By Johnathan Paoli
President Cyril Ramaphosa has intensified his push to reconnect the African National Congress with South Africans through a renewed focus on grassroots engagement and internal accountability.
Leading a community engagement programme alongside first deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane on Sunday in Soweto, Ramaphosa described the initiative as central to the ANC’s organisational renewal, with accountability playing a big part.
“An important part is the accountability framework that we adopted where every leader will have to account for what they do in their own branches and branches that they will have adopted. And this is in an effort to reconnect the ANC with our communities and to make sure that we address the challenges,” Ramaphosa said
The programme, which included visits to local branches and interaction with communities, aims to revive party structures and ensure leaders are attuned to the real and urgent concerns of everyday citizens.
“This is part of our renewal process, to be in our branch meetings, to encourage unity and activity, and to ensure we are more connected to the issues on the ground,” Ramaphosa said.
“We want our leaders not only to connect with their own branches but to adopt others, ensuring wall-to-wall coverage across the country,” he explained, adding that he would be visiting multiple branches in the weeks to come.
A key feature of the renewal project is a newly implemented accountability framework, which mandates that ANC leaders to regularly report on their work in their own branches and in those they adopt.
Positioning the ANC as a vital conduit between communities and government, Ramaphosa stressed the party’s responsibility to ensure that service delivery and public grievances were escalated and resolved efficiently at all levels whether local, provincial or national.
Addressing recent tensions within the Government of National Unity, Ramaphosa acknowledged that some coalition partners had opposed key budget decisions.
“This issue will be discussed by the NEC after the National Working Committee meets. We are navigating this path carefully,” he said.
Ramaphosa also used the platform to strongly reaffirm the ANC’s independence from outside influence.
Responding to letters from business leaders addressed to himself and other political heads, he stressed that while all citizens, including the business community, were entitled to express their views, such input did not determine the ANC’s direction.
“We are not under pressure from business or whoever. If we are under any pressure, it is pressure that comes from our people. We make our own decisions based on what advances the interests of our people,” the president said.
He further emphasised that the ANC’s guiding priorities remain unchanged: tackling poverty, inequality and unemployment.
These, he said, were the urgent pressures the party must respond to, not corporate interests or elite lobbying.
On international matters, Ramaphosa maintained South Africa’s stance of non-interference, declining to comment on ongoing demonstrations in the United States.
“We do not believe it is correct to opine on the internal matters of other countries, just as we expect the same respect in return,” he said.
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