INTRO: HOME OF LEGENDS, OUR WORK REMAINS INCOMPLETE
Revolutionary Greetings Comrades!
We draw courage, inspiration, and strength each time we are in the province of legends.
The Eastern Cape Province and the Chris Hani DM occupy a special place in the hearts of the people of our country and annals of our history.
This is the home of faithful, revolutionary ANC Presidents who selflessly served the ANC and the people of South Africa with distinction and absolute loyalty. Among them: Dr AB Xuma, Robert Resha, Mathew Goniwe, Bathandwa Ndondo, Enoch Mginjima and Vuyisile Mini.
This is the home of the MK Chief of Staff, SACP and ANC leader, Chris Hani, after whom this District Municipality is named.
He died with his boots on as a disciplined cadre of the ANC and the SACP who understood that no matter the challenges of the day, the ANC is the best instrument of liberation in the hands of the people.
He died believing in the vision of a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.
We applaud the leadership of the ANC and our alliance partners for honouring his memory by naming the regional office, the Hani House.
We can never go wrong as the ANC and Alliance partners if we embrace the revolutionary character of Chris Hani, emulate his disciplinary conduct, and above all, remain loyal to our people by serving them wholeheartedly to improve their lives.
Till his tragic death at the hands of the enemies of the National Democratic Revolution on 10 April 1993, Chris Hani lived by his words where he said:
“I’ve never wanted to spare myself because I feel there are people who are no longer around and died for this struggle. What right do I have to hold back, to rest, to preserve my health, to have time with my family, when there are other people who are no longer alive – when they sacrificed what is precious: namely life itself.”
The ANC will never go wrong if it continues to strive for economic emancipation and socialism to address the needs of our people. Hani was correct in stating that, “Socialism is not about big concepts and heavy theory.
Socialism is about decent shelter for those who are homeless. It is about water for those who have no safe drinking water. It is about health care, it is about a life of dignity for the old. It is about overcoming the huge divide between urban and rural areas. It is about a decent education for all our people. Socialism is about rolling back the tyranny of the market. As long as the economy is dominated by an unelected, privileged few, the case for socialism will exist.”
In joining the armed wing of the ANC, uMkhonto we Sizwe, Chris Hani was picking up the spear of our warrior kings and warrior queens who went to battle with enslavers and colonisers in defence of our land and freedom.
When we say our freedom is written in the blood martyrs, we recall the role of our brave traditional leaders who fought for a hundred years in 9 wars of resistance or “frontier wars” defending our land against both Dutch and British settlers from 1779 to 1878.
We recall too the role of our church leaders who mobilised and organised our people against national domination.
A closer look at South Africa’s liberation route evokes the memories of:
o The Bulhoek massacre in May 1921, where police and soldiers heavily armed with machine guns, canons, and rifles killed about 200 Israelites who were led by Enoch Mgijima, after whom a local municipality in the Chris Hani DM is named.
o The Ngquza Hill massacre of June 6, 1960 in Flagstaff, where 11 people were killed, 28 were executed, others arrested.
o The Egerton massacre of 4 August 1983 in Mdantsane, where 11 people were killed others injured and arrested.
o The Uitenhage massacre of 21 March, 1985 in Ngxanga Township, where 20 people were killed.
o The Duncan Village massacre of 11 August 1985 where 19 people were killed.
o The Aliwal North massacre of 23 August 1985 in Dukathole Township, where 24 people were killed others injured and arrested.
o The Northern Areas massacre of August 6, 1990 in Port Elizabeth, where 59 people were killed others were injured and arrested.
o The Bhisho massacre of 7 September 1992 where no less than 28 people were killed.
THE EASTERN CAPE & THE FREEDOM CHARTER
Comrades, the roots of the Freedom Charter can be located here in the Eastern Cape, and in Cradock and Komani/Queenstown to be specific.
When the ANC was formed in 1912, it was formed on the basis of uniting the African people, the rejection of tribalism, and the rejection of the segregationist Union Government of 1910 which was formed after the Anglo-Boer War (South African War) which sought to disenfranchise the African majority, seeing them as “die swart gevaar/black danger”.
Professor Z K Matthews, as President of ANC in the Cape, proposed the idea of the Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter at the Provincial Conference of the ANC (Cape) held in Cradock on 15 August 1953.
