Ramaphosa denounces ‘rebel breakaway groupings’ aiming to erode ANC’s support base

President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken a swipe at “social and political forces” seeking to persuade people into rejecting the African National Congress (ANC).

Ramaphosa delivered his closing remarks at the ANC’s two-day national executive committee (NEC) lekgotla in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni on Tuesday.

The lekgotla sitting included alliance partners, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

‘Anti-transformation forces’

Without naming the parties, Ramaphosa suggested that the ANC’s opponents, such as the Multi-Party Charter, only had plans to “stop transformative and developmental programmes and also to reverse the gains made in improving the quality of life of the majority of our people”.

“The strategy of our opponents is to consolidate anti-transformation forces through things such as coalitions or pacts, while on the other hand, fragmenting the forces for change through funding a proliferation of splinter groups and smaller parties that they would like to see contesting the African National Congress,” he told delegates at the Birchwood Conference Centre.

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Ramaphosa also seemingly hit back at the former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.

“They actively encourage, in different forms and ways, the creation of rebel breakaway groupings in order to erode the support base of the African National Congress. Often, these groupings start as small factional groups within the ANC, but when the movement pushes back, they mutate into opposition parties.

“Some of these parties masquerade as more radical than the ANC, but revolutionary-sounding rhetoric cannot hide the reality that they have common cause with the forces opposing transformation that is led by African National Congress,” the ANC president continued.

He further said the lekgotla reaffirmed that the ANC remained the “party of choice for all who seek to build a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic and prosperous South Africa”.

Watch Ramaphosa’s speech below:

‘Formidable campaign’

Ramaphosa stressed that the ANC and its alliance partners were targeting a “clear majority” in this year’s national and provincial elections.

“We launch a formidable campaign that will engage with the citizens of our country on a wall-to-wall basis… from the east to the west, from the north to the south, every village, every township [and every city] will be carpet covered. This is the machinery we are going to unleash to go and campaign for the victory of the African National Congress right throughout the country.”

He called on ANC members to work “extremely hard to achieve an overwhelming mandate”, while hinting at an election date.

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“The January 8th Statement outlined the tasks and I would like to repeat them so that they are truly embedded in our hearts and minds. The first is that we must win a decisive victory in the elections that we are going to hold whose will be announced soon.

“Secondly, reconstructing our economy to create more jobs and growth. Thirdly, to improve basic services and infrastructure and fourthly, combating gender-based violence and building the family.”

The ANC president added that resolving the energy crisis, ending load shedding, and the logistics challenges, as well as strengthening the fight against crime and corruption, were also part of the ANC’s objectives.