ANC@112
Ramaphosa slams ‘anti-transformation’ breakaway parties contesting the ANC
The ANC’s 112th anniversary celebrations saw party president Cyril Ramaphosa take a not so subtle swipe at the governing party’s former leader Jacob Zuma. This comes almost a month after Zuma announced that he would be campaigning for the new MK party for the 2024 elections.
A capacity crowd cheered and clapped as ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa took a veiled swipe at former president Jacob Zuma’s who recently announced that he will be campaigning for the MK party.
Ramaphosa speaking at the ANC’s 112th anniversary bash held at the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga on Saturday.
A sea of green, gold and black responded animatedly as a fired-up Ramaphosa articulated the party’s agenda for the year.
During his address Ramaphosa, without naming him specifically, took a veiled swipe at former president Jacob Zuma’s decision to join and campaign for the newly formed MK party.
Read more on Daily Maverick: With love from Zuma — former president ditches ANC in upcoming elections, vows ‘total liberation’
Ramaphosa started by making claims that there are “forces that are working hard to undermine the gains of freedom made over the last three decades”.
He accused parties of masquerading as more radical versions of the ANC while insisting that the governing party was superior to new formations.
Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the ANC’s 112th anniversary celebration held at the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga. (Photo: ANC on X)
Podium celebrations at the ANC’s 112th anniversary event at Mbombela Stadium on 13 January 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Dirk Kotze)
“Another anti-transformation tactic is to ensure that the ANC is locked up in internal struggles that will weaken and destroy it from within. They actively encourage rebel break-away groupings to erode the support base of the ANC.
“Often these start as factional conflicts within the ANC, but when the movement pushes ahead with its renewal, they mutate into opposition parties that are as opposed to the ANC as the right-wing opponents of transformation.
“The ANC-led Alliance and the broad progressive movement remains the only reliable force that is capable, and that has a tradition, of uniting and working with various social forces to advance the national democratic agenda.
“Unique among political formations in South Africa, the ANC has been able to work with workers, women, youth, progressive professionals, intellectuals, business people, middle-strata, faith-based organisations, cultural activists, traditional leaders, and various community-based and non-governmental organisations to achieve social and economic change,” Ramaphosa reiterated.
The crowd celebrates the African National Congress’s 112th anniversary at Mbombela Stadium on 13 January 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Dirk Kotze)
The African National Congress’s 112th anniversary celebration at Mbombela Stadium on 13 January 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Dirk Kotze)
He further addressed what he deemed to be “anti-transformation forces” that were determined to stop the ANC from forming a united country.
“The anti-transformation forces are converging into pacts, while at the same time seeking to fragment the forces for change through splinter groups and small parties that will contest the ANC.
“The onslaught against transformation should make us more determined this year to succeed in building a better life for all and to be more deliberate and resolute about the renewal of the ANC, the broad democratic forces and our society,” he said.
Mapaila directly slams Zuma
While delivering a message of support, SA Communist Party General Secretary, Solly Mapaila, said the ANC must prevent those outside of the party from misusing its symbols.
Energy minister Gwede Mantashe at the African National Congress’s 112th anniversary celebration at Mbombela Stadium on 13 January 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Dirk Kotze)
He went on to implore the ANC’s National Executive Committee not to tiptoe around Zuma and instead directly address him.
“We want to say to the ANC, do not allow anybody to hijack the symbols of our movement. uMkhonto WeSizwe was established jointly by the SACP and the ANC, the SACP accepted full leadership of the ANC on Umkhonto WeSizwe.
“To date, others have emerged, including former President Jacob Zuma, I don’t know why the NEC is dilly-dallying on this counter-revolutionary,” he charged.
“We want to say to the leadership of the ANC that we do all and everything for the revolution and nothing against it. When those who rise against the revolution do so wearing our colours, we must deal with them decisively without any shame.”
Part of the crowd attending the African National Congress’s 112th anniversary celebration at Mbombela Stadium on 13 January 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Dirk Kotze)
There has been ongoing friction about the use of the ANC liberation military wing’s name by the new MK party.
