A Devastating Admission: 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.

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.

Ramaphosa's selective praise is particularly insidious. While lauding certain DA-controlled areas, he conveniently glosses over the complex historical and structural challenges facing African municipalities. This narrative feeds into a dangerous false equivalency that ignores the legacy of apartheid spatial planning and the unequal distribution of resources that continues to define South African local government.

The president's statement that there is "no shame in learning from the DA" might sound reasonable in isolation, but it fundamentally misses the point. The issue is not about learning—it is about a liberation movement leader publicly declaring the superiority of a party that represents the antithesis of the ANC's founding principles.

How can ANC candidates now campaign effectively when their own president has publicly declared DA municipalities superior? This statement will feature prominently in opposition campaign materials across the country. The DA could not have asked for a better endorsement if they had written the speech themselves.

The timing could not be worse. With the ANC already facing unprecedented electoral challenges and coalition governments becoming the norm rather than the exception, Ramaphosa's comments provide ammunition to every opposition party seeking to challenge ANC dominance at the local level.

For a liberation movement that has governed this country for three decades, this moment represents a nadir of political leadership. The ANC deserves better than a president who campaigns for the opposition while wearing the party's regalia. The party's ordinary people, who have dedicated their lives to the liberation project, deserve a leader who believes in their capacity to deliver for the people.

Ramaphosa's admission reveals more than just an acknowledgement of municipal challenges — it exposes a fundamental crisis of confidence within the ruling party. When a liberation movement's leader publicly declares the opposition's superiority, it signals not just political weakness but ideological bankruptcy.

The ANC's municipal challenges are real and require urgent attention. But the solution lies not in public capitulation to opposition narratives, but in renewed commitment to the founding principles of the liberation struggle: service to the people, accountability, and transformation.

Ramaphosa should be mobilising the party's resources, developing concrete action plans, and demonstrating the kind of leadership that inspires rather than deflates. Instead, he has chosen the path of least resistance — public self-flagellation that serves no purpose other than to undermine his own party's electoral prospects.

For a movement that once inspired the world with its vision of a non-racial, democratic South Africa, this represents a devastating moment of surrender. The liberation project deserves leaders who fight for its success, not those who publicly declare its failure while draped in its colours.

Anda Mbikwana is a PhD candidate and a municipal finance and leadership in governance expert, he writes in his personal capacity.