This article is a continuation of the article “South Africa: Hard times” published in 2022, № 12 of the journal. It analyzes the results of the 55th National Conference of the African National Congress of South Africa, at which Cyril Ramaphosa was re-elected as president of this party. Information about other members of the new leadership of the ANC and the changes in the government of the country that followed the conference are also given.

The most important of the 11 resolutions adopted at the conference are considered. It is indicated that they give an impartial assessment of the situation in South Africa: “…the ANC-led democratic movement is increasingly losing strategic initiative and moral high-ground, while the counter-revolution is gaining confidence about the possibility to remove the ANC from power and ultimately derail the transformation of South Africa...”

The words are quoted from the resolution of the Conference on International Relations that the armed conflict in Ukraine “can no longer be described simply as a Russia-Ukraine war, it is primarily a conflict between the United States and US-led NATO military alliance and Russia...”

It is concluded that although Cyril Ramaphosa won a landslide victory in the ANC presidential election and secured the majority support in the new composition of the ANC National Executive Committee, his struggle against charges related to theft on his farm is going with varying success, and that the results of the investigation may shift the scales in one direction or another in the upcoming 2024 general elections.