President of the ANC, Cde Cyril Ramaphosa
NEC Members,
PEC Members
Leadership of the Alliance,
Leadership of our Leagues,
Traditional leadership,
Religious leadership,
All Letsema Volunteers present here today.
ANC Members and supporters
Good morning comrades and on behalf of the African National Congress (ANC) Provincial Executive Committee (PEC), I bring you warm revolutionary greetings as we gather here for the launch of the Eastern Cape Letsema campaign. We are honored to have the ANC President, Cde Cyril Ramaphosa in our presence to come and lead the ANC Eastern Cape provincial launch of this very important campaign and pledge to build better communities.
For us in the Eastern Cape, the Letsema campaign has been ongoing even before today’s official launch. It is a campaign that we view and understand as an important component of the programme to renew the ANC as an instrument for transformation in the hands of the people.
The pledge to be a volunteer and to build better communities together is what every member commits to when we join and belong to the ANC. This campaign therefore seeks to revive that sense of duty and selfless service to the people within the membership of the ANC.
Everyday members of the ANC should be engaged in the work of bettering our communities and finding solutions to the problems that our people face. This requires active branches that are in touch with reality and that are at the forefront of leading popular struggles on the ground.
It is structures and members of the ANC that should be the first ones to hold our deployees in government accountable for the work they are deployed to do. We shouldn’t wait for media reports or learn about service delivery concerns through protests and similar actions when we have branches in almost all our wards in the province.
This is why President as the Eastern Cape we were calling for activism of branches to be included in factors that determine their status as being in good standing beyond the 100-membership requirement in the constitution. This will ensure that we have active and living branches of the ANC that don’t only exist to elect delegates to Conferences as is the case in many parts of country today.
Comrades, as the Eastern Cape we saw it fit to launch our Letsema campaign by revamping the Chief Maqoma Memorial site which was not in a state befitting the contribution he made in the struggle for resistance against colonialism. We applaud the volunteers of the ANC in the Province who made it a point that they conclude the work of revamping the site in a short space of time.
We have indeed honored the legacy and memory of one of the most renowned commanders who fought spear in hand against large armed British troops who wanted to take control over our land. We have honored the legacy of an astute army general and tactician whose name hails amongst those that have made our province to be known as the Home of Legends. Indeed, by today’s provincial launch of the Letsema campaign we have ensured that the name Maqoma of lives on.
Now it is upon members of the community to take responsibility for the site and ensure that it is well maintained and looked after so that generations to come may learn of the name Chief Maqoma and understand the sacrifices that were made for us to enjoy freedom today. That is the Letsema campaign comrades, a renewal of the sense of service, sacrifice, courage and loyalty to the people and the land as General Maqoma lived his life till the end.
To us in the Eastern Cape, Letsema is about emulating the life lived by President OR Tambo whom on Thursday would’ve turned 105 if he were still alive. Let this launch reignite the spirit of OR in all members and leaders of the ANC so that you wake up everyday thinking about what more you can do to make our communities better and to solve the problems faced by our people.
Comrade President, we are always honored to have you in the Home of Legends. That is why you see thousands of members and supporters of the ANC gathered here to listen to your message as you lead the launch of our Letsema campaign.
These members and supporters are gathered here to get a message of hope from their President and leader of their national liberation movement.
President, the people of the Eastern Cape love and support the ANC for it is their only hope for a better life and a better province that is enterprising and connected and where each of them reach their full potential. It is thus no shock that we continue to retain wards in our province as we did in ward 7 KSD in OR Tambo region, because of the hard work and dedication of our volunteers but also the confidence and love our people have for their movement.
They expect nothing in return but to see the ANC in government coming up with concrete solutions to their concrete realities of poverty, unemployment and inequality. They want to see an ANC in government that is making all necessary interventions for the realization and implementation of the long talked about catalytic projects such as Umzimvubu dam, Mthombo refinery ,LNG , the Marine Tilapia Industry , cannabis and many more initiative projects that are meant to drive economic growth, enhance service delivery create meaningful jobs and change socio economic outlook of our province .
Our people want to see the ANC in government developing practical measures and plans to end the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide. They will be looking with keen interest at the outcomes of the planned National GBV and Femicide summit that has been preceded by provincial summits including our own. They want to see our government waging war against violent crimes in the province so that women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQIA+ community live safely in their communities without fear of being raped, abused, violated, harassed or even killed.
We will make our communities better only when we decisively deal with the deeply rooted problem of corruption that takes away the little we have to deliver services and develop our province. That is why we are making all efforts and strides to intensify our fight against corruption including the implementation of the decision to conduct lifestyle audits within the Provincial Executive Council, senior managers and in local government.
These are some of the key pillars our Letsema campaign will be driven by and we all have a role to play in making the campaign the success it already is. Most importantly we would like to thank the Provincial Elections Team led by PET Coordinator, Comrade Nanziwe Rulashe and the Organizing& Mobilization Team for a well oiled program of this Letsema.
With those few words, and on behalf of the ANC PEC I wish to welcome all of you comrades to our official launch of the Letsema campaign. Let us carry on with the good work and ensure at no stage do we drop the ball.
Thank you very much.
Amandla!
