Why the ANC NEC Lekgotla matters ahead of local elections

The African National Congress (ANC) has begun a three-day National Executive Committee (NEC) Lekgotla in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, bringing together senior party representatives from across the country at a politically significant moment ahead of this year’s local government elections.

According to reporting by Busi Chimombe, the meeting is being attended by ANC leaders deployed in government as ministers, deputy ministers, premiers and executive mayors. The stated task of the Lekgotla is to put in place a working plan to implement the six priorities outlined in the party’s January 8 Statement, delivered in the North West province about two weeks ago as reported by sabcnews.

The ANC’s January 8 Statement typically sets the party’s priorities for the year. In this case, the NEC Lekgotla is positioned as the forum where those priorities are translated into practical steps that can be carried through by deployees operating in national, provincial and local government structures.

The timing matters because the party itself frames the gathering as a crucial meeting ahead of local government elections expected later this year. Local elections place renewed focus on governance at municipal level, where communities often assess performance through visible service delivery and infrastructure outcomes.

ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula signalled that municipal delivery issues will be part of the discussions, pointing to what he described as a disconnect between available funding and conditions on the ground.

His comments highlight a key issue the party says it wants to address: why money allocated for municipal infrastructure has not been fully utilised, even as residents continue to experience problems such as poor road conditions.

Mbalula added that discussions would extend beyond infrastructure delivery into the broader challenge of improving local government performance and economic outcomes.

“So those are the things we’re going to address and therefore, fixing local government, the economy,” he said.

He also referenced provincial inequality and the state of implementation of the ANC’s industrialisation programme and job creation agenda, suggesting the Lekgotla will assess how far the party has progressed on policy commitments that have been presented publicly through its manifesto.

In the same remarks, he pointed to what he described as “offshoots that are positive about our economy,” and posed a forward-looking question about consolidating those gains.

Taken together, the comments place the Lekgotla in the space between political priorities and practical delivery: translating the January 8 commitments into a working plan, while interrogating challenges that the party believes are holding back municipal infrastructure spending, local government performance, and economic programmes linked to industrialisation and job creation.

The structure of attendance also matters. By bringing together officials deployed across governmentministers, premiers and executive mayors the meeting brings multiple levels of governance into a single planning process. That configuration supports the ANC’s stated aim of producing a coordinated working plan, rather than leaving implementation to fragmented structures.

The ANC has not, in the text provided, detailed the full six priorities or the specific resolutions expected from the Lekgotla. However, the meeting’s stated purpose is to formalise a practical plan for implementation, and the Secretary General’s remarks indicate that municipal infrastructure spending, local government performance, and economic programmes will be among the issues under discussion.

As the Lekgotla continues over the next three days, the central political test will be whether the party emerges with a clear working plan that aligns deployees across the country on implementing the January 8 priorities particularly in areas that the ANC itself has placed in focus, such as municipal infrastructure delivery and measures linked to jobs and industrialisation.

Source: sabcnews