Ismail Vadi recalls that, in reviewing the “political situation” in South Africa, Professor Mathews, “ listed the numerous racial, discriminatory and repressive laws” passed by the Nationalist government and raised concern about “the deepening crisis in race relations.” Speaking of the multiracial, national gathering which would adopt
the freedom charter, ZK Matthews said
“I wonder whether the time has not come for the ANC to consider the question of convening a National Convention, a Congress of the People, representing all the people of this country irrespective of race or colour to draw up a Freedom Charter for the democratic South Africa of the future.”
The Cradock conference felt that “such a conference [COP] would serve to unite all the democratic forces in South Africa among all races into a front against the dangers of fascism; and would enable the ANC to demonstrate in a practical manner its policy for the solution of the problems of the country.”
It was the December 1953 ANC Annual Conference held here in Queenstown that formally adopted a resolution instructing national executive committee of the ANC in which Sisulu was SG to make “ immediate preparations for the organization of the Congress of the People.”
Since 1994, the ANC has been leading our country in building a truly non-racial society from the ashes of racial hatred and racial division.
It is the ANC that continues to demonstrate to the white community what it means to be human and to live in peace with black South Africans who were dehumanised, exploited, and oppressed for over 3 centuries of apartheid-colonialism.
Our work is far from over as we see tribalism and racism rearing its ugly head.
Our work is far from complete as we learn that black women can be killed and fed to pigs by white farmers.
Our work is not yet done as we read in the news about a black mother in tears with her six year old son in hospital allegedly after being knocked down by a car driven by a white farmer for apparently stealing an orange.
Chris Hani, mam’ Winnie Mandela, OR Tambo, Ruth First, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Josie Palmer, and many of our stalwarts must be turning in their graves.
Given the many challenges that confront our nation, it becomes more important for the ANC to remain a leader of society to deepen the process of fundamental social change, restore the dignity of our people, and create an equal, non-racial society.
ELECTION OUTCOME
? Comrades, we wish to pay tribute to the ANC in the Province, the Chris Hani DM, and all our supporters who stood with the ANC in the last national elections which were decided on 29 May 2024.
? We applaud our glorious movement and our supporters for showing themselves to be true democrats who accept the will of the people and electoral outcomes without casting dangerous aspersions on the integrity of our elections.
? As the ANC, we accepted the results and decided to take the message from the electorate to improve our performance and address our people’s needs much better.
? As a leader of society, we are not in a business of insulting the people of South Africa in the manner in which their cast their vote. We are determined to serve them better and to persuade them to entrust us with their vote so that we can use state power to deepen the process of fundamental social transformation and meet their needs.
? For the first time in our history since 1994, the ANC lost its majority, later compelling it to take a lead in the conceptualisation and formulation of the Government of National Unity (GNU).
? We wish to thank the ANC and our supporters in this province for coming out in their numbers to vote for the ANC.
? ANC in this province continues to maintain its popularity among voters, although its support has declined.
? We must work together to confront the decline of the ANC nationally and in this province since 1994.
? While the ANC obtained 57.50% in 2019 nationally, it lost support to 40.18% in 2024. Our seats in the National Assembly dropped from 230 to 159.
? In 2014, the ANC recorded a massive 79.27% in the Eastern Cape. This went down to 68.74% in 2019. The decline in support continued, with the ANC getting just 62% of the votes after the May 2024 elections.
? We do not take for granted this overwhelming support of the ANC in this province while the ANC faced a number of challenges and tough competition from parties targeting our traditional support base.
? With a voter turnout of close to 2 million people in the EC and many parties contesting, the ANC managed to secure at least 1 million of these votes, still a strong vote of confidence in the ANC. But we cannot be complacent.
? The DA recorded an increase in electoral support from 7.34% in 2004 to just over 10% in 2019. In the May 2024 elections, the DA’s support increased to 14.27% in the EC.
? In 2014, the EFF secured 3.48% and in the May 2024 secured 10.11% in the EC, also showing a growth in support.
? The newcomers, MKP, got 1.47%.
RATIONALE BEHIND THE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY (GNU)
Comrades, during the May 2024 national election, a record number of 52 political parties contested the national ballot (compared to 48 parties in 2019).
