Political analyst Professor Siphe Seepe says the ANC is in “panic mode” as the country heads towards the 2026 local government elections, and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s focus on the National Dialogue is a clear sign of that anxiety.

Seepe’s remarks come in the wake of increasing public criticism from within the ANC itself. 

Senior NEC members, including former Cabinet Minister Malusi Gigaba, suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, and party veteran Naledi Pandor, have openly voiced concern over the party’s leadership and direction.

The senior members argue that the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) has failed in its objectives. 

Pandor, the former Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, said the ANC had “lost its glory”, and that many South Africans now view the party with “disdain, horror and shame”.

She made these remarks over the weekend during a memorial lecture for Gertrude Shope, a former Member of Parliament and ANC Women’s League president, who died in May this year and would have turned 100 this month.

“There is nothing worse in an organisation or in a country than a leader who has no solution,” Pandor said. “We can’t be asking someone else ‘how do we solve this?’ The people are looking to us to resolve it.”

Gigaba, previously said the NEC had “failed in its objectives,” while Mchunu likened the ANC to “a person walking on the edge of a cliff,” urging the party to regroup before it is too late.

“We became big-headed and took the people for granted – they punished us. But there’s still time to mend our ways,” Mchunu added.

The ANC is still grappling with the fallout from the May 2024 general elections, in which it suffered a significant loss of support.

This led to the formation of a Government of National Unity (GNU) led by the ANC, but including former opposition rivals such as the DA and FF Plus.

As the 2026 local elections are looming, many analysts, including Seepe, believe the ANC is set to perform dismally once again.

Speaking to IOL News, Seepe described the internal criticism as “wake-up calls” – with the biggest being the 2024 national election results.

“That, by any stretch of the imagination, is a statement that says: we no longer have confidence in the ANC,” Seepe said.

He argued that ANC leaders are only echoing what the general public has already come to understand: the party is out of touch and directionless.

“They are also saying that in the aftermath of the 2024 defeat, the ANC has not improved. If anything, their Commander-in-Chief Ramaphosa appears clueless.”

Seepe described Ramaphosa’s recent speech at the National Convention of the National Dialogue at UNISA in Pretoria as “embarrassing”, claiming the president was asking the public questions that leadership should already have answers to.

“This president has a habit of being shocked by everything,” Seepe said. “What these senior members are saying, politely, is that the ANC is currently directionless.”

He said that Ramaphosa’s investment in the National Dialogue is an attempt to appear proactive but lacks real substance.

“South Africa’s problems are known – they’re known to South Africans, and they’re known to the ANC,” he said. 

“The issue has never been about people not knowing what they want. It’s about a government that has failed to deliver.”

The ANC has come under fire from several political parties, including its GNU partners like the DA and FF Plus, who accuse it of using the National Dialogue to try and win more votes ahead of next year’s local government elections. However, the ANC rubbished the claims.

Seepe said Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke’s annual reports revealed that ANC-led municipalities continue to underperform year after year.

“At the national level, they’ve witnessed a total rejection. And when people feel the government most acutely is at the local level – this is where the ANC should really be panicking,” he added.

On Wednesday, during a media briefing in Johannesburg, ANC Youth League President Collen Malatji also joined the chorus of internal criticism, calling on Ramaphosa to fire underperforming ministers and mayors.

But Seepe dismissed this as political theatre.

“It’s just noise. Ramaphosa does not have the courage to fire anyone. He depends on these individuals to retain his position. If he tries to fire a few ministers, he’ll go down with them.”

Asked whether the ANC could turn things around ahead of the 2026 elections, Seepe said “it’s already too late.”

“They have been losing elections consistently. They failed to deliver infrastructure. The money is wasted on internal infighting, which is going to continue,” he told IOL News.

“With a president who is himself delinquent, you can’t expect the people under him to behave differently.”

He said that the unresolved Phala Phala scandal involving Ramaphosa and the lack of implementation of the Zondo Commission’s recommendations continue to hang over Ramaphosa’s leadership.

“Right now, things do not look good for the ANC,” Seepe said, predicting a poor showing in the 2026 elections.

“For 31 years, the ANC has let down ordinary South Africans. Black people remain poorer, remain unemployed, and remain outsiders in the economy. The economy is still in the hands of a few elites – the so-called ‘microwaved’ billionaires aligned with the ANC.”

Meanwhile, independent political analyst Goodenough Mashego echoed Seepe’s sentiments, saying that the ANC has steadily lost support in many metros.

“The ANC’s decline started in the cities. It began with Cape Town. Now the metros are slipping away, and they know that local votes reflect national performance,” he said.

Mashego also referred to Pandor’s comments, saying the ANC had “lost touch with the people”

He, however, slammed Pandor, Gigaba, and Mchunu, saying they were part of the ANC’s decline.

“They are not proposing solutions… They’re just making sure history will remember them as having said something when the ANC collapsed – but they were part of the problem,” Mashego said.

“They were in Parliament during Jacob Zuma’s era and supported him through multiple no-confidence votes. They’ve been complicit.”

Mashego added that he does not believe the ANC can disintegrate further, but many members are likely to defect if the party performs poorly in 2026.

“If the ANC fails again, its members will likely shift to breakaway parties that perform better. That might be the next stage of its decline,” he said.

simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za

IOL Politics

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