The President of the ANC Comrade Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa
and the entire NEC collective
Excellency’s and Distinguished guests,
Fellow Comrades and friends,
On behalf of the entire people of our Province, we extend a very warm and special welcome to all of you, namkelekile kwikhaya lengqwele, the home of legends.
Our 54th National Conference has given South Africans a renewed sense of hope and today’s January 8th Statement of the National Executive Committee should further build on this momentum and show our people that really “zijikile izinto”.
We wish to welcome you with a simple message “Renew the ANC as leader of society, rebuild it as mass organ and place it firmly in the hands of the people as a tool for self-liberation”. This is what zizojika izinto must translate to, a renewed African National Congress that is rooted amongst the people.
In renewing the ANC we must heed the wise counsel of Fanon when he said “the party ought to be organized in such fashion that it is not simply content with having contacts with the masses.
The party should be the direct expression of the masses. The party is not an administration responsible for transmitting government orders; it is the energetic spokesman and the incorruptible defender of the masses”
There is no better definition of what being a leader of society means “An “energetic spokesman and the incorruptible defender of the masses”, that is what the ANC should be.
We owe it to the memory of uTata uCanon James Calata and President AB Xuma who led the renewal of the ANC in the 1940s, we owe it to Walter Sisulu, Alfred Nzo, O.R Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Chris Hani, Nelson Mandela and many others whose names have become synonymous with the renewal and the building of a strong ANC.
We owe it to ourselves, we owe to the future of our children, we our it to the poor people of our country who have no other hope but the ANC. We must be LESS pre-occupied with ourselves, but our energies must be focused on changing people’s lives.
The ANC remains our collective inheritance and future, let us therefore today all commit to help heal the ANC, let us commit to building the ANC, let us renew the ANC to place it again at the hands of the people as an instrument to deliver the promise of a better life for all”
Ngalamagam ambalwa sithi namkelekile kwelikhaya lika John Tengo Jabavu, Walter Rubusana , SEK Mqhaye, Enoch Sontonga nezinye iingqwele.
Mongameli thetha nesizwe, unike ithemba kumlisela nomthinjana ukuba ngenene nangenyaniso zizojika izinto.
Khula ANC! Khula, Mpilonde ANC! Mpilonde
Amandla!