In the National Assembly, COPE, the NFP and the AIC did not secure any seats. New parties to the National Assembly included MK, Patriotic Alliance (PA), Action SA, Rise Mzansi, Build One SA (BOSA), Cape Coloured Congress (CCC) and United Africans Transformation (UAT).
For the first time since 1994, no single party won a mandate to govern. The ANC received a little over 6.4 million votes, followed by the DA and Umkhonto we Sizwe Party (MKP).
The ANC only retained its outright majority here in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, the Free State, North West and Mpumalanga, down from the eight it held after the 2019 elections.
GNU FOUNDING PROVISIONS AND GNU PRIORITIES
All parties in the GNU agree on:
- Supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law.
- National Development Plan (NDP) Vision 2030 remains the defining blueprint for South Africa’s growth and development – the GNU’s programme is in line with vision 2030.
- GNU supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
Three (3) Strategic Priorities of the GNU are:
- Drive inclusive growth and job creation;
- Reduce poverty and tackle the high cost of living;
- Build a capable, ethical and developmental state.
Contrary to what our political adversaries say, the GNU is not a coalition government between the ANC and the DA. That is what the DA would have wished for. The GNU includes many other parties that the DA was opposed to but the ANC ensured that they are included to build a truly representative government focused on delivering basic services and improving the lives of our people.
The province of Gauteng has illustrated that the ANC and the DA are not the same party and that the ANC is not a junior party held at gunpoint by the DA.
Just yesterday, the representatives of the people of Tshwane overwhelmingly voted out the DA Mayor, Cllr. Cilliers Brink.
ANC MANIFESTO
Comrades, we wish to assure the ANC supporters that the ANC has not abandoned the commitments it made to the electorate in its election manifesto.
The three priorities of the GNU are informed by the mandate we got from the electorate.
You will recall that we canvassed support on these following commitments:
PRIORITY 1. Put South Africa to work.
PRIORITY 2. Build our industries to achieve an inclusive economy.
PRIORITY 3. Tackle the high cost of living.
PRIORITY 4. Invest in people.
PRIORITY 5. Defend democracy, advance freedom, fight corruption.
PRIORITY 6. Build a better Africa and World.
Compatriots, within and outside the GNU, the ANC will work hard to:
- Increase support for small enterprises, entrepreneurs and cooperatives, especially in townships and villages, providing additional one million work opportunities, with set-asides for women, youth and persons with disabilities.
- Build our industries for an inclusive economy and create opportunities for youth and other unemployed persons.
- Consolidate industrial and sectoral master plans into a comprehensive industrial policy to drive localisation.
- Prioritise industrial sectors that are labour intensive.
- Prioritise green technologies, energy efficiency, waste management, climate-smart agriculture and infrastructure and eco-friendly production processes to ensure long-term sustainability.
- Develop and expand the local digital sector through universal access to broadband, including at schools, making internet access affordable, investing in infrastructure, skills development, small enterprises and entrepreneurs, and promote future industries, platforms and applications of 4IR technologies.
- Establish and resource creative industries and digital hubs in townships and rural areas for digital content production.
- Promote entrepreneurship, innovation and investment in emerging industries like renewable energy, sustainable tourism, e-commerce and agro-technology.
- Support small-scale fishing cooperatives by ensuring the development of small harbours, support eco-tourism and aquaculture.
- Increase exports to global and continental markets leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), BRICS Plus and other bilateral relationships. Ministers in the GNU have already been to China (an important BRICS country) and they will soon be accompanying President Ramaphosa to Russia for the BRICS Summit.
- Accelerate land reform and redistribution to reduce asset inequality and protect security of tenure, improve food security and agricultural production.
- Restore domestic refinery capacity and establish a National Oil Company for petroleum refinery and petrochemical industrialisation.
- Transform the financial sector to support industrialisation and job creation.
- Create development and sectoral banks focused on specific sectors aligned with industrial policy goals and building a public retail banking system to directly serve the people’s needs.
- Empower provinces to establish their own financial institutions.
- Empower cooperative banks by removing regulatory barriers to entry and support the growth of cooperative banks.
- Ensure development finance institutions are well-capitalised to provide concessional lending to small enterprises.
