representative of their aspirations.

However, the year 2016 was a wake-up call for the ANC. Although the opposition did not gain much, the ANC lost significant ground as people decided to stay away. People voted with their feet and said the ANC must listen and go back to the drawing board. Among other things, the ANC must be honest about its performance on the following matters in Gauteng and the metros in particular:

• The image of the party and government nationally and provincially is that of corruption and incompetence. And the perception that this is a suburban and middle-class concern exclusively is actually false; and besides the townships have a large middle-class, our base!
• The image of the party leader. The decline of 10 percentage points in 2014 and the further loss of Tshwane and Johannesburg, were in part because of the national image of the party, government, and the We have not yet recovered from these losses as evidenced by the 2019 electoral results. This factor, although not easily quantifiable, cannot be discounted. The same applies to the conduct of provincial and local leaders as we approach the 2021 LGE.
• The state of the economy. Without growing the economy and creating jobs; social cohesion becomes impossible to
• Safety and security. Crime and related social pathologies thrive in an unequal and depressed Crime is also a big issue for people and a core concern during elections.
• Delivery of services. After the disastrous tenure of the DA-led coalition, our city was left without capacity and resources. We have been hard at work to ensure financial sustainability, restore capacity, and deliver basic services in the city.
• E-Tolls. Of course, this matter remains a concern and requires resolution by the national government. The resolutions of the provincial conference and the demands of the people must be We cannot afford to go on another election with this matter unresolved.

The opposition remains weak and has very little prospects for growth, whereas the ANC shows steady declines in crucial regions due to disunity, factionalism, sheer conduct of our members and cadres, especially those deployed in positions of responsibility. These subjective weaknesses defocus the ANC from the important revolutionary tasks as espoused in the Freedom Charter, the Strategy and Tactics, and the Manifesto we presented to the electorate.

If we do not change course and do the right things now, we are certainly going to derail the revolutionary agenda and historic mission of the ANC: the liberation of Africans in particular and blacks in general.

We can defeat the demon of disunity, factionalism, and corruption in our ranks. We can improve and restore basic services to our people. We can deal with the binding structural constraints and challenges in our economy. However, if we do not build a strong cohesive ANC and a capable developmental state, we will not succeed in executing these important and urgent political tasks.

LOCAL BALANCE OF FORCES AND GOVERNMENT OF LOCAL UNITY

Comrades, locally we find ourselves in different circumstances from those obtained in 2016. The painful outcomes of the 2016 Local Government Elections and the disruption that ensued post are sure matters that should occupy our minds and direct our actions on a daily basis.

It is a setback we ought to individually and collectively, make our mission to never repeat and see occur in our space. Our movement was founded on the basis of the pursuit of freedom and democracy. Within that, our training and experience were focused on two fronts; Struggle and Governance. It had never since the advent of democracy been a consideration that we would lead an ANC that is out of power and in opposition.

Post the 2016 elections, the REC put together a strategy that had at its pinnacle the reclaiming of power. The four-pillar strategy was underpinned by mass mobilization and the battle of ideas. Our comrades led by the REC took time to go out and engage our voters. We spent time understanding the weaknesses that led to our people withholding their vote for the ANC.

I do not want to regurgitate what our people told us but what we now know is that people love the ANC, it remains their hope and pride but it is us, in how we conduct ourselves, manage affairs of the organization, and deal with the ‘Brand ANC’ that divorce the ANC from its rightful owners, the People. Our people withheld their vote.

They didn’t cast it to any other party.

The 44.6% electoral support we garnered in 2016 was a warning from the electorate for us to change our ways, reconnect with them, and rebuild the love and trust they had with the ANC.

In the 2019 General Elections, our performance improved to an overall 49.5% of votes cast in the provincial elections and 53% national elections. This was a significant improvement in that it showed that our people had begun to have renewed hope in the promise of rebuilding and renewal.

The 2019 electoral outcomes and subsequent events also exposed the racial contradictions within the Democratic Alliance and the fractured nature of its caucus in Council. The right-wing elements in the DA not only abandoned the party for the Freedom-Front in elections but internally, began to consolidate power and abandon the non-racial trajectory in order to safeguard the fluid character of the party.

Equally, for three years, the DA stood by whilst their Mayor, abandoned its policies, collaborated increasingly with the EFF, and sold the City to the highest bidders to gain populist support and PR dominance. The net effect of this chaos is that the City endured years of financial ruin, our transformative agenda was abandoned, the skills base and institutional memory in the City was eroded, and a record-breaking increase in irregular expenditure.

Fortunately, from 2016 to 2019 we had repurposed our caucus into an incisive and efficient opposition. The implosion of the DA/EFF administration was not without the direct and consistent role played by the ANC Regional leadership and caucus in exposing the rot and poor of governance.

The disruption that was introduced by our loss in 2016 in the Municipality has had adverse effects. With the welcome return of the ANC to power in December 2019, we have also witnessed serious manifest and latent contradictions.

As the ANC we are in a coalition with other parties that gives us the majority required to govern. The inherent consequence of the coalition which we call the Government of Local Unity (GLU) is that residents and the electorate (not by our doing) view and identify the GLU as an ANC government. They attribute both its successes and more its failures to the ANC.

What it means is that as we head to the local government election, it is the ANC’s performance post-2019 that will be up for review. It will be how the ANC has sought to repair the dysfunction inherited from the previous administration that will be evaluated and not another coalition partner.