Comrade Mlungisi Mvoko, Deputy Chairperson
NEC Deployees
Officials and PEC Members, and
Support Staff
Revolutionary greetings to you all this afternoon.
We gather at the beginning of a year that will undoubtedly be exacting, politically charged, and defining for our country and for the African National Congress, both nationally and within our province. The year 2026 does not arrive as an ordinary interval in our democratic journey. It presents itself as a moment of reckoning, marked by intensified contestation, sharpened public scrutiny, and far-reaching consequences for governance, organisational credibility, and political authority.
This is therefore a year that calls for precision of thought, firmness of direction, and an unyielding commitment to organisational discipline. The terrain before us is intricate, contested, and unrelenting. It is shaped by sustained economic pressure, deep-seated social frustrations, institutional fragilities, and heightened expectations from our people, particularly those who continue to bear the brunt of inequality, unemployment, and exclusion.
Comrades, we would be remiss if we did not pause to acknowledge the profound pain currently experienced by many of our people across the country. Recent natural disasters in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal have once again exposed the vulnerability of poor communities to clement weather climate change with repercussions of flooding, infrastructure collapse and displacement. Families have lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods. Even more tragic is the devastating road accident in Vaal earlier today, which claimed about 13 lives of school pupils so far; young lives full of promise, cut short in the most painful of circumstances. We extend our deepest condolences to the bereaved families, the affected communities and the education fraternity. These tragedies must sharpen our resolve to strengthen disaster preparedness, improve road safety interventions, and ensure that the state responds with urgency, compassion and competence.
I am confident that, as a collective, we are emotionally, psychologically, and physically prepared to confront the demands that lie ahead. Yet, as human beings and as cadres of the movement, we must consciously safeguard our health and personal well-being. The struggle before us is not a sprint but a protracted undertaking. History reminds us that political endurance is sustained not only by conviction, but by resilience, balance, and self-discipline.
Some amongst us have entered this year with personal commitments and resolutions that they must pursue with consistency and resolve. That is entirely appropriate. But such personal discipline must always reinforce collective responsibility rather than distract from it.
However, Comrades, we must always remain conscious that above our individual aspirations stand the collective orientations and strategic directives of the movement.
These are articulated in the January 8th Statement, which continues to serve as our political compass for the year. That Statement is not symbolic or ceremonial. It is an instrument for action. It outlines the priorities that must shape our conduct as leaders, our posture as an organisation, and our engagement with the broader society.
Accordingly, we carry a shared obligation to ensure that the strategic priorities identified by the ANC are not merely articulated, but are implemented with seriousness, discipline, and consistency across all centres of organisation and governance.
During the past week, in our Provincial Working Committee engagement, we examined in detail the six strategic priorities outlined in that Statement. That engagement was both necessary and timely. What emerged with unmistakable force was the immediacy of the task before us to stabilise and fix local government.
Governance must be confronted in its entirety, because the difficulties confronting local government cannot be detached from challenges at the provincial and national levels. These spheres are interlinked, interdependent, and mutually reinforcing.
Local government and provincial government, Comrades, are in many respects inseparable twins. When one falters, the other inevitably bears the consequences. Service delivery breakdowns, institutional stagnation, and administrative dysfunction at the local level ultimately reverberate across the movement as a whole.
As we move steadily towards the 2026 Local Government Elections, our people will assess us not on pronouncements or intentions, but on whether their lived conditions improve in concrete and observable ways.
Already, Comrades, the mainstream media and social media platforms have begun to fixate on the forthcoming Provincial Elective Conference, scheduled to take place in the coming months, with its precise date to be determined through constitutional processes. This premature focus seeks to impose an external narrative upon an internal democratic process that must be guided exclusively by the African National Congress and its Constitution. It attempts to recast internal democracy as instability rather than organisational vitality.
It is only through measured, structured, and collective deliberation that we can meaningfully assess the state of organisational preparedness. Anything else remains conjecture.
Yet regrettably, a narrative has already taken hold suggesting that internal political contestation will necessarily undermine governance and precipitate political and administrative disorder. Such narratives are not benign. They seek to erode organisational authority and weaken confidence in the movement at a critical juncture.
Within this environment, members of this leadership collective are being projected, labelled, and inserted into imagined factional configurations across regions, often without mandate or consent. Serious political work is reduced to spectacle, and collective leadership is distorted.
Comrades, it is entirely natural for cadres to harbour political aspirations. Ambition, in and of itself, is not a violation of principle. However, ambition must always be subordinated to organisational discipline and collective purpose. When ambition becomes untethered from discipline, it ceases to serve the movement and begins to corrode it from within.
The African National Congress is greater than any individual. Leaders emerge and depart. The organisation endures. Those who preceded us served their time and exited the political stage. History recalls them not for the titles they held, but for whether they executed their responsibilities with humility, discipline, and loyalty to the people.
At this moment, Comrades, our central responsibility is not self-positioning but organisational consolidation. We must stabilise governance, repair local government, and rebuild public confidence through visible and sustained action. Cynicism must be countered not through rhetoric, but through disciplined conduct, institutional repair, and consistent delivery on the ground.
It is therefore imperative that the ANC in the Eastern Cape speaks with one coherent voice on organisational matters. The process of nominations must remain open, democratic, and firmly anchored in the ANC Constitution. Branches remain the foundation of the organisation and the sole locus of nomination authority. Shortcuts, predetermined outcomes, and parallel arrangements cannot be permitted.
Equally critical, Comrades, is the exercise of restraint by members of this leadership collective. Engagement with the media on matters of personal ambition or anticipated leadership outcomes must be avoided. Such conduct feeds speculation and weakens organisational coherence.
