Former president Thabo Mbeki has backed calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign, saying the ANC leader is correct to consider stepping down following the party’s poor electoral performance.
Mbeki also suggested that the ANC’s top seven leaders should consider resigning and taking responsibility for the organisation’s declining electoral support and what he described as a catastrophe under their leadership.
In a video clip circulating on social media, Mbeki said he had been informed about a Sunday Times report alleging that Ramaphosa had offered to resign following the outcome of the local government elections.
Mbeki said although he had not personally read the report, he said he believed Ramaphosa would be taking the correct position if the reports were true.
“Because normally, normally, in all of these democratic countries where you have a major disaster like that, the leaders resign. They take responsibility,” Mbeki said.
He questioned how the ANC leadership could continue in office after presiding over such an outcome.
Mbeki argued that the party’s leadership should take responsibility for its failures rather than leave the task of renewal to individuals who might not be capable of turning the organisation around.
He also questioned what positive developments could be attributed to Ramaphosa’s presidency since he became ANC president in 2017 and president of the country in 2018.
“What has happened between 2018 and 2026 of a positive nature that you can point to, to say during this period, positive, positive, positive? Nothing. There’s a lot of negativity,” he said.
Mbeki cited rising unemployment, poverty, violence and crime, as well as the country’s declining economic performance and the ANC’s loss of electoral support.
He suggested that the rest of the ANC’s top seven should consider following Ramaphosa’s reported example.
“Isn’t it time for that top seven to say, like President Ramaphosa seems to be saying, we can’t continue to lead having produced this negative outcome of this kind? Maybe that’s what they should say,” he said.
However, Mbeki clarified that he was not instructing the party’s leadership to resign, but believed they should be prepared to accept responsibility.
He also included himself in that responsibility, pointing out that he remained a member of the ANC’s NEC. “I’m part of the leadership of the ANC. I’m a member of National Executive Committee of the ANC. We have to take responsibility for what has happened, including that top seven,” he said.
Mbeki further questioned whether the ANC had entrusted the responsibility of renewing the organisation to the wrong people.
“It may very well be indeed that when we say ANC renewal, we are giving the task to renew the ANC to wrong people,” he said.