Ramaphosa asks South Africans to rekindle their ‘love’ for ANC

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on South Africans to give the ANC their “love back” to the party after it failed to retain its majority in the 29 May elections. 

Ramaphosa made the comment while delivering his speech to mark 100 days of the  government of national unity (GNU) to hundreds of ANC supporters who gathered outside Luthuli House on Monday. 

The event was attended by members of the ANC national executive committee and various provincial leaders, but its alliance partner, the South African Communist Party (SACP) was not in attendance.

The SACP snubbed the invitation because it believes a better solution would have been to form a coalition with uMkhonto weSizwe party and the Economic Freedom Fighters, rather than with the Democratic Alliance (DA). 

A number of ANC supporters carried placards bearing the message “Don’t kill Chris Hani again,” — an anti-GNU slogan first seen on a T-shirt worn by Gauteng ANC chair Panyaza Lesufi during a briefing at Luthuli House, when the party announced that talks with the DA to form a coalition in Gauteng had collapsed. 

ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula, who has been at loggerheads with Lesufi over his comments about the unity government, drew loud cheers of “hoi hoi” when he introduced the Gatueng premier and called him to the podium.

In his address, Ramaphosa said the GNU was not a construction of Mbalula or himself, but was what the ANC national executive committee decided should be done.

He said some surveys show that the majority of South Africans have embraced both the notion and the actions of the unity government and believed that the parties in the coalition should all work together for the good of the country.

The Social Research Foundation’s study on how South Africans feel about the co-governance agreement found that nearly 60% of those who participated in the survey believed that the GNU would succeed. 

“The survey also tells us that a number of people are also warming up to the ANC and they are beginning to say we support this movement and comrades this is the moment we should increase the standing of the ANC,” Ramaphosa said.

“This is the moment we should use to ensure that the ANC continues to lead society. The people of South Africa still love the ANC, that is clear. They still have a deep love affair with the ANC. As members and leaders, we must go out to our people and say ‘give us the love back, we want the love back’.”

He said that for the ANC to regain its majority, it needed to strengthen its branches, regions and provinces.  

Ramaphosa said the people of South Africa had also sent a clear message about the state of the ANC and had instructed the movement to “give full meaning and effect to renewal and rebuilding”.  

“While many recognise that progress has been made, we have not gone far enough. They are not convinced that the advances we have made will not be reversed,” he said.

“As the ANC, we have acknowledged that the outcomes of the 2024 election were a strategic setback for our movement. It was the first time since the event of democracy that the ANC did not achieve an outright majority at national level.”

Because the party that received the most votes nationally and in seven provinces, it now had to show leadership and act in the best interests of the country and its people, Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa also said the ANC went into the unity government knowing full well that it has significant ideological and political differences with some of the parties and that there were bound to be tensions. 

He said from many decades of experience, the ANC had the strategic clarity and the political capacity to work alongside a range of forces in pursuit of progressive goals. 

Ultimately, the unity government should not be judged by the political orientation of the parties that constitute this administration, but by the effect the GNU has on the lives of poor and working class South Africans, he said.

Speaking to journalists before Ramaphosa’s speech, Deputy President Paul Mashatile said the GNU was working well and that the ANC’s interest was in the 10-party coalition government’s success.

“We believe that the 100 days have been very successful in our work. Since the setting up of the GNU, the country is stable, there’s a stable government and a government that is working. We are happy about that,” he said.

Mashatile said all those in the cabinet see themselves as a team rather than individuals from different political parties, and the president is the only commander-in-chief.