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Ramaphosa’s Honesty Shakes the ANC: Is This the Beginning of the End?

Published

2 months ago

September 16, 2025

Chiraag

Ramaphosa presidency South Africa, ANC FNB Stadium speech, Cyril Ramaphosa honesty backlash, DA vs ANC municipalities, South African politics turning point, ANC leadership crisis, Joburg ETC

A rare moment of truth at the FNB Stadium

Cyril Ramaphosa stood before thousands of ANC councillors at Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium and said something few expected: DA-run municipalities are often better managed than those governed by his own party. For a president known for careful words and consensus politics, it was a moment of brutal honesty. For the ANC’s rank and file, it was almost a betrayal.

Pointing to Cape Town and Stellenbosch, Ramaphosa told his comrades there was nothing wrong with learning from the opposition. “It pains me,” he said, “to see how far our municipalities have fallen behind.” In towns where potholes swallow cars and water no longer flows, the admission sounded like common sense. Inside the ANC, though, it landed like a bomb.

The backdrop of failure

The timing of his words makes them sting even more. The Auditor-General’s latest report paints a bleak picture:

87% of municipalities broke procurement and contract rules.
In 63% of those cases, finances were directly affected.
77% of infrastructure projects had serious flaws, from half-built water schemes to broken clinics.
More than half of municipalities ignored basic accountability rules, with no consequences for officials who mismanaged funds.

Ramaphosa told councillors plainly: many ANC municipalities are not progressing; they are moving backwards.

Applause from the DA, silence from comrades

While opposition leaders like Helen Zille and John Steenhuisen were quick to applaud Ramaphosa’s honesty, his own councillors were far less vocal. Some dismissed the remarks entirely; others refused to comment. One told reporters they came “just to get marching orders, not to debate them.”

The DA wasted no time in amplifying Ramaphosa’s words across social media. Their message was simple: if even the ANC’s president says DA municipalities work better, then the choice for voters is clear.

Zille, with her eye on Johannesburg’s mayoral race in 2026, will likely return to this moment again and again. For her, it is political gold.

Analysts see a turning point

Independent political analysts suggest Ramaphosa finally said out loud what he has long believed but kept quiet to avoid internal backlash. Goodenough Mashego noted that the president has always known some ANC deployees act in self-interest rather than service. Solly Rashilo went further, calling it an open admission of years of corruption, incompetence, and neglect.

In most democracies, a president urging reform would be celebrated. In the ANC, where loyalty and internal discipline often overshadow public accountability, it risks being seen as a declaration of war.

The ANC’s history of turning on its own

South Africa’s ruling party has a record of eating its leaders alive. Both Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma were forced out by internal revolt. Ramaphosa’s leadership style has always leaned on persuasion and consensus rather than fear. That approach may now be his undoing if grassroots leaders see his praise of the DA as crossing a red line.

Already, memes and commentary online are framing his words as the ANC president telling citizens to look elsewhere for working services. Whether Ramaphosa intended it or not, that narrative is gaining momentum.

The beginning of the end?

Ramaphosa’s speech may go down as his Damascus moment. It was candid, cutting, and reflective of South Africans’ lived reality. Yet within the ANC it could mark the beginning of the end of his presidency.

If his councillors turn against him for elevating the opposition, Ramaphosa may find himself in the same company as his predecessors who were pushed aside. For ordinary citizens, the bigger question is not who leads the ANC but whether those words will ever translate into action where it matters: in the streets, clinics, and water pipes of South Africa’s broken municipalities.