The African National Congress's (ANC's) dismal performance at last year's municipal elections set the tone for the party's national executive committee (NEC) meeting on Thursday. 

The party is holding a two-day virtual NEC meeting which is expected to end on Friday. 

Party president Cyril Ramaphosa gave an opening political overview at the start of the meeting, which began at 9am on Thursday. 

Insiders said members were presented with a research outline from the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection concerning the party's electoral performance in the municipal elections. 

The party's own research showed the ANC was on an electoral decline because of a lack of confidence in the party. 

NEC members were told that the party would have to deal with corruption on all levels of government if it wanted to turn around its electoral fortunes. 

The meeting was expected to explore matters around state security, insiders said.

Other issues to be tackled by the party at the NEC, which would be followed by a two-day lekgotla, would be the state of the party's dysfunctional branches ahead of its national elective conference at the end of the year. 

The party adopted the national working committee report, which had given a clear deadline for regional and provincial conferences to be held.

Several ANC regions and provinces were expected to hold conferences in the next few weeks. Mpumalanga was expected to hold its provincial conference next month.

While in KwaZulu-Natal, various regions were expected to hold conferences, with eThekwini being the most influential ANC region. 

The ANC in Limpopo and the Free State were also expected to hold conferences by April.  

At the same time, ANC staffers who were owed two months' salaries, want their remuneration concerns addressed by the NEC. 

The staffers told News24 the matter should be discussed by the party's NEC because ANC officials had failed to resolve the issue independently.