ANC secretary‑general Fikile Mbalula has fired back at reports that party president Cyril Ramaphosa said he would resign if asked by the NEC, saying that he is not going anywhere.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday afternoon, Mbalula reiterated.
“There’s no president stepping down. There’s no step aside, the president was addressing these rumours that are being cooked by faceless people,” Mbalula said.
Mbalula added that Ramaphosa was the leader of the party and that stepping down would betray ANC members.
“Because if he steps down, he would have betrayed the membership of the ANC. Because he was not elected by people who are negative, people who are promoting negative tendencies in the organisation,” he said.
He continued, “The majority of ANC members understand and appreciate the moment that we are in and they know that the president is not leading alone, he is leading with a collective. So those people who’ve got energy on negativity, and who are mobilising that the general council must get the president to step aside, they would succeed.”
“The membership of the ANC have said I must tell you that they won’t succeed, and I am conveying to you and even those who connive with them that inside the party at all levels that they won’t succeed,” Mbalula said.
He said Ramaphosa was elected by the membership of the ANC and his term of office ends in 2027.
“So, he is not going to step down through some faceless rumour‑mongers, and all of that and step aside. In the NEC that matter never arose.”
The National Executive Committee (NEC) met for an ordinary meeting over the weekend in Ekurhuleni.
Mbalula’s remarks follow reports that Ramaphosa had indicated he would resign if asked by the NEC.
Ramaphosa reportedly challenged his detractors in the NEC to provide a timeline for his resignation, urging them to stop discussing his exit “in dark corners like cowards”.
He is said to have told the NEC that if asked to resign, he would do so even tomorrow.
Mbalula said no one at the NEC had called on Ramaphosa to step down.
“What the president was addressing is some of the rumours that have been peddled in the public domain, which I addressed at this platform last week,” he said.
“And I have said that those rumours come from you in the media because some of us in the ANC go to you and tell you that at the general council, the president will be removed and then we’ll have a new president in the country.”
Mbalula added, “And then I explained to you and I used ‘Ga ene pula ya Ramza,’ quote unquote myself. Now, the point I was explaining was that these rumours get to be peddled at random and so on. And they do have their owners in our cycles and that they find expression through the media. The media then becomes the mouthpiece of these people who are hard at work.”
He said that there were reports that some NEC members were reportedly planning to lobby for Ramaphosa’s removal at the upcoming National General Council (NGC), scheduled for December 8 to 12, 2025 at Nasrec Expo Centre, Johannesburg .
“In fact, if there are people who are interested in that, they are wasting time because if he was to go, he would go anytime. But he will not go because he was elected by members of the ANC, not by rumour‑mongers,” Mbalula said.
He said the NGC will focus on rebuilding the party rather than on “chasing ghosts”.
“So I think that this general council must become something else. It must not become a general council that is going to ensure that we mop up, look at ourselves, and then come out with necessary vigour and commitment and determination to get the ANC back,” he said.
Mbalula stressed that Ramaphosa is an asset to the ANC and that the party’s constitution allows for leadership change only with a two‑thirds majority of its structures.
He said the NEC had not discussed Ramaphosa stepping down and that the focus remains on rebuilding the organisation and preparing for the NGC.
He recalled a previous instance when NEC member Andile Lelungisa suggested the NEC be disbanded, a comment that garnered disproportionate media attention.
“That tells us as the ANC that the salacious desire by some to see the party’s leadership disintegrate is bigger than we imagined,” he said.
Mbalula added that the party is focused on rebuilding structures and becoming formidable and emerge stronger.
There were also rumours that Ramaphosa was planning to step down after the conclusion of the G20 Leaders’ Summit this week. The summit will be held in Johannesburg from November 22 to 23.
However, the party has rubbished those allegations.
Politics
