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In a fitting kick-start to its 112th birthday celebration, which happens to coincide with a national election year, the ANC has summoned the spirits of its founding fathers to guide it to victory.
Before delivering his keynote address on the special day when the party was established, the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, led the party leadership in a wreath-laying ceremony at the graveyard of struggle icon Enos Mabuza.
The party also visited Mabuza’s family before concluding the day at the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga for the cake-cutting ceremony.
In his address, Ramaphosa said the ANC was on a path of self-renewal.
Quoting from the Biblical book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, verse 7, Ramaphosa said paying homage to the founding fathers was part of the party’s acknowledgement of the role they played that also claimed their lives.
He said:
Ramaphosa added: “And this was quite an important sacred moment for us to remember those who have contributed to our struggle.”
Ramaphosa also threw down the gauntlet to opposition parties, especially those recently formed, including the uMkhonto we Sizwe Party, endorsed by his predecessor Jacob Zuma. He cautioned that those who believed they could remove the ANC from power were going to be shocked.
“The ANC government has done tremendous work over the last 30 years to free people from poverty. I made a statement last year in Mangaung and said that we have reduced the incidence of poverty from high levels and it is coming down because almost 60% of our budget is to address poverty and to support the lives of our people,” he said.
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He mentioned the ANC-led government had worked very hard from its very first day in office to begin the process of changing the lives of ordinary people, adding the party had in the past managed to defeat many trials and tribulations.
“Through ups and downs, we were able to prevail as the African National Congress and we were able to overcome the 342 years of colonialism and apartheid. And it was only a breakthrough that we achieved in 1994. A breakthrough, comrades, that's how we characterised it. Sadly, this is not a victory. It is a breakthrough,” he said.
Ramaphosa stated they had reached a beachhead moment.
“We have reached a point where we need to achieve more as we move on to improve the lives of our people.”
He also said they were there to protect democracy, adding:
He said as part of the renewal processes, they had adopted a step-aside policy of a member facing charges at the ANC national conference.
“And that has led to the internal improvement of electing people. We now need to extend it to public representatives as well to ensure that we are going to be led by people with integrity, and we must deal with corruption in an ineffective way. That renewal and rebuilding of our movement is beginning to bear fruits. We are beginning to see it. We continue to focus on rebuilding branches and other structures to improve their functionality,” said Ramaphosa.
He emphasised that the ANC had a proven track record of building broad support for the cause of liberation and against the apartheid regime.
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“This is the biggest example of the movement's capacity for building unity across different lines. Our principled commitment to ending a number of conflicts and having dialogue even with our enemy is another characteristic that stands us in good stead. Comrades, as we celebrate this birthday, we must pause. Let us pause for a minute and remember them and then quietly say thank you for what you did to bring us to where we are today. And say thank you to the African National Congress for leading this struggle to where we are today. And making this country a better country,” he said.
Ramaphosa further claimed that it was only the ANC that had changed the lives of many people.
He continued:
Ramaphosa said the ANC government has also ensured that literacy levels continue to rise. “When we got into power, the literacy levels were very low. Now, the literacy level in our country is about 89-90%. Our young people know how to read and write,” he said.
He also acknowledged that there were challenges but promised to fix them. “We know that that the main challenge is unemployment and that is why we are working so hard to create job opportunities. And that is why we also welcome and listen to the proposals from the Youth League, and from the women of our country as well as how we can empower the young people in our country through getting jobs, how we can economically empower the women of our country as well.”
He said the party has made tremendous strides in empowering women over the last eight years.
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“The president of the Women's League standing here, she says they are beneficiaries. The women of our country are beneficiaries of the policies that have been adopted by the ANC itself. The 50-50% representation was not there even within the organisation. So women have been empowered and at the same time, their empowerment has gone beyond even the ANC in Parliament.”
He said the ANC was the most representative party when it came to gender parity. “And there aren't many Parliaments in the world where there was such a greater representation of women in their top structures.
Recounting some of the successful stories, Ramaphosa said they managed to prosecute a struggle from the time the party was formed in 1912 to 1994.
Ramaphosa said:
He said in China, the Communist Party of China started in the 1920s and they succeeded in 1949 while it took Cuba a shorter period to succeed.
“It took us much longer because we were arrayed against a formidable enemy. We were arrayed against an enemy that had support globally. They were supported by various countries. So we were waging war, not only against the apartheid government, but against many other forces globally, and we were able to turn them around.
Ramaphosa said when the ANC spoke of uniting the people of this country, they did so secure in the knowledge that they were best placed to unite the broadest cross-section of people behind the costs of building a better country.
“When you look at all these other organisations, some are Mickey Mouse while some are like Donald Ducks. You can't begin to think of a single one that will be able to unite a cross-section of South Africans, like the African National Congress. It's only the ANC that can do so,” he said.
