Ramaphosa warns ANC risks losing power if it doesn’t change direction

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday admitted that corruption and factionalism among ANC members posed a major threat to the governing party’s continued stay in power.

Appearing before the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture on Thursday, Ramaphosa said the ANC was going through a period of introspection to correct its ways amid numerous corruption and state capture allegations levelled against some of its leaders.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa ‘never privy to CR17 campaign financial records’

“The leadership right now that has had to draw a line is responding precisely to the increase in corruption [and] factionalism and this problem is not going away. It is continuing to entrench itself by increasing and therefore it requires drastic action that it be taken,” Ramaphosa said.

“It is resulting in less and less support for the ANC, weakening and dividing the ANC, and simply making the ANC less of a modern party by lack of renewing itself because as a living organism it needs to continue renewing itself.”

Ramaphosa was appearing before the commission for his second day of testimony in his capacity as ANC president.

He said the ANC had been very honest and realistic about the challenges it faces.

‘ANC becomes less attractive to ordinary citizens’

Corruption and factionalism also resulted in the breakdown of party discipline, morality and the disregard of ANC principles, Ramaphosa added.

“What that leads to is that the ANC becomes less attractive to ordinary citizens, who should support and join it. Finally, it leads to election loss and diminishing support that we can see.

“With this in mind we decided that we need to plug those holes so that the ANC can renew itself because if we don’t, we are on a one-way ticket to oblivion, defeat at the polls and we, therefore, need to do something,” he said.

Ramaphosa also warned about the dangers of continued corruption by ANC members.

“With the lapse of time, we are seeing the price that is being paid by the people as a whole as they’re deprived of good service delivery because the resources are being diverted [and] plundered. We have realised that at an economic level, it’s having a dent on our economy and at a social level, it’s also having a serious impact.”

READ NEXT: ANC should not have knowingly accepted donations from Bosasa, says Ramaphosa