Latest news with #Papo
TimesLIVE
16-07-2025
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
'We are making progress,' says Papo on ANC Gauteng's regional conferences
The ANC's Gauteng provincial task team (PTT) has announced that preparations are under way for the four regions expected to go to conference. PTT co-ordinator Hope Papo said they have made 'good progress,' in meeting the targets announced by party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula earlier this year on the guidelines to be met before a region being eligible for internal elections. The four regions, Greater Johannesburg, Greater Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Sedibeng, are expected to hold conferences to elect new leadership this year. Papo said the regions reported making inroads on the political education front, saying the foundation course mandated for branches to undergo has been well received. 'More than 140 branches in both Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni have made significant strides in completing the five foundation course modules, reinforcing a culture of ideological work and political discipline. More work is continuing at branch level to implement the foundation course.' Hailing the course as a cornerstone of the party's long-standing renewal agenda, he added that the PTT has resolved to ensure that all outstanding branches conclude the modules as expected. Another standard set for eligibility is community outreach, which the party believes will help it reconnect with voters at the grassroots level. 'Through Letsema campaigns and other programmes, branches are reconnecting with communities, addressing local concerns, and rebuilding trust with the people,' he said. Papo conceded that the consolidation of recruitment remains a challenge, but said that their upper structures are looking to rectify the issue. 'Though there are still teething problems with the ANC online membership system, they are being attended to daily by the ANC national organising and membership department working directly with regions and branches. Efforts have been and are continuing to be made through the new ANC online membership system to ensure accuracy in branch membership information ahead of BBGMs and BGMs.' The conferences are scheduled to be held between July and August. However, Papo indicated that previously communicated conference road maps may be altered, indicating a possible change to some of the dates. 'Where necessary, RTTs should rework their conference road maps to ensure maximum participation of branches. We will also intensify support to RTTs to ensure unifying and credible conference processes. 'That will include working with branches and regions to gather all the facts to subject cases of disruption of a few BBGMs to disciplinary processes of the organisation. No one has a right to deny ANC members their right to meet and exercise their internal democratic processes.' These internal contests will be crucial for the party, as the regional leaders elected are will be spearheading Luthuli House's campaign to claw back electoral support during the upcoming local government elections. The PTT reported that they recognise the need to consolidate organisational readiness for the upcoming local polls. Papo revealed that the task team has established a provincial list committee in line with guidelines set by the party headquarters. 'A full-time provincial elections machinery is being established, supported by a structured campaign strategy focused on targeting areas of electoral decline, including suburbs and historically marginalised communities, strengthening by-election performance, party agent training, and deployment logistics and intensifying youth-focused campaigns through increased voter registration, ID drives and sectoral outreach.'
Eyewitness News
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
A democratic govt doesn't have a deadline to fully honour Freedom Charter: ANC
JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC) believes a democratic government does not have a cut-off timeline for when it should fully implement all the ideals of the Freedom Charter. As the governing party since 1994, the ANC has acknowledged that not all of the charter's ideals have been achieved, particularly economic transformation and land restitution. On Thursday, the ANC held an event at the Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Soweto, to commemorate the 70th anniversary since the adoption of the Freedom Charter. The ANC said the democratic government has made great strides in improving the lives of all ordinary South Africans. It said eight of the 10 principles in the charter have been achieved, including democratic elections, equal rights for all and state houses. ANC Gauteng provincial co-ordinator Hope Papo said implementing the ideals of the Freedom Charter is a continuous process. 'By 1994, we had over 500 years of colonialism in South Africa of a special type and from 1948, apartheid. So, every five years we make an assessment, but to expect that a legacy of colonialism and apartheid of over 500 years can be eradicated in 30 years. It's correct to say there has to be a change, but we have started a transformation of South Africa.' Papo said land restitution and transformation of the economy have been frustrated by the fact that the democratic government has to operate within the contours of the Constitution.
