By Johnathan Paoli
The ANC closed its fifth National General Council (NGC) in Ekurhuleni on Thursday with a blunt message to its own ranks: the party must renew or perish as it tries to arrest electoral decline ahead of the 2026 local government elections.
In a declaration adopted at Birchwood, delegates said the movement faced an “existential crisis” and was “at a fork in the road”.
“We can either renew or perish,” was the conclusion.
The four-day gathering also intensified debate over the ANC’s long-standing alliance with the South African Communist Party (SACP), culminating in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that the NGC had resolved that SACP members must recuse themselves from the ANC’s joint election structures.
Ramaphosa, delivering his closing remarks at the Birchwood Hotel, described the NGC as a “turning point” for a 113-year-old movement confronting internal decay, public anger over failed services and corruption, and the rise of
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