By Johnathan Paoli
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday told ANC delegates that the rise of the Global South was “irreversible” and said South Africa should not allow external powers, particularly the United States, to sow doubt or division as global geopolitics shift.
Delivering his political report to the party’s 5th National General Council at the Birchwood Hotel in Ekurhuleni, Ramaphosa said the global balance of forces had changed dramatically since the ANC’s last major gathering.
“The global balance of forces is shifting in different, sometimes contradictory ways. The economic and political rise of Global South countries is upending long-established power relations.
“These changes are occurring amidst unpredictable and disruptive actions of a new US administration, creating uncertainty and volatility. As a movement and as South Africa, our engagement in international relations aims to promote our national interest and protect our sovereignty and constitutional order,” he said.
“Through the G20, BRICS, the Non-Aligned Movement and various United Nations platforms, our country is making an important contribution towards an international order that is more inclusive, just, stable and peaceful.”
The NGC is a mid-term review of the governing party, where it assess its political and organisational performance and sets direction ahead of the next electoral conference.
“There are forces, locally and abroad, who resent the empowerment of the once-dispossessed. Their opposition to Black Economic Empowerment, employment equity and redress is not about principle. It is about preserving privilege,” Ramaphosa said.
Developing nations across Africa, Asia and Latin America were asserting themselves in multilateral institutions, increasingly rejecting unilateral pressure, and demanding a more equitable international economic order.
South Africa, he said, had a “historic responsibility” to help drive this transformation, just as it did in the struggle against apartheid.
Ramaphosa said that the US, unsettled by the growing influence of BRICS+ and Global South cooperation, was attempting to “reassert old hierarchies” through diplomatic pressure, selective sanctions and targeted narratives about instability in emerging democracies.
He told delegates to be alert to “external agendas disguised as concern”, adding that some of these narratives deliberately amplify domestic divisions in countries like South Africa.
This geopolitical pushback, he said, had also seeped into debates about South Africa’s own transformation policies.
He noted that certain US-based think tanks and lobby groups had increasingly framed BEE as discriminatory, often echoing talking points of local groups resisting transformation.
Ramaphosa rejected these arguments outright, insisting that BEE remained essential to building a just and inclusive society.
The ANC, he said, would “stand rock-solid against any attempt — foreign or domestic, to weaken or delegitimise the project of economic justice”.
He said that transformation was not negotiable and could not be held hostage by those intent on portraying redress as instability.
He reminded delegates that South Africa’s sovereignty depended not only on strong institutions, but also on the confidence to pursue policies aligned with its constitutional and developmental priorities, not “the comfort of powerful nations”.
The rise of the Global South, he said, represents an unprecedented opportunity; but South Africa must guard against those who thrive on uncertainty, resist transformation, and fear a world no longer dominated by a single centre of power.
Ramaphosa urged members to remain united, disciplined and clear-sighted.
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