Gwen Ramokgopa glosses over her presidential ambitions:
ANC treasurer general Gwen Ramokgopa has downplayed her presidential ambitions, saying the party has to prioritise the 2026 local government elections rather than the debate about who succeeds Cyril Ramaphosa.
“I would really appreciate it if I didn’t get into the presidential succession debate. We have a very big challenge, which is the 2026 elections, that we must face together, united,” Ramokgopa told journalists at the Progressive Business Forum in Hyde Park on Tuesday.
“It is also reasonable to expect debates on succession because we know that the current president’s term is coming to an end, but we have prioritised discussions on the 2026 local government elections.”
Ramokgopa said she could still contribute or make a difference in the ANC or society in general without necessarily holding a higher office in the former liberation movement.
“It’s not like we are running away from anything, but we think it’s in the best interests of society to get local government right, of stabilising the government of national unity, which is a new experience, and also giving hope to South Africans.”
Ramokgopa has been touted as one of the people who could succeed ANC leader Ramaphosa, particularly because she has not been linked to allegations of corruption. Insiders said an untainted name would boost the party’s efforts to renew itself in the face of waning support.
The party’s deputy president, Paul Mashatile, and suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu are some of the people said to have had presidential ambitions, but both have allegations of corruption hanging over them.
ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula is also seen as a contender to take over from Ramaphosa, but some in the party think he is still too young for the position of president and needs to remain on the administrative side of the party.
In a posthumous 100-year birthday celebration at the weekend for party stalwart Gertrude Shope, who died a couple months short of reaching the centenary, the ANC Women’s League said it was searching for a female leader. This has fuelled speculation that women in the ANC will back a female leader for president at the 2027 elective conference.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was narrowly defeated by Ramaphosa in the 2017 conference.
On Tuesday, Ramokgopa noted that women in the ANC have found it difficult to emerge in positions such as president, secretary general and chairpersons in their provinces.
She said there was an unwritten law in the party that a leader in provinces or regions automatically becomes a leader in the government. In the past, the provincial or regional chair would simply assume the position of premier or mayor if they won at the elective conference, subject to the ANC winning provincial elections or local government elections.
The ANC has now introduced a rule that at least three candidates should be interviewed for positions such as premier and mayor, in a bid to avoid placing incompetent people simply because they had won provincial or regional elective conferences.
The ANC’s current first deputy secretary general, Nomvula Mokonyane, as well as Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, Maqueen Lestoha-Mathae and Nomusa Dube-Ncube became premiers of their provinces without being party leaders of their representative provinces.
“It has been explicit at the national level that the president of the party becomes the president of the country. It is not explicit in provinces and regions,” Ramokgopa said.
She noted that the ANC has a policy on 50/50 gender balance in ministerial appointments, but said the party had not been prescriptive on premiers and mayors.
“Our position now is that where there is a male premier, women should be more than 50% in the 10 MECs and also be the speaker of the legislature. That is how we are dealing with that issue,” Ramokgopa said.
Despite the strong push for women to be in leadership positions, there is still a requirement for them to be competent in their positions, she added.
“Running a municipality is like running a business. I’ve been there; it’s a business, and you should also have experience. That is really to stress that it can’t just be any woman for the sake of a woman. It must be a competent woman who would do the job as well as sometimes or even better [than men].”
South Africa in ICU: A patient in need of treatment, not more consultations:
Psychologists tell us that children begin to distinguish right from wrong as early as the age of six or seven. In South Africa, the legal age of responsibility is 18 and science has shown that full cognitive maturity develops at about 25 years of age. By these standards, South Africa, at 31 years into its democracy, should be a fully mature adult, capable of making rational choices and holding itself accountable.
Yet, if we were to imagine South Africa as a medical patient and its citizens as the diagnosticians, what we find is deeply troubling. Despite having passed every stage of cognitive development, the patient continues to fail the most basic tests of accountability and transparency.
