The President Is Going Nowhere: ANC Dismisses Resignation Talk After Election Collapse

Johannesburg – The African National Congress has firmly rejected claims that President Cyril Ramaphosa is under pressure to resign following the party’s sharp decline in last week’s local government elections.

Speaking to journalists in Boksburg on Thursday, ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said the president “is going nowhere” and that there is no pressure from the party’s leadership collective for him to leave. She described reports that Ramaphosa had offered to step down as “fabrication” and urged South Africans not to take them seriously.

The ANC’s share of the national vote fell to around 31 percent, down from 46 percent in the 2021 municipal elections. It is the party’s worst performance since the end of apartheid. The Democratic Alliance received about 25 percent, while the uMkhonto weSizwe party of former president Jacob Zuma took nearly 10 percent. Many major metros, including Johannesburg, now have no outright winner, so parties must negotiate coalitions to run local councils.

Bhengu spoke ahead of a special National Executive Committee meeting called to discuss the results and give a mandate to the party’s coalition negotiators. She said Ramaphosa had led the election campaign from the front, travelling across the country, and that there was “no sense” in which he should resign. Any proper discussion about individual or collective resignations would take place later at a regular NEC meeting focused on assessing the election performance.

The denial comes after media reports, including from TimesLive, suggested Ramaphosa had considered stepping down after the poor results. Former president Thabo Mbeki also publicly said that if the reports were true, resigning would be the right thing to do. Bhengu stressed that the current leadership remains united behind the president.

The ANC remains the largest party nationally but has lost control of most big cities. Coalition talks are already under way, and the party must decide which partners it will work with at local level. Ramaphosa’s term as ANC president is due to end in December 2027 after two five-year terms.

For now, the message from Luthuli House is clear: the president stays, and the focus is on forming governments in the hung councils rather than changing the party leadership.

Source: https://x.com/Newzroom405/status/2120810497142354325?a=W2xlQJcN5pg_wIz77ho&s=19

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