The ANC’s top brass will look beyond party regional chairs in their search for metro mayoral candidates, while branch chairs will not be guaranteed a council seat after the elections later in 2026.
In an interview with the Sunday Times this week, ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane further decried the performance of the party’s cabinet ministers, saying the ANC was ready to “crack the whip” on those who are failing to communicate to the public. She praised ANC MPs for outshining ministers.
This comes as the party gears up for its annual anniversary celebrations — the January 8 statement — to be held in the North West province, a home to one of the worst-performing municipalities in the country.
“The ANC has already started the process of looking beyond just members of the [national executive committee], members of the [provincial executive committees], members of the [regional executive committees], and members of the branch[es] to be the public representatives. It is looking at what is needed and the task at hand.”
Mokonyane said the party’s top brass would ensure ordinary members embraced the different metro candidates.
“The ANC membership can also be good at demobilising, so you need to take on board the membership of the ANC and respect that the ANC is bigger than just the members, and that those who have the capacity may not necessarily be found in the current leadership, but can be made to work with the existing leaders.
[DA ministers] are actually implementing what has always been on the table, but they have become very emboldened in promoting their identity as the DA, and not as the government.
— Nomvula Mokonyane
“So we’re looking at everything [and going] broader than just [considering] those who are the chair of the province, or the chair of the region, or the branch chair and branch secretary becoming the ward councillor. We have to look at what is required for this particular metro or this particular municipality.”
Mokonyane said the party would widen its search for mayoral candidates to business leaders, strategic leaders in different sectors, women, and young people. She conceded this would not be an easy task, given that ANC members are looking to fill the roles. The process will require objectivity and commitment to the voters, instead of party members.
In November, the party — which has previously named its mayoral candidates after the elections — said it would change tack this time and announce its candidates before the polls to counter opponents.
At the time, NEC members were saying the ANC would need to field “big guns” to counter the campaigns of opposition parties such as the DA, which selected political heavyweight Helen Zille as its Johannesburg candidate.
There is a fear among ANC leaders that Zille and other heavyweights — including ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba and the MK Party’s Bongani Baloyi — could be major drawcards in the poll, which would work against their candidates.
The ANC introduced a new set of guidelines in the lead-up to the 2021 elections to attract voters. The rules included community members in the selection of its candidates. The party has long maintained a tradition of having its metro mayors chosen by its top leaders through a rigorous selection process. It has further amended its guidelines ahead of the upcoming elections, adding secondary municipalities to the pool that will be selected by the top brass.
Mokonyane said the ANC would reflect on the work of its ministers when it holds its annual lekgotla in February.
Recent polls have suggested the DA is benefiting from its role in the government of national unity (GNU), while the ANC struggles to regain lost ground.
In November, the Social Research Foundation surveyed 1,002 registered voters by phone. The voters were asked how they would vote if the local elections were held today.
About 30% of respondents said the DA had the best policies, with only 22% choosing the ANC. About 28% said the DA provides good leadership, with only 17% saying the same of the ANC, The Common Sense reported. The poll showed a 4% margin of error.
Mokonyane said the ANC was taking a keen interest in the polls, claiming the results were due to several factors, including the government’s failure to appoint a new head for the government communication & information system (GCIS).
The Sunday Times has previously reported that the lack of leadership at the GCIS — which has been without a permanent CEO and other senior managers for most of the past decade — was at the heart of a communications crisis plaguing the GNU.
Since entering the GNU, DA ministers in the GNU have been engaged in public spats with the Presidency over their achievements, while ANC ministers have grumbled about being outshone by the DA’s publicity efforts.
Mokonyane said the party had been weak in communicating its ministers to the public. She fell short of praising DA ministers for being “emboldened” in promoting their identity as a party.
“They are actually implementing what has always been on the table, but they have become very emboldened in promoting their identity as the DA, and not as the government. And that weakness is glaring because of the absence and the weaknesses of the GCIS. We don’t have an accounting officer, and we don’t have a government spokesperson.
“We have a cabinet spokesperson, and the ANC has viewed this issue as a very critical issue. We’re not happy with that, because what we must guard against is a polarisation of a cabinet [giving rise to] a cabinet of contesting parties. But that will happen if the centre doesn’t hold, and the centre is GCIS.”
She added that the culture and practice of ANC ministers had to change to reflect their new role in the GNU. The “comfort” of ANC ministers had to end, and they had to step up their state of communication and visibility among the people.
“There’s a big improvement in parliament. Portfolio committees are very outspoken, energised and proactive ahead of cabinet ministers. And these are the things we’ll deal with when we go to the lekgotla early in the year. We must crack the whip, and we must make comrades really appreciate that we are facing an existential crisis.
“The polls are correct, and they are correct because we say less about the good work. There’s a good review that has been done generally about the government, but that review was released once and has never been sustained. And the government must not shy away from communicating, but it will shy away when there is no head of communication,” she said.
She praised electricity & energy minister Kgosientsho “Sputla” Ramokgopa for outshining his peers in communicating the work of Eskom.
“I’m singling him out because here is a comrade who went in, in a period of crisis, [when] South Africans [were] agitated, and South Africans are now moving along with him. [This is true of] load reduction, technical glitches, load-shedding, and anything that has to do with electricity. South Africans follow him because he’s in communities. He’s on the public platforms, communicating — and, most importantly, he is taking South Africans along.“
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