Zuko Godlimpi is the ANC’s new economic policy tsar. He was elevated to the ANC’s party’s national executive committee at the age of 30 — the youngest such appointment since 1994. Now, at 32 (he turns 33 on March 21, Human Rights Day), he has formidable influence as chair of the party’s economic transformation subcommittee.
He became deputy minister of trade & industry in July 2024. Last month he was appointed to run the party’s policy think-tank on the economy, following in the footsteps of heavyweights such as finance minister Enoch Godongwana and former speaker Max Sisulu.
His political career indicates a trajectory towards bigger things, which could eventually land him in a cabinet post as important as finance — provided the ANC holds onto or increases its share of the vote in 2029 and beyond.
Godlimpi believes that to change its political fortunes, the ANC must shift the economic trajectory of the country.
The ANC’s strongest electoral performance was during former president Thabo Mbeki’s tenure. The economy was doing well, with strong GDP growth and unemployment on the decrease. In 2004, GDP grew by 4.6%, a big increase compared with 2.9% in 2003.
In the 2004 national election the ANC obtained a two-thirds majority for the first and only time in South Africa’s democratic history — 66.3% of the vote and 233 seats in parliament. It has been going downhill since, particularly during and in the immediate aftermath of the Zuma administration, whose political and economic shenanigans brought the economy to its knees.
It is strange, then, that the ANC’s focus in attempting to regain political lost ground has not been on regulatory reforms to boost economic growth. Instead, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration works glacially, tinkering on the margins without making any real impact.
The social compact Ramaphosa promised in the early days of his presidency has not materialised. Godlimpi believes such a compact is needed to unlock South Africa’s growth potential. “Persistent inequality, growing unemployment and falling incomes have all combined to create anxiety, hopelessness and loss of confidence in the very democratic project the ANC has been leading,” he tells the FM.
“But there are also other important issues: the public standing of ANC members and leaders, effectiveness of local government in delivering services paid for and local economic development, an inward-looking culture of factional fights instead of serving the people. The NEC [national executive committee] is working to reverse the trends.”
Constitutionalism is a foundational philosophy of the ANC; it believes in the egalitarian principle that no government can justly govern without the will of the people.
ANC renewal, espoused regularly by its top leadership, has to be about more than political education, says Godlimpi.
“The ANC seriously needs renewal an
d the leadership is committed to that. But there is a catch to the substance of renewal. Political education is useful but the larger issue is about how the ANC deals with front-line problems: declining service delivery, a socially detached leadership, and a stagnant economy unable to provide pathways for sustainable livelihoods.” Political education becomes useful only when it addresses these concerns.
Godlimpi is one of a new breed of ANC leaders looking to shape the party’s future in a changing South Africa and a new global political and economic landscape. He is articulate about politics, the economy and the future of the ANC and South Africa. This marks a shift from the outdated, dull slogans of previous youth league leaders such as Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu.
Godlimpi takes a dim view of the EFF and Zuma’s MK Party, in which Shivambu now holds the post of secretary-general, describing them as “reactionary”.
“The ANC’s idea on constitutionalism was written down in 1923,” he told a media briefing last year, in response to a question on why the ANC did not include the two parties in the GNU. “It was cemented in the 1996 national constitution. Constitutionalism is a foundational philosophy of the ANC; it believes in the egalitarian principle that no government can justly govern without the will of the people.
“An organisation that says we must replace constitutionalism with an arrangement where the sovereign authority of the state must be concentrated in unelected kings is not like the ANC. The ANC cannot align itself with an arrangement that will aid counter-revolution to have the upper hand in South Africa.”
Equally, the DA’s rejection of affirmative action is not a “technicality” but a “fundamental objection to the principles of constitutional egalitarianism”.
Godlimpi immerses himself in nonfiction: history, development and economics are his staples, from Neil Howe to John Delury and Peter Turchin. He reads for fun and is also coming to grips with developments in AI through the science fiction of Isaac Asimov, whose atheism has not swayed him — he is an avid consumer of religious texts, which surprises even his close friends.
Godlimpi blazed onto the public political scene as the acting spokesperson for the ANC in the tumultuous aftermath of the 2024 election. Before that, his election to the ANC NEC in 2022 followed years of activism and behind-the-scenes involvement in student and youth league politics, and also as an adviser to Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina and Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane.
Among the crop of rising figures in local party politics, the ANC’s Godlimpi is undoubtedly one to watch.
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