Premier Zamani Saul says South Africa’s development needs strong, stable ANC

NORTHERN Cape premier and ANC provincial chairperson Dr Zamani Saul has argued that South Africa’s future development is inseparable from the organisational strength and stability of the ANC, warning that a weakened governing party would not be in the country’s best interests.

Saul said a “strong, stable, well-organised, well-managed and ideologically inclined ANC” was good for South Africa and essential to advancing the country’s developmental agenda.

“The future of South Africa is intrinsically interwoven with the organisational state of the ANC,” Saul said. “Hence, the development of SA is directly linked to the state of the ANC. A weak ANC, honestly speaking, is not in the best interest of South Africa.”

Saul said that despite the many challenges confronting the ruling party, the ANC continues to display ideological and strategic consistency, with a strong emphasis on social democracy, pro-poor policies and a mixed economy.

He was sharply critical of the country’s main opposition parties, describing them as either fragmented, ideologically confused or driven by personality cults.

Saul said the DA, the country’s second-largest party, was “gradually becoming a far-right party contesting white votes with the FF Plus and opposing any policy initiative to empower the previously disadvantaged”, which he characterised as a “revamped DA strain of Afrikaner nationalism”.

On the ideological front, Saul said the EFF and the MK Party were “an amorphous mess”, driven by ideological flux and cheap populism.

“This mess is caused by ideological flux and cheap populist postures, which are the dominant features of parties with strong traits of personality cult,” he said.

“What matters to these parties solely depends on what the cult leader says and remembers. What the cult leader forgets does not matter. Both the constitution of these parties and their strategic goals are subordinate to the cult leader’s whims and not the organisation.”

Saul’s comments come in the context of renewed debate within the ANC about organisational renewal, unity and the party’s future direction, as it grapples with declining electoral support, internal divisions and governance challenges at national, provincial and local level.

His views echo sentiments expressed by former ANC president Thabo Mbeki, who warned that South Africa would become ungovernable if the ANC were to collapse, describing the governing party as “too big and important to fail”.

Mbeki said that the party owed it to the nation to sort itself out and return to its foundational mission of serving the people, rather than becoming consumed by internal leadership battles.

Saul agreed that Mbeki was “200% correct” and concluded his message by calling on ANC members and supporters to strengthen the party.

“Let us grow our organisation,” he said.