‘If we don’t adapt, we’ll die’: Maropene Ramokgopa says ANC should start behaving like a political party

The ANC’s Maropene Ramokgopa during the National Executive Committee meeting at Birchwood Hotel on 25 January 2026 in Johannesburg. Picture: Gallo Images/Sharon Seretlo

The ANC’s second deputy secretary-general, Maropene Ramokgopa, says her party should start behaving like a political party contesting elections rather than a liberation party.

She was speaking in the City of Ekurhuleni on Tuesday as the party commemorated the 109th anniversary of one of its longest-serving presidents, Oliver Reginald Tambo.

“Of course, exile also taught the movement that survival requires adaptation. We must adapt; if we do not adapt, we will die,” said Ramokgopa.

“Our circumstances today are fundamentally different, and we must not equate our challenges with the repression of apartheid, but the principle holds methods that served us in one period cannot be assumed to be sufficient in the next.

“What we must understand and always carry forward is that we are now a political party and this transition, comrades, is very difficult because we know ourselves and have always organised ourselves to be a liberation movement.”

Ramokgopa said the ANC will can never be divorced from its struggle credentials but she said the party should adapt to the current political landscape in the country.

“We have to go out there to be a political party that must now win elections,” she said.

Ramokgopa said the ANC’s tactics over the last three decades have been that of a liberation party. She said this made it difficult to win over modern voters.

“We have not really adapted properly into what exactly a political party needs to do…”

Ramokgopa said the ANC should start looking at new ideas and systems that will allow the party to become a strong political contender post-1994.

She said the ANC must also relook at the socio-economic situation in South Africa and globally to understand the party’s position in a new South Africa.

“The balance of forces means: where are we, where are we in this revolution, the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) that we are pushing? Domestically, where are we?” she asked.

Meanwhile, Ramokgopa also spoke about factions and the need for unity inside the ANC.

“The tension, you can actually take a knife and cut it – you know exactly where to cut. It cannot be. That is not what the ANC should be about,” she said.

Ramokgopa said ANC members should never put their political ambitions ahead of the party’s interests.

She claimed the ANC is the only party that can build a better life for all South Africans.

“As a matter of fact, the ANC is the only thing that our people own,” she said.

She further said the ANC must admit it is facing challenges, and the first step to fixing them is to criticise from within.

“When an organisation is in difficulty, it is tempting to treat criticism as a threat to cohesion,” she said.

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