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 one-time 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.
A striking parallel can be drawn with India’s Congress Party (INC), another liberation movement turned political behemoth.
Faced with a decline in the face of Narendra Modi’s energetic Bharatiya Janata Party, the INC has repeatedly reverted to its founding dynasty, the Gandhi family.
Instead of broadening leadership, the party clings to familiar figures—Rahul Gandhi, in recent years—hoping that nostalgia and spectacle, such as countrywide “yatra” marches, will revive its fortunes.
It generates headlines and conveys an image of renewed energy but fails to address the party’s core problems: being out of touch, lacking a compelling modern vision, and failing to inspire new voters.
The ANC’s launch of an 84-member PTT is its own “yatra”: a grand display meant to project invigoration and unity, but which fails to address root causes—alienation of the youth, urban poor, and disillusioned voters who now see the DA as the default.
Deploying well-known cadres, however experienced, only reinforces the perception that the ANC is trapped in its own past, more invested in managing internal factions than connecting with contemporary realities.
This is a top-down solution for a challenge that demands bottom-up engagement—a 21st-century electorate courted with 20th-century tactics.
A more recent and relevant comparison can be found in the UK Conservative Party’s attempt to revive itself before the 2024 general election.
Following years of scandal under Boris Johnson, his successor, Rishi Sunak, attempted to reset the party’s image with a cabinet reshuffle, bringing back former prime minister David Cameron as foreign secretary.
The move was marketed as injecting experience and stability, but the public saw it as a desperate recycling of old leaders—a “musical chairs” approach rather than genuine change.
The resulting electoral disaster underscored the futility of such strategies in convincing a skeptical and fatigued electorate.
The ANC’s NEC is performing a similar exercise in Western Cape: disbanding a failed leadership team, then installing a PTT combining outgoing members with seasoned figures like Rasool and Dyantyi.
Dyantyi’s return, after his career took a hit amid the Mkhwebane inquiry, is telling.
It highlights the ANC’s tendency to reward loyalty with rehabilitation, often at the expense of public accountability.
Ultimately, the ANC’s “renewal” is an internal project: consolidating NEC control, preparing for elections, and managing factions.
It is not yet a sincere effort at ideological or moral revitalisation. The electorate is increasingly adept at seeing through such manoeuvres.
The ANC’s 9% drop in Western Cape electoral support was a direct judgment on its brand and performance. Swapping personnel without changing the product will yield only diminishing returns.
Viewed in a global context, it is a well-trodden, losing playbook. As with India’s Congress and the Tories in the UK, parties more focused on symbolism and internal management than genuine renewal only hasten their decline.
True renewal in Western Cape—and for the ANC overall—will require more than reshuffles or the return of familiar faces.
It demands humility to acknowledge policy and brand failures and the courage to empower fresh, local leadership unburdened by internal rivalries.
Only by offering a compelling, relevant alternative to the DA—one rooted in the real aspirations of communities—can the ANC hope to regain lost ground.
The return of Rasool and Dyantyi signals that, for now, the party’s national leadership is choosing the path of managed decline.
Betting on the old guard to win new battles is a gamble history suggests they are destined to lose.
