[NEC MEETING] ANC SG PRE-MEDIA BRIEFING

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]This morning, the NEC and the NEC at Luthuli House before the ordinary national executive committee meeting.

[00:00:10]The SG will just give you a quick remark about what to expect. Yes.

[00:00:16]Thank you very much and good morning to those who are at home. Good morning to all the viewers.

[00:00:25]Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we are meeting here in the ordinary meeting of the national executive committee of the ANC.

[00:00:35]We will consider a number of things today which will come in a form of reports.

[00:00:43]Our state of readiness for the elections, the mandate that has been given to us to organize and reorganize our structures to prepare the organization for the elections and the campaign launch.

[00:01:00]There's a whole lot of other issues that we will visit. Appointment of mayors, selection of candidates. We are really seized with those matters. Delimitation and the demarcations that we are implementing at the grassroots level.

[00:01:18]Preparing the structures as you would have seen. PTTs that have been revamped in KwaZulu-Natal, in Gauteng, made to be much leaner but they are focused on the task.

[00:01:31]And then yesterday the Eastern Cape. So, we've been quite busy and this is what the NEC will consider. Of course, as a standard item, there will also be a political overview and the president will give context of what is around us politically that we need to be alive to and what are the issues that we need to grapple with as a movement.

[00:02:00]And then then tomorrow we will rise in the in the afternoon. So, this meeting is going to be really like if you like to say business like. Focus on the reports and then reflect on the way forward.

[00:02:17]Thank you, SG. Um will you take SABC?

[00:02:21]Uh Mr. Balula, I'd like to just clarify because the one thing that we'll be dealing with will be the nomination processes. And I understand that the public nomination process the deadline was yesterday last night. Um what was the response in terms of the public non-ANC party members? What was the response of that? And I understand it was a two-day process.

[00:02:47]Is that long enough? And do you also feel that the ANC actually reaching out to the public is merely candidates candidates? Is really about the fact that she don't have enough capacity in your party? And how do you respond?

[00:03:02]No, it's not about that.

[00:03:05]You know that the ANC selection process is is is is largely informed by public participation.

[00:03:16]It doesn't start now. You know that. I mean all our councilors are selected through what we call community participation.

[00:03:25]So, people like to criticize for the sake of criticizing.

[00:03:28]Um but nonetheless the truth will prevail and the truth is that the ANC believing in in in in participator process that involve the constituencies that are of interest. Uh it has been unbelievable the responses that we got in terms of public participation, the names that people have suggested Uh should become the mayor and so on.

[00:03:55]They will be subjected to the shortlisting process and interviews.

[00:03:59]And another ad we will select one candidate. So, we are very happy about that.

[00:04:05]Uh of course we would like to extend if the NEC want us to extend we'll do so but we don't have time.

[00:04:13]We are working on strict deadlines.

[00:04:17]So, we want to beat the deadline uh of the IEC in terms of candidate submission and so on. So, there's a lot of work that we're going to undertake in the next coming weeks especially in terms of the top seven to interview people and all of that give them enough time to prepare and so on. We're quite excited about the process.

[00:04:39]ANC Uh SG, will you be your only focus on what is happening around what you think is happening Um would that be on the department of social unrest things like concerns outside of the city and similar issues.

[00:05:01]Well, the emphasis we are making first as the ANC is that when it comes to issues of immigration and undocumented foreigners uh the rule of law and the rule of law must dictate uh what must actually happen.

[00:05:18]Uh people cannot take the law into their own hands and render us into a banana republic.

[00:05:24]The state must intervene.

[00:05:27]Uh that's what we believe in. We will discuss as part of the report reflect on the current developments in the country.

[00:05:34]And I will make a comprehensive response. There's a whole lot of things that are in the report. Including the conference of the left by the Communist Party. What is our attitude towards it?

[00:05:45]The NEC will reflect on that. This current state of uh situation in the country that is happening which borders on vigilanteism because it works outside the parameters of the state and the rule of law in our country. We are a constitutional democracy. People have got the right to protest but not to take the law into their own hands and give us a terrible image that there is no state in South Africa.

[00:06:14]Vigilantes and groupings do as they wish. So, the state must lead and provide leadership. So, there will be reflection on that and we will see at the end a more refined approach by the NEC will emerge as part and parcel of the discussion of this weekend. UFA?

