'Days of every cat and rat doing as it pleases in the ANC are gone': Collen Malatji says ANC instilling discipline

President of the African National Congress Youth League, Collen Malatji insists the ANC is on a path to instil values of discipline in the party, as it also seeks to regain lost ground among voters. 

The ANC, Africa's oldest liberation movement was formed in 1912 in Bloemfontein, Free State, in a bid to fight against the apartheid regime. The party which has governed South Africa since the dawn of democracy in 1994 is set to celebrate 113 years of its founding, at an event to be held in Khayelitsha, Cape Town over the weekend. 

Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika on Friday morning, Malatji said the party is going through a very difficult time, and some members are going around fanning divisions, particularly on the speculated disbanding of structures in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. 

“I do not know any gossip about the disbandment of structures of the ANC, I think we have not arrived at that. Whoever is going around doing that are ill-disciplined members of the ANC going around spreading rumours to further cause problems for the African National Congress,” said Malatji. 

“We are going through a very difficult time of re-instilling discipline in the ANC. Post-Polokwane (conference) it was just every cat, every rat, everyone going around doing as they please in the ANC. Those days are gone. We are going to act on anyone who moves out of the values and principles of the movement.” 

He said the distractors of the party seek to portray the 113-old party as a disorganised movement. 

According to Malatji, some of the ill-disciplined members have moved out of the ANC to form their own political formations.

He said the ANC remains popular among young people in South Africa.

“We could have done more (in the May 2024 general elections) but the elections came when we were fresh from Covid-19, apart from that, there is high levels of unemployment, a number of companies listed on the JSE (Johannesburg Stock Exchange) disinvested from our economy. The ANC was under siege, regime change forces were united, counter-revolutionaries were united, even those who went to fight for liberation went and joined the enemy to fight very hard to remove the ANC out of power,” said Malatji. 

“The ANC was up against many elements, but we are more organised now. The Youth League, we are up now. The elections were at a time when we were defining the future for ourselves. We are still organising but we try our level best. We believe in the 2026 elections we will do better because the leagues will be at their strongest.” 

On Thursday, IOL reported that political and governance analyst, Sandile Swana, stated that disbanding the provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal would accelerate an exodus of ANC members to the uMkhonto weSizwe (MKP) Party, led by former president Jacob Zuma. 

This, combined with the ANC’s declining voter support, would leave the party with no choice but to seek external partnerships to remain relevant.

Swana’s assertions come after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s revelation that the ANC was still discussing whether to disband the two province’s executive committees (PECs) due to their poor election performance last May.

Ramaphosa was speaking on the sidelines of the 25th annual Joe Slovo commemoration this week, where he said the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) has not yet made a decision on the matter.

The NEC met in Cape Town on Monday night, but the focus was on drafting the January 8 Statement, according to ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri.

The party’s leadership is currently in the Western Cape for the 113th birthday celebrations.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula had earlier said a decision on the future of the two provinces would be made in January.

jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za

IOL