TACKLING HIGH COST OF LIVING & CUSHIONING THE MIDDLE CLASS
Comrades, we remain committed to our undertaking in the manifesto to tackle the high cost of living. We are aware that many families are battling to afford basic necessities. We have are alert to the cries of the black middle class that is drowning in debt, struggling to maintain their living standards, and feeling left on its own as it battles with fuel, electricity, and education costs. We value the middle class and understand that it is in the interest of national development and social cohesion not to push the middle class to poverty.
To fulfil commitment to our manifesto, we will take steps to make everyday life more affordable for workers, unemployed persons, women-headed households and the middle class by addressing key needs like food, housing, health care, energy, transport and wages.
In these five years, we are
o Prioritising food security, including through VAT exemption on essential items, land reform, support for community and home gardens. We will act against price fixing.
o Maintaining and expanding subsidised basic services like water, houses for the poor and indigent policies in municipalities.
o Strengthening health services and implement the National Health Insurance (NHI) to make quality health care affordable and available to all.
o Promoting cheaper and subsidised solar power.
o Introducing measures to regulate rental prices for student accommodation.
o Ensuring the National Minimum Wage increases in line with inflation and ensure full compliance.
o Strengthening income support through existing social grants and use the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants as a mechanism towards phasing in a basic income support grant.
UNITY, RENEWAL, AND ANC AS A DISCIPLINED FORCE OF THE LEFT
Comrades, the path of renewal and fighting corruption which the ANC has undertaken is the correct one. It is either we renew and restore our trust with our people or we perish.
We were founded on the bedrock of unity and when we join the ANC, we take an oath to defend the unity of the ANC.
By unity, the ANC calls on all structures to unite in the execution of the strategic objectives of the revolution. It means uprooting factionalism and advancing unity of purpose centred on the programme of building a strong organization and execution of a programme of fundamental transformation.
The renewal of the ANC is one amongst the key resolutions of the 54th and 55th National Conference resolutions. The NEC resolved to develop a decade long programme of renewal which will take us till 2032. As we develop this programme we must be clear on what constitutes pillars of organizational renewal.
a. Organizational renewal refers to restorations of the best values, traditions and character of the movement.
b. Thus, renewal should mean that all cadres of the movement embrace utmost discipline, loyalty and dedicated services to the movement and the people. As members, we should uproot all tendencies that undermine the standing of the movement including ill-discipline, factionalism, careerism, and corruption.
c. Organizational renewal means rejuvenation of the membership character of the ANC. Members of the ANC should be best activist for socio-economic transformation in their own branches. The standing of ANC members should reflect discipline, caring and dedication to the service of the people. We must, therefore, restore the brand ANC to epitomize best services, incorruptibility, highest level of integrity.
d. The renewal of the ANC means reasserting the revolutionary character of the movement. Reasserting the character of the ANC means the ANC must unapologetically advance the interests of the motive forces of the revolution. The Strategy and Tactics (2017) outlines thus:
“Black workers – employed and unemployed, urban and rural – remain the main motive force of the process of change. This is not an assertion of ideological preference; but a reflection of social reality. Because of their position in the economy and other social endeavours, the mass of the workers makes society tick. In the mines, the factories, the banks, state-owned enterprises, the courts, public and private security agencies, government departments, parliament, private homes and so on, they carry the burdens of society. They have, over the years, developed a keen sense of their aspirations and those of broader society; and have organised and mobilised for thoroughgoing change”.
e. The programme of renewal requires that we build a leadership steeped in the best values of the revolution, the organizational membership itself must be of great quality and servants of the community. The renewal means that leaders must always reflect and serve the main motive forces of the revolution. The ANC leadership must serve the poor, the unemployed, the workers and upcoming middle class, and must resist becoming the Executive Committee serving the interest of capitalists.
THE TIME IS NOW TO ORGANISE OUR PEOPLE
- Comrades, the time is now for us to reconnect with the masses of our people.
- We must accept the mistakes we have committed in the prosecution of the struggles.
- Equally, we must unite and fight enemy propaganda that seeks to undermine the achievements of our democratic state in the last 30 years.
- We need to reassert our hegemony and win in the battle of ideas.
- The ANC cannot afford to be arrogant or treat the voter with disdain or disrespect.