[00:06:33]SG, we've seen action essay over the past few weeks unveiling people like Bathabile Dlamini on the ANC including a former mayor and a few months ago it was MKM. I believe the same. Are you concerned at all about that as we approach the list process coming? Those who don't make it may jump ship.

[00:06:52]It does happen in the election that people who have failed in their duties, when they've been given a responsibility to lead, when they are very when it is clear that the writing is on the wall they won't be re-elected they jump to other political parties. So, they've got a name those people.

[00:07:11]Uh, you know, that goes with them.

[00:07:15]And those are just individuals who are chasing the paycheck, who are not about serving the people.

[00:07:24]Uh, we will get good candidates.

[00:07:27]Looking by the way things are unfolding we'll get good candidates and communities have given us good candidates and some of them will continue to serve the communities. Those who jump the ship and all of that, they know very well that uh they did not do well and then they will hip hop in all these political parties and so on and claim the flag of the ANC. That does not give us sleepless nights. What is important for us is that do we get him are we getting the right people to do the right job working hand in hand with the communities?

[00:08:04]I'm Ashley Cossnatt from Power FM News.

[00:08:06]Now, yesterday Mr. Balula was the deadline for um political parties in Parliament to submit the members that will be serving in the impeachment committee. Now, of course the ANC is said to be represented by nine members.

[00:08:20]Um can you please just take us into confidence if you guys have submitted the the list and who are some of the people that will be serving from the ANC in the impeachment committee? Well, >> [clears throat] >> well we are selecting nine capable people among our MPs. So, you will see that list when it's unveiled in Parliament.

[00:08:37]Uh uh maybe in the coming week as to who represent the ANC. I want to keep it like that.

[00:08:44]Thank you.

[00:08:45]Cassie uh Cassie BC Africa.

[00:08:49]Yeah, um Mr. Fikile, it looks like you fixed Gauteng, you fixed KZN and there's not a lot of comrades that are protesting with your changes that you've done as the SG of the ANC NEC. However, we had ANC comrades march marching to Luthuli House last week Monday when the top seven was there. Do you think these people are trying to dent the ANC image or is it part of the normal day-to-day that they can toy toy at the ANC office? Second question, the ANC has been struggling in colored communities, white communities, and Indian communities. Are you going to open up where you get candidates from minority groups and make provision for them? Last but not least, SACP, will we see SACP mayors or will they be sidelined because they are SACP members?

[00:09:42]Thank you.

[00:09:44]No SACP member will be sidelined. And we have addressed that particular point. We have SACP members who are in the ANC.

[00:09:52]And they've made a choice to stay with the ANC. Those who want to contest on the platform of the Communist Party are free to do so.

[00:09:59]But dual membership is not cancelled.

[00:10:02]Uh it is it will remain with us for many years to come.

[00:10:06]Uh SACP members in their own right as ANC members are allowed to participate in all our processes.

[00:10:14]Uh where possible we field that as mayor candidates.

[00:10:18]Uh the difference this time is that the SACP as a party will not submit a list in the ANC processes. Comrades will stand in their own name and right. So, communists are not uh dismissed in the ANC.

[00:10:35]But uh what is unacceptable in terms of our constitution is that uh because the party is contesting, you can't you you are on the same platforms. It's not possible.

[00:10:46]You must make a choice that I'm going to support the party in this particular election or I won't be in the ANC. We will see the results at the end like we actually said.

[00:10:56]Uh people who protest are ill-disciplined.

[00:10:59]Uh they bring the ANC in disrepute. But nonetheless, we attend to uh we attend to them. And uh most of the time the people who are sent there are not the real owners of the protest.

[00:11:12]The owners are hiding somewhere. They send their members, ordinary members, to come there at Luthuli House and sing and do all sorts of things. But we attend to them.

[00:11:23]Uh because we believe everyone must be listened to.

[00:11:27]Everyone must be attended to. We are a listening the and we engage with every protest uh unless if it is anarchy.

[00:11:35]And then there we draw the line.

[00:11:38]And that's what uh we do uh going forward.

[00:11:41]Minority groups? Uh the task of mobilizing all social uh groups in our society we assist with that in the context of our mobilization.

[00:11:53]Uh and I think we've done well in certain provinces like uh uh uh Northern Cape uh in making inroads in maintaining our hegemony uh among uh what you call minority groups which in our own definition is blacks in general.

[00:12:11]Uh and so on. So, we're doing well in certain areas we are not doing well, of course. And that must be acceptable, but uh we remain a non-racial party.

[00:12:22]Nonetheless, going forward.