By Johnathan Paoli
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said on Monday that corruption, failing local government and poor service delivery had eroded public trust in the party, using a memorial for anti-apartheid activist Solomon Mahlangu to press for renewal ahead of the 2026 municipal elections.
Delivering the Solomon Mahlangu memorial lecture at Mamelodi West Community Hall on the 47th anniversary of Mahlangu’s execution, Mbalula said the ANC faced a moment of reckoning as it tried to rebuild confidence among communities increasingly frustrated by weak governance and broken services.
“Let us not mince words: Solomon Mahlangu did not give his life so that deployed officials could enrich themselves. Every act of corruption committed under the ANC’s banner is a betrayal of Solomon Mahlangu. Every service delivery failure is a desecration of his memory. Every leader who prioritises faction over the nation spits on the grave of those who gave their lives for liberation,” he said.
He said the local government crisis was no longer something the party could explain away.
“We meet at a time when the trust between the people and the movement has been diminished. Across many communities, particularly at the level of local government, our people are confronted with failing services, unemployment, inequality, and a growing sense of disillusionment.
“The very institutions that were meant to advance freedom are, in some instances, seen as distant, ineffective, or even compromised. This reality demands not defensiveness, but decisive action,” Mbalula said.
Mbalula placed Mahlangu within the liberation tradition associated with Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela, and said the ANC had once stood as a movement that inspired millions.
He said that legacy now had to be defended through clean governance and visible improvements in people’s lives.
“The economy is not growing as it should because it is owned by a few and therefore not diversified enough to enable greater economic participation and job creation. This is why we adopted the Economic Action Plan, because we want to accelerate not just economic growth but also diversification in terms of both ownership and economic sectors,” he said.
Mbalula said organisational renewal would mean more than rhetoric, adding that the ANC had to restore discipline, rebuild its ethical core and reconnect with communities that had lost faith in the party’s leadership.
“Renewal is not a slogan. It is a process of rebuilding the ethical foundation of our movement. It requires restoring discipline, strengthening accountability, and ensuring that leadership is driven not by access to resources, but by commitment to service,” he said.
He said the ANC would only regain credibility if voters saw lasting change in how municipalities were run.
“Reclaiming lost ground means making local government work, professionalising municipal administrations, and holding every mayor, every councillor, every municipal manager to measurable standards of performance.
“Decisive action means confronting corruption without fear or favour and ensuring that the corrupt, regardless of their political standing, face the full might of the law,” he said.
“The question before us is not whether Mahlangu’s sacrifice was worth it. The question is whether we are worthy of it,” Mbalula said.
He ended with an appeal for urgency inside the ANC, saying the party’s future would depend on whether it could recover from its own failures and once again deliver meaningfully for ordinary South Africans.
“The tree still stands. It has been battered by storms, some external, many of our own making. Its branches have been weakened by neglect, its roots threatened by the termites of corruption and complacency. But it stands. And it can bear fruit again. Fruit that every South African can taste,” he said.
Mahlangu was executed by the apartheid state on 6 April 1979 after being convicted, under the doctrine of common purpose, for his role in the Goch Street killings in Johannesburg, where Rupert Kessner and Kenneth Wolfendale were killed.
The ANC’s official programme for Monday included a gallows commemoration, a graveside ceremony at Mamelodi West Cemetery and a memorial lecture, with the Mahlangu family leading a symbolic walk retracing the 52 steps associated with his final journey to the gallows.
Earlier in the day, ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri also paid tribute to Mahlangu.
“I salute not only the ANC but all the liberation forces in our country and all South Africans that grew up looking up to the example of Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu,” Bhengu-Motsiri said.
She said Mahlangu’s sacrifice was directly linked to the freedoms enjoyed in democratic South Africa, urging young people to actively engage with the country’s liberation history.
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