The government’s recent proposal of a National Dialogue, costing R700 million, has been presented as an opportunity to help the nation reassess its moral and political direction. At face value, it appears to be a good-faith attempt to bring people together. But, when we look deeper, the prescription seems flawed.
During the 2024 national elections, political parties collectively spent well over a billion rand on campaigns, claiming to have the answers to South Africa’s ailments and having consulted the people. If such vast resources failed to produce a meaningful diagnosis, how then can we expect talks on a smaller budget to magically reveal what is wrong?
The concern is not only about the financial implications of this dialogue. It is also about the medical history of South Africa as a patient. Over the past three decades, the nation has undergone several consultations, diagnoses and treatment plans. These have included commissions of inquiry into state capture, the Phala Phala scandal and the Marikana massacre. Similar to a patient repeatedly being prescribed life-saving medication, South Africa was offered antidotes in the form of recommendations. But, year after year, those prescriptions have been ignored or taken half-heartedly.
The result is that the symptoms persist and the illness worsens. Recently, South Africa was presented with what were described as “explosive” claims from the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. What was the antidote to that? A commission of inquiry.
South Africans are left to ask: “How will this consultation, this National Dialogue, be different? What guarantees are there that, this time, recommendations will not simply gather dust on government shelves?” Without an honest answer, the proposed dialogue risks becoming yet another costly consultation with little to no recovery in sight.
Will it be that an exorbitant amount of effort and money is spent on ethnographic research which displaces the realities on the ground, attempting to inform accurate policy formulation? What more do you have to talk about when the panacea can be found in existing policies that are not implemented?
This is not to say that dialogue is unimportant to the project of democracy; public participation remains an imperative cornerstone of our democracy. Every patient deserves to be heard and every diagnosis requires listening. But listening without follow-through is a dangerous placebo. What South Africa urgently requires is not another round of polite conversations, but a programme of bold and decisive reforms. The patient is in the intensive care unit and the time for gentle monitoring has passed.
Treatment must include the retirement of the old and recycled politicians who continue to dominate the political landscape without offering fresh solutions, who sleep their way through meetings. It must also involve the creation of uncompromising accountability mechanisms that hold leaders to their promises and punish corruption without fear or favour. Most importantly, it might require a fundamental restructuring of our system of governance so it becomes one that prioritises transparency, responsiveness and genuine service to the people.
The metaphor of South Africa as a patient is not simply rhetorical. It reflects the lived reality of millions of South Africans who experience unemployment, inequality, poor service delivery and widespread corruption as daily symptoms of a failing body politic. To them, the National Dialogue cannot be another diagnostic exercise; it must be the beginning of real treatment.
This programme should inspire good governance, economic growth and development. It should be the beginning of the end of articulations such as, “Ke tswa kasi ntwana” (I am leaving, child), the beginning of the end of the apartheid legacy, the beginning of employment for young people.
At 31 years old, South Africa should be in the prime of its life. Instead, it finds itself in critical condition. The patient’s survival will depend, not on endless consultations, but on the political will to implement real, lasting reforms. Anything less will be to watch the patient fade, knowing the cure was always within reach.
Dimakatso Manthosi is an independent political analyst and researcher. Neo Letswalo is a research associate at 4IR and Digital Policy Research Unit, University of Johannesburg.
Maternal mental health: The missing link in a thriving democracy:
Every August, South Africa celebrates Women’s Month to honour the courage, leadership and contributions of women past and present. We remember the 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings in 1956. Their struggle was for the right to participate fully and equally in society.
Though many of the barriers these women fought to dismantle have been removed, gender inequality remains deeply entrenched. Gender-based violence, poverty, lack of social support and the burden of unpaid childcare persist, all of which drive the high levels of common maternal mental health conditions that we see.
In turn, maternal depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress make women more vulnerable to being victims of violence, trapped in poverty and socially isolated. Caring for the next generation becomes extremely difficult in these circumstances.
