‘Brand ANC started eroding from then’: ANCYL president slams Thabo Mbeki and Tony Yengeni

Home » News » South Africa » Elections 2026

ANC Youth League leader Collen Malatji. Picture: Twitter/@Collen_Malatji3

ANCYL president Collen Malatji has slammed former president Thabo Mbeki for his recent comments on the poor performance of the ANC in the latest local government elections.

In an interview with Mbuyiseni Ndlozi on the African Renaissance podcast, Mbeki suggested that the president of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, should take accountability for the party’s electoral decline.

“Normally, in all these democratic countries when when you have a major disaster… the leaders resign they take responsibility. Mbalula called it a catastrophe, how do you continue to lead if you are responsible for a catastrophe?”

He said the ANC leadership should reflect deeply on these electoral outcomes and ask themselves, “What went wrong?”

“Leadership is elected for a full term. And in this term, we have had our own ups and downs, in particular, the last election and this election. It requires deep reflection by the leadership of the ANC,” he said.

But on Tuesday, Malatji hit back at Mbeki saying, his tenure as president of the ANC was also problematic.

“I think it’s unfair to want to burden one leadership collective of a problem that was caused many years ago by many generations before them. That is why we are clear on our statement that the old guard, including president Thabo Mbeki, are part of the problems that we have here in the ANC.

“The first time we dealt with corruption behaviours of arms deals, it was under them, comrade Thabo Mbeki and Tony Yengeni. The brand ANC started eroding from then,” he said.

Despite this, Malatji said someone should be held accountable for the ANC’s poor performance in the local government elections.

“The national executive committee (NEC) of the ANC must be accountable for this decline,” he said.

Malatji said public office bearers who did not campaign for the party during election season should also be held accountable.

“There are people who are deployed to provide services, some of them are ministers, some of them are in parliament; they were nowhere to be seen in these elections.

“If they were not campaigning for the ANC, it means they were campaigning against the ANC. Those people cannot continue being leaders of the ANC,” he said.

Malatji said the party must apologise to their supporters, who have been disappointed for years.

“They wanted to punish the ANC, so they forced a reset in the African National Congress,” he said.

He said only the younger generation in the ANC can reverse the party’s decline.

“I think the statements raised by President Thabo Mbeki are unfortunate. He must come raise them in the NEC meeting of the ANC; we engage them at that level.

“He must be able to explain to us that when he was confronted with those issues under his leadership, why did he not resign?” he said.

Meanwhile, Ramaphosa has denied that he intends to resign because of the ANC’s electoral decline. He described the reports as “preposterous”.

Get the latest news and updates on Whatsapp