Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Zainab Bedawi.

Next month, the ruling ANC in South Africa holds its five-yearly national conference

where President Cyril Ramaphosa is seeking re-election as leader of the party,

which puts him in position to contest national elections in 2024.

But South Africa is currently in the midst of a severe economic meltdown with mass unemployment and crippling power cuts

and a political culture which many a warning could bring the state to the point of collapse.

My guest is the South African Justice Minister Ronald LaMola, seen as one of the rising stars of the ANC's younger generation.

How does he account for the government's failure to address the myriad challenges it faces?

Justice Minister Ronald LaMola in Pretoria, welcome to hard talk.

People in South Africa are struggling.

Unemployment of at least 35%, nearly two thirds for young people. What's happened to all those

promises when the ANC came to power in 1994? You have let the country down, haven't you?

There has been a broken promise, as you will have seen from the Zondo Commission's report,

the hollowing out of institutions, which the current 6th administration is responding to,

and we have began the process to rebuild the institutions like the

national prosecuting authority. And we believe that we are beginning to turn the corner, because

money is being recovered that has been stolen from the Fiscars. And also the institutions are

beginning to arrest the alleged perpetrators.

This corner is beginning gradually to be turning, and the institutions are being restored,

including the SOEs like ESCOM, as you refer to the energy crisis, the board, the new board,

and the various institutions that are responsible in terms of the energy crisis,

we believe that gradually we are rebuilding, including the process that you are well aware of of the just transition,

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