I must caution, Comrades, that without discipline there can be no organisation, and without organisation there can be no victory. Movements do not disintegrate because they lack ideas. They falter when discipline dissolves, when collective purpose is displaced by individual impulse, and when constitutional processes are treated as obstacles rather than instruments of unity.
Let us therefore allow the African National Congress to articulate its positions through its structures, to act through its constitutional processes, and to lead through collective wisdom. Our strength has never resided in personalities, but in organisation. Never in noise, but in coherence. Never in ambition divorced from principle, but in disciplined service to the people.
Comrades, there remains unfinished organisational work that demands our immediate attention, particularly the convening and finalisation of elective regional conferences in both the Amathole and Sarah Baartman Regions. This is not a marginal concern. It speaks directly to organisational legitimacy and provincial stability. Prolonged processes generate uncertainty and organisational fatigue. Regions constitute the backbone of the ANC. When regional leadership questions remain unresolved, the entire organisational edifice is weakened.
In March 2026, Comrades, we face an immediate political test in the form of by-elections in three municipalities: Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, Dr Beyers Naude Local Municipality, and Winnie Madikizela Mandela Local Municipality, encompassing thirty-five voting districts.
This is not a peripheral exercise. It is a direct measure of organisational coherence, political relevance, and leadership presence.
Leadership must be visible, accessible, and accountable. Communities must encounter the ANC as a living movement, engaged with their daily material struggles and aspirations.
Comrades, Umkhonto we Sizwe Liberation War Veterans convened their Inaugural Conference from 15 to 17 January 2026. This gathering serves as a forerunner to the broader South African Liberation War Veterans structure recognised by the President and elevated to a Presidential Project. The conditions facing Liberation War Veterans speak to the moral centre of our movement and to our unresolved historical obligations.
Matric Results & Back to School Campaign :
Comrades, the beginning of the academic year has once again placed the education system under scrutiny. Our Back-to-School Campaign in the Eastern Cape is not a ceremonial exercise but a political responsibility. It must be used to confront late delivery of learning materials, scholar transport failures, unsafe infrastructure, and the persistent inequalities between rural and urban schools. While we have made progress in stabilising the schooling environment in many areas, the 2025 matric results remind us that we are still not where we ought to be. Every learner who fails, every child who drops out, is not merely a statistic but a reflection of our collective performance as a movement in government. Education remains the most decisive front in the struggle to restore dignity and build long-term generational opportunity.
PEC Lekgotla & Local Government Elections:
Comrades, next week the African National Congress Lekgotla will convene and will most certainly deliberate on several of the matters highlighted above, including the overall posture of the movement and the national government strategy for 2026. Subsequently, we must intensify work on the Eastern Cape Provincial Election Strategy, ensuring that the repair of municipalities, visible service delivery, and leadership presence constitute its core.
Accordingly, our Research Department must be seized with the task of systematically scanning the political and electoral terrain, assessing the organisational strength of the African National Congress, and taking the pulse of voters as we move closer to the elections.
The refinement of our strategy must also be informed by a sober assessment of the evident fragility and disarray within opposition parties. We must do everything possible, Comrades, to expose the opposition for who they truly are and what they concretely represent. In essence, they stand for little beyond narrow ambition, instability, and opportunism.
The African National Congress remains the only credible political force capable of governing South Africa and safeguarding national stability. Were the ANC to be displaced from power, the country would stand on the brink of a disaster of considerable magnitude. This is a message that must be communicated with precision, confidence, and conviction.
The masses of our people will receive that message loudly and unmistakably only if, as this leadership collective, we demonstrate seriousness about good governance and consistent service delivery. Where cadres deployed in the Provincial Government fall short of the targets they have set for themselves, they must be called to account before this leadership collective.
As long as taps continue to run dry in rural communities, someone must be held accountable. Where road infrastructure collapses, where school transport becomes chaotic at the start of every academic year, accountability must follow.
We are now confronted with a decline in the matric pass rate, falling short of our stated target of 87 percent. As the Executive Leadership, we must be afforded the opportunity and must have the courage to account honestly. Where necessary, consequence management must be applied.
Such action must be accompanied by a thorough and sober analysis of precisely where we dropped the ball as cadres deployed in the Provincial Government, so that corrective action is informed, decisive, and effective.
Cost of Living & Service Delivery:
Comrades, our people are also confronting a relentless cost of living crisis. Rising food prices, electricity instability, unemployment, and collapsing local infrastructure continue to erode public confidence. Communities are not asking for slogans; they are asking for water that flows, streets that are safe, clinics that function, and municipalities that work. This moment demands that we close the gap between political authority and lived experience. If we are serious about renewal, then our presence in government must be felt in the everyday conditions of our people. The credibility of the ANC in this period will not be determined by conference outcomes, but by whether ordinary citizens can tangibly feel improvement in their daily lives.
Shifting Global Geopolitical & Economic Terrain :
Comrades, as we conclude, we must situate all that we have discussed within a rapidly shifting global geopolitical and economic terrain. The abduction of the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the destabilisation of Iran, and threats by Donald Trump to annex and colonise Greenland signal a dangerous and profound reconfiguration of global power relations.
These developments are not distant or theoretical. They will most certainly impact South Africa and shape the environment within which we must execute our immediate and medium-term tasks. The possibility of additional reciprocal tariffs cannot be discounted, particularly in the context of naval and drilling exercises involving Iranian forces and the increasingly militarised posture of global trade relations.
Compounding this challenge is the arrival of the United States Ambassador-designate to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell III , emboldened by a clear mandate to discipline South Africa diplomatically and to compel alignment with United States geopolitical interests.
These realities demand from us heightened vigilance, strategic coherence, political firmness, and a sober appreciation of the international pressures that will increasingly intersect with our domestic responsibilities.
I thank you.
