The ANC’s electoral decline, the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and the decision by the SACP to contest the upcoming elections independently are some of the issues President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to touch on when he delivers his January 8 statement this Saturday.
This is the view of political commentator, Professor Ntsikelelo Breafast, who said that judging from Ramaphosa’s previous January speeches, nothing much will come out of this much-anticipated address set for the Moruleng Stadium in the North West.
The annual pilgrimage, which marks the party’s anniversary, is used by the presiding president of the ANC to set the party’s political agenda and outline priorities for the year ahead.
Ramaphosa’s upcoming address comes as the party is battling big electoral declines amid simmering ANC/SACP tensions, which have been compounded by the communist party’s recent policy directive to go at it alone at the polls later this year.
This decision has, in turn, placed the ANC as the leader of the tripartite alliance in an even more precarious position following the May 2024 general elections, which saw the party managing a meagre 40% at the polls.
This fact was also laid bare by the party’s very own diagnostic report, unveiled at the party’s recent National General Council (NGC), last month.
“I think the speech is going to be twofold: It will focus on the domestic issues, issues of underdevelopment, issues of gender-based violence, and issues of corruption. I think because we’re in the build-up to the upcoming local government elections, he’s also going to say a thing or two about the state of readiness of the ANC for the local government elections.
“But also because of what is happening at the moment on a global scale in terms of the conflict that has broken out between the US and Venezuela, Ramaphosa is expected to say something on this,” said Breakfast.
Political analyst, Dr Levy Ndou believes that the ANC’s January 8 Statement will be a different one due to some of the challenges the party and its elected leaders in government face.
Ndou believes Ramaphosa will give a sharp focus to reclaiming lost ground in the upcoming 2026 local government election.
“The ANC, in my view, must be able to develop a general program that must talk to all the members of the ANC and the ordinary citizens at large in terms of what the ANC has in store for them in 2026. We also know that the ANC will be going to its policy conference, but the clear areas of priorities in terms of approaching local government elections are one of the issues that the National Executive Committee should be able to outline to people,” Ndou told the SABC.
Breakfast further indicated that despite delivering a successful NGC and G20 events, Ramaphosa’s helm at the top is not as secure.
Breakfast cited the recent NGC, saying that the fact that Ramaphosa’s closing address was done during a closed session, suggests ‘trouble in paradise’.
“It is clear that Ramaphosa delivered a successful G20 Summit, and I think the beauty of that summit is that it was able to put us as a country on the map on a global scale. But the problem is that there might be a pushback from his own party. He might not complete his term of office,” he added.
