Ramaphosa’s betrayal of the Liberation Project

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s admission yesterday that “those municipalities that do best are not ANC-controlled municipalities” and are “often DA-controlled municipalities” represents nothing short of a catastrophic betrayal of the African National Congress and the broader liberation struggle.

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Speaking before over 6 000 ANC councillors at FNB Stadium while draped in the party’s colours, Ramaphosa delivered what can only be described as a campaign speech for the Democratic Alliance.

His public praise of DA-governed municipalities as models to emulate reveals a president who has fundamentally lost faith in his own party’s capacity to govern.

This is not leadership - it is capitulation. At a time when the ANC should be rallying its troops and addressing service delivery failures with concrete solutions, Ramaphosa instead chose to publicly humiliate his own organisation. The optics are devastating: the sitting President of South Africa and leader of the ruling party telling the nation that the opposition governs better.

The president’s comments come at the worst possible time, just months before the 2026 local government elections. Rather than providing the decisive leadership needed to address municipal failures, he has handed the DA a gift-wrapped endorsement from the highest office in the land. This is not honest self-reflection - it is political suicide.