The Citizen
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
From dusty Ludo to global dreams: Limpopo man invents Dicato72 board game
Drawing from his rural roots and love for classic games, Lesiba Papo has turned his childhood nostalgia into a fusion board game. He has vivid memories of himself and his childhood friends playing Ludo in Ga-Matlapa, a village in Ga-Mashashane, Limpopo. Lesiba Papo and his buddies would huddle up, take turns rolling the dice and race to finish first. In their case, they drew it on the ground or on cardboard because they couldn't afford to buy the actual game. Decades later, the boy who played Ludo in the dust is now the creator of his own board game, Dicato72. A fusion of classic games 'Dicato is an acronym for dice, cards and tokens. It fuses elements of ludo and casino games, and they are both stitched together by rock, paper, scissors,' Papo tells us. 'The number 72 represents the blocks players have to move through before getting to the finish line,' the 35-year-old adds. The two-player game challenges opponents to out-move each other and get past the 72nd block first, or to have the furthest token by the time the deck of 54 cards runs out. They first roll the dice, have a face-off with the cards, which carry either a rock, paper or scissors symbol, and advance depending on who has the advantage. 'I'd like to think the game is good for mental stimulation, especially for kids, for their mental development, and just to harness their critical skills. 'It's also good for adults who are maybe faced with work pressure and want to unwind. It's basically for the whole family to have fun and relax.' The makings of Dicato72 Dicato72 can be played by children as young as eight. Picture: Supplied Now based in Pretoria East, Papo began exploring the idea of designing a game between 2021 and 2022, and says it is influenced by the games he played growing up. 'I came up with the concept because we used to play a lot of Ludo and casino games separately growing up. So, I thought of how I could fuse the two so that you don't have to play the games separately, and adding rock, paper, scissors felt like a brilliant idea,' he says. Without any prior background in game design, he utilised online resources to bring his imagined idea to visual reality. Papo did this while also juggling his career as a botanist at the South African National Biodiversity Institute. Bringing the concept to life has mostly been a one-man show for the University of Johannesburg Master's degree graduate. Big dreams However, he says he is now tapping into his network and roping in professionals to make it available digitally. He has big dreams for Dicato72. 'I'd like to see it being distributed globally just like chess and 30 Seconds, being played in many households, in schools as well as in corporate,' Papo says. 'I'd also like to see the game being recognised by Mind Sports South Africa, both as a physical board and in esports for mobile and web applications.'
Daily Maverick
15-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
ANC task team in Gauteng vows to ‘clean out' self-serving members
Following a strong by-election win in Soweto, the ANC's Gauteng task team says work is being done to reposition the organisation ahead of the 2026 local government elections. Nearly three months after the 68-member Gauteng Provincial Task Team (PTT) was appointed to rebuild the ANC's structures in the province, halt its electoral decline and improve its image, the team believes it is starting to make progress. When the structure took over, the party had suffered major electoral losses in South Africa's economic hub, with its share of the vote in Gauteng dropping from 50.02% in 2019 to 34.8% in 2024. The decline was attributed to a number of factors, including the collapse of branches. The party's secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, said one of the immediate tasks was to conduct an audit and rebuild the party's structures, after which it could hold elective conferences. Addressing journalists on Thursday, the Gauteng PTT coordinator, Hope Papo, said the team hit the ground running, with 80% of the branches now in good standing. 'As things stand, many of the branches in our province are administratively in good standing; we no longer have a situation where a branch has less than 100 members. We are now dealing with political and ideological ethos so that branches understand that their main purpose is to serve their communities.' By-election win Papo and his team briefed journalists hours after the party had its best by-election result in 2025 and arguably its second-best since the 2024 national elections, when it comfortably retained wards in Soweto after securing 2,630 votes, well ahead of the uMkhonto Wesizwe party, with 1,100 votes. Papo said the results were a demonstration of the work being done to reposition the organisation. Gauteng is grappling with recurring problems, including governance failures, financial mismanagement, crumbling infrastructure, crime and lawlessness and lack of service delivery. In March 2025, Gauteng Finance MEC Lebogang Maile, who is an ANC deployee, warned of a liquidity crisis if resources were not spent prudently across various government departments, threatening service delivery and exposing the province to significant governance and fiscal risks. 