ANC SG Mbalula warns members against campaigning for 2027 succession

African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Fikile Mbalula has shut down talk of the party’s 2027 succession, warning that those campaigning prematurely will be dealt with.

Mbalula has been speaking to the media on the sidelines of the ANC’s National Lekgotla at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg on Saturday.

The current term of the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) ends next year.

In 2027, the party will hold an elective conference where a new national leadership will be elected, including a new president.

While no one has come out publicly to raise their hand as Cyril Ramaphosa’s successor, soft campaigns have already been launched in the background.

Earlier this month, Sunday World published a video showing T-shirts printed with PM27, representing Patrice Motsepe’s presidential campaign.

Mbalula said it's too early to discuss the party's presidential succession.

“People must wait with their candidates. We don’t want to single out one person. We saw T-shirts being produced, but those T-shirts - if we found them in our branches … we have given a clear instruction to our structures that individuals who are going to undertake those activities in the name of the ANC, we are going to deal with them. There was such an individual in Limpopo, and we brought him to discipline.”

Mbalula added that the liberation movement's time and resources should be spent on the upcoming local government elections, where the party faces a tough battle to curb its electoral decline.