Why ANC's 'renewal' falls way too short

Party opted to go with trusted figures instead of real change in the Cape

- Setumo Stone

The dissolution of the ANC Western Cape provincial executive committee and the appointment of a provincial task team (PTT) - headed by Ebrahim Rasool, with Richard Dyantyi as fundraiser - has been framed as a bold act of “renewal”.

The ANC's national executive committee (NEC) touts this as a strategy to revitalise a struggling province ahead of the 2026 local elections. However, to see this merely as internal housekeeping misses the larger picture. The move is a textbook case of what political scientists call “managed decline”- a strategy used by once-dominant parties unable to adapt to shifting political landscapes.

The ANC's chosen path in Western Cape is not the injection of new blood, but rather a recycling of loyal veterans. Rasool, a former ambassador and premier, and Dyantyi, a onetime parliamentary chair, represent the comfort of established loyalties over the risks of genuine transformation.

The rhetoric is saturated with buzzwords - “renewal”, “unity”, “rebuilding” - but the mechanism remains the same: centralising control and reinstating trusted operatives, prioritising loyalty over grassroots empowerment.

This pattern is not unique to the ANC.