'We think we can turn around Gauteng,' said Papo. The media briefing followed a two-day inaugural provincial lekgotla earlier this month, which, among other things, agreed to support the government in resolving the Gauteng priorities. 'The PTT will monitor the implementation of the Local Government Turnaround Summit resolutions, which will play a significant role in improving local governance,' said Papo. He said the PTT would evaluate the work of the government quarterly, but would not micromanage the party's deployees as they had the power to act in government. One of the first steps the Gauteng PTT would take towards improving local governance was supporting the Presidential Johannesburg Working Group and the Department of Cooperative Governance's Turnaround Plan in Emfuleni Local Municipality, said Papo. Members with 'ulterior motives' At the lekgotla, it was also acknowledged that some leaders, acting in their own interest, had damaged the party's image. It was agreed that the party should break away from those who are in the organisation only for personal gain. As SA prepares for the 2026 local government elections, Papo said the party needed to intensify renewal programmes. 'There are ANC leaders who are out of touch with their constituency, not schooled in the values and goals of the ANC … people who join the ANC for nefarious and ulterior motives, and part of the renewal is to deal with that section in the organisation which are not there to serve the community, but for their own personal endorsement and issues like that,' he said. Part of the renewal process, said Papo, involved 'cleaning them out', without naming anyone. He added that some of these individuals had already walked away and were no longer active in the party's structures. Meanwhile, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi explained that the party's strategy was based on detailed polling and surveys, which the ANC had invested heavily in after the 2024 electoral losses. 'The strategic direction that we are taking in local government is to do things that other people are not aware that the ANC is doing,' he said, pointing to recent by-election results, reclaiming control of SRCs at universities, securing majorities in school governing bodies and placing ANC leaders in senior municipal roles, including mayors. On Wednesday, Mbalula sang Papo's praises while speaking at the Duma Nokwe Memorial Lecture, saying the Gauteng PTT was doing a good job of reviving and rebuilding the party. 'We must build our structures, and we must exorcise the wrongs out of the ANC. If it means we must lose friends because we are doing the right thing, let it be,' said Mbalula. DM
IOL News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
No place for the corrupt: ANC challenges all parties to match its zero-tolerance stance
South Africa - Johannesburg - 15 May 2025 - Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi, ANC Gauteng Provincial Task Team Coordinator Hope Papo and Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko MEC for Health and Wellness. The African National Congress (ANC) Gauteng Provincial Task Team (PTT) announces the outcomes of the two-day Provincial Lekgotla held on 3–4 May 2025 at the Indaba Hotel, Fourways. The ANC Gauteng coordinator, Hope Papo, has called on other political parties to be like the ANC, and have policies that take disciplinary action against members charged with corruption. Speaking in Johannesburg on Thursday, Papo stressed that the political system would benefit if all parties introduced policies that discipline members formally charged with corruption—just as the ANC has done through its "step-aside" rule. 'So we encourage all political parties in South Africa to follow the ANC, we are the biggest party, we are doing it, all political parties must do,' he said. The ANC has implemented a step-aside rule that requires members who are formally charged with corruption or other serious crimes to voluntarily withdraw from party and government activities, failing which they may face suspension. Papo stated some of the party leaders appeared in criminal courts, but they were not charged they are still leading the organisation, while the ANC leaders were ambushed. But he said in the ANC, stepping aside was mandatory. Papo has echoed the party's position on renewal and rebuilding, saying this will be a way for the ANC to reclaim power. 'So, we think that through that policy, we will actually, it will help in renewing the organisation. 'Because ultimately, ANC doesn't arrest, charge, and convict people. That is why there's an issue of stepping aside from your leadership positions. 'And a number of our leaders have done so. And sometimes they would have been wrongly accused, but they would have stepped aside. And sometimes they lose leadership positions,' he said. The provincial co-convener, Panyaza Lesufi, had previously promised to clamp down on corruption and laziness in the party. IOL Politics