This is the time for all of us as activists and cadres of the ANC to jealously guard our precious movement. We can do so by ensuring that the membership of the ANC is given only to those who make a lifetime commitment to the course of the people. Our recruitment strategies must ensure that potential members understand and commit in action the ANC’s objectives and expectations even before taking membership.
As we face the existential crisis, embrace and re-assert the virtues that have kept the ANC in existence for over a century.
Our recruitment strategy should enable the ANC to attract the best calibre of people who will add value in the work of the ANC.
Beyond membership subscription, the life of ANC membership should be a life of continuous development and self-cultivation. We need to strengthen and massify our political education at all levels.
We must engender solution-oriented activism in our membership and leaders alike. The primary responsibility of the ANC is to serve and service the people. Necessarily, our structures, particularly the branches, must keep the people actively mobilised and united in action to find solutions to their own problems.
Our structures must grow the ANC’s influence and hegemony amongst different sectors and organs of people’s power. We must be found wherever people are.
The ANC must also urgently attend to the question of the calibre, attitude and posture of its leadership at all levels. Historically, it has always been accepted that the leadership of the ANC must reflect the aspirations of the motive forces, particularly the working class and the poor.
Because of the unintended consequences of power, increasingly the prestige of being an ANC leader is replaced by the price tag. The richer the pocket of an individual, the more likely the person will become a leader of the ANC. Leadership is gradually no longer earned in the crucible of struggle, but depends on dispensing patronage.
The net effect of this phenomenon is that people who don’t deserve to be in the leadership, some even to be in the ANC, find themselves leading the ANC even at the highest level. The example of this phenomenon are leaders who conspire and act in cahoots with the opposition and counter-revolution to dispose other leaders of the ANC or undermine its decisions. The leadership prestige of the ANC to society then becomes distorted and would not reflect the aspirations of the people.
Let us find again a leadership among our members who can go through the proverbial eye of the needle.
In the 2001 Through the Eye of the Needle, the ANC said:
“Those in leadership positions should unite and guide the movement to be at the head of the process of change. They should lead the movement in its mission to organise and inspire the masses to be their own liberators. They should lead the task of governance with diligence. And, together, they should reflect continuity of a revolutionary tradition and renewal which sustains the movement in the long-term.”
CONCLUSION: TAMBO AND THE NDR
Next month (October) we will be marking the month of O R Tambo’s birth.
Let me to cite Justice Albie Sachs recollection of OR. In 2017, he said of him:
“OR needs to be remembered as more than just the international public face of the organisation, more than the mobiliser-in-chief of the exiled freedom fighters, more than the co-ordinator of the world-wide campaign to isolate apartheid and get Mandela and other political prisoners released. OR was the symbol of honesty and selfless endeavour at the head of what was becoming an increasingly great movement. He set the example of integrity. Leaders can set positive examples and negative examples. He was a positive example.
We learnt that if our leaders were honest and democratic, dedicated to the struggle and willing to listen to others and acknowledge failures, then those of us lower down in the ranks would feel encouraged to conduct ourselves in the same way. But if our top leader and those around him had lacked integrity and been corrupt then soon the whole organisation all the way down would have been engulfed by opportunism, manoeuvring and self-enrichment.”
Let us emulate Tambo’s conduct and example if we are serious that we want people to identify with the ANC as a leader of society.
Let us be intolerant of people who bring the ANC into disrepute and those who steal from our people.
We must refuse to see the institutions of our hard won freedom being perverted or corrupted to fight factional battles.
Let us be unbending on principle, including holding each accountable on the implementation of our policies and resolutions.
On his return to South Africa OR Tambo said to the ANC, “I have devotedly watched over the organisation all these years. I now hand it back to you, bigger, stronger – intact. Guard our precious movement.”
Comrades, the ANC will not die under our watch!
The people of the Eastern Cape and Chris Hani District Municipality demonstrated in the last elections that the ANC remains a popular, mass-based liberation movement that is adored by millions of our people.
Let us go out there and persuade our people to return to their home and build their organisation to deepen the NDR and create a South Africa that Tambo, Sisulu, Madiba, Hani, mam’ Winnie Mandela would be proud of.
The ANC Lives! The ANC Leads!