Nomsa*, a 22-year-old mother of a three-year-old and a four-month-old, knows these problems intimately. Her partner is mostly absent and verbally abusive when at home. Her mother, already raising her late sister’s children, cannot offer daily help. Nomsa feels isolated, overwhelmed, and stuck.
The hidden crisis
In South Africa, the numbers for perinatal mental ill-health are stark. During pregnancy and the first year after birth, one in three women experience depression and or anxiety. These are among the highest rates in the world.
These conditions are not simply “baby blues” or private struggles. If ignored, they limit women’s agency and social connectedness, restricting access to care, completion of education, income-generation, and the ability to take part in community life. They also contribute to poor physical health and in severe cases can result in suicide which is a leading cause of maternal death worldwide.
The wellbeing of mothers and caregivers is inextricably linked to the wellbeing of their children. Pre-term birth, low birth weight, disrupted learning and emotional difficulties in children are linked to untreated depression and anxiety in their mothers. For many of these children, these problems continue throughout their lives and present as a failure to thrive and may also perpetuate a cycle of mental illness.
There is hope, however. When women are supported socially, economically and psychologically, their children are far more likely to grow up healthy and thrive.
The mental health gap
In low-resource settings, mental health services are scarce. Of the 84% of South Africans without medical insurance, only 7% who require outpatient mental health services, receive this care. The vast majority of women with depression or anxiety will not receive any care for this, but a small proportion will receive support from overstretched general nurses, community health workers or staff working in non-governmental organisations.
But the health economics research commissioned by the department of health demonstrated in 2021 that for every R1 invested in perinatal mental healthcare, there is a return of R4.70 in economic and social benefits.
The perinatal period offers a critical opportunity for mental healthcare for those women who are already in regular contact with health services during pregnancy and postpartum. With the right training, supportive supervision and referral systems, primary care providers, such as non-mental health specialists can identify distress early and offer evidence-based, affordable support, including counselling and effective referrals.
At the antenatal clinic, Nomsa’s midwife noticed she was tearful and very low, and referred her to one of the on-site counsellors. Three sessions, timed with her antenatal visits, allowed her to tell her story and feel heard. With gentle support, she developed plans for returning to school and finding childcare help. She was also connected to a local support group, where she met other women facing similar struggles.
From Women’s Month to action
A mother supported by her community and the state is more likely to participate in society through work, activism and education, and to nurture the next generation of citizens.
This Women’s Month should be about more than commemoration. We can honour the legacy of 1956 by tackling structural barriers to women’s wellbeing, starting with maternal mental health.
There are three key opportunities:
- Integrate mental health into maternity care: Standard maternity care should include screening for distress and its socio-economic drivers. Primary care staff need training and supervision to provide Respectful Maternity Care, basic counselling for patients and to make timely referrals. On-site trained counsellors should be assigned to every maternity unit.
- Invest in community-based support: Community health workers and peer groups can reach women in their own neighbourhoods. With improved mental health and practical skills, they can detect distress, draw on local resources, and link women to help.
- Address the social determinants: Implement funded strategies, and not just policies, to reduce gender-based violence, improve food security, protect incomes, and expand early childhood services.
Democracy starts at home
When maternal mental health needs are ignored, we exclude women’s skills, leadership and voices. A healthy democracy begins with healthy communities and in the earliest caregiver-child relationships. These are shaped by the mental wellbeing of mothers and the social and economic conditions around them. The women who marched in 1956 knew freedom meant creating conditions for all to flourish. Maternal mental health is one of those conditions.
Supporting women during the perinatal period is an investment in equality, human rights, and the nation’s future. This Women’s Month, let us recognise that perinatal mental healthcare is a necessity for gender justice, economic stability, and democratic vitality.
*A pseudonym
Associate Professor Simone Honikman is the director of the Perinatal Mental Health Project based in the Centre for Public Mental Health at the University of Cape Town.
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