Internal party moves are helping to strengthen the president’s position.
The ANC’s internal renewal campaign has helped strengthen President Cyril Ramaphosa’s position a few months ahead of the party’s national elective conference in December.
Billed at the last such gathering in 2017 as an effort to rid the party of corrupt leaders, Ramaphosa’s detractors, such as suspended ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule, have described the renewal drive as a purge.
For Ramaphosa, however, it has grown into a legacy project.
At the party’s birthday rally in Polokwane on 8 January this year, he announced that an ANC Renewal Commission would be set up “to provide sharper focus to the renewal and rebuilding of the movement”. This commission will be tasked with developing a roadmap for the ANC towards its 120th anniversary in 2032.
It was to have been established by the end of January, but disagreements over those supposed to serve on it meant that the commission is only expected to be finalised by the national executive committee (NEC) at its meeting on 25 March.
The commission could also morph into a mechanism that would see Ramaphosa’s position in the party strengthened. Although most in the party acknowledge that Ramaphosa is…