Read more on Daily Maverick: ANC KZN condemns Zuma’s ‘gross ill-discipline’ for support of new party
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula this week said that the ruling party intended to challenge the new party, saying the name belonged to the ANC.
Meanwhile, South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) president Richard Mkhungo took the opportunity to reaffirm the formation’s unconditional support for the ANC in the upcoming elections.
This is despite the departure of Zuma from the ANC and following his election as Sanco KwaZulu-Natal chair last year.
“We will campaign and vote for the ANC and nothing else. Any move contrary to that is self-expulsion.
“We are saying this, comrades, because there’s some new tendency by new shenanigans who are using our name to associate with ourselves as if they don’t know our originality. We are very pleased under the leadership of the ANC,” Mkhungo said. DM
Summary: the Zupta faction within ANC are too small to appoint cadres so they figure when ANC loses majority it will need to negotiate coalitions. So being a king maker as coalition is less worse than being a faction within the majority that wants to anoint a king.
A very interesting observation !
“Ramaphosa slams ‘anti-transformation’ breakaway parties…”
In other words: Parties who do not want to destroy the country any further.
BTW, Ramajoker, leave Zuma alone – I love him. He’s much funnier than Trevor Noah and Jerry Lewis combined.
Ouch Jan. You’re showing your age bringing Jerry Lewis into the discussion.
And I’m showing mine by this comment! Oops.
Never found him very funny though. A bit too slapstick. A bit like Fokall Fikile.
I find it beyond odd that the ANC seems to stagger from not being able to pay it’s own staff(and defrauding SARS by not paying them the PAYE it withholds) to being able to pay to rent stadiums and all the rubbish that goes along with these ego stroking events.
The people within the ANC couldn’t run a spaza shop. Honestly. Ramaposa included. They’re all just pushed from pillar to post…. and rely on Russia or China to bail them out (in return for our state resources) whenever they get themselves into a bind.
Sorry, I fall asleep when the same tune start playing.
Did I miss anything?
The president is delusional, what transformation is he talking about!!
Trashformation.
It’s funny how Cyril claims that he values the uplfiting and improvement of south-africa whilst the police force under his command won’t even imprison unconstitutional, racist people like Jacob Zuma. We need a leader who runs the country based on ethics and philosophy, not pretentious politics and the pursuit of personal gain and status.
I think thirty years of looting , lies and incompetence is proof enough of ANC commitment to South Africa
Translation – We the corrupt thugs of the ANC don’t want to share the country’s money with our departed corrupt comrades, so now they want to kill the support of the corrupt ANC. So that we are forced to go into coalition with them, so we must not allow our corrupt comrades to take over. We the corrupt ANC thugs don’t want to share.
Does this man have no shame ?????
None whatsoever.
More blather to be lapped up by the crooked nomenklatura of the glorious liberation movement and the useful idiot voting fodder who keep them in power and living lives of luxury. Same old same old.
Ramphosa has always been very good with words, but maybe he has arrived at the point, that he cannot find any new ones anymore. Then there are “comrades” still using words like “revolution”. Where are they living and in which year? The thought of not living in the limelight anymore must be terrifying for those people.
The ANC was established on the doctrines of communism. The fact that this form of domination has failed miserably everywhere and killed many millions of cititizens around the world is of no concern to them. When it comes to an almost foolproof system for enabling its leaders to loot state coffers, socialism and communism are perfectly suited platforms for the ANC, EFF, and MK to cash in. China is a capitalist state with awesome money making structures but it is ruled by communist dogma. The ANC et al are cannon fodder for this regime which manipulates them to the Nth degree. Unfortunately the ANC will never allow the population to use its natural ability to grow and better itself . They will loot the proceeds of business and industry and bleed the country dry. They have 30 years of experience behind them.
Tens of millions; not millions. Communism, be it Soviet, Russian or Chinese, has been a disastrous ideology for tens of millions of their respective citizens.
And all the while, Squirrel the Ruminator is shoring up his golden acorns for the day that everything collapses.
And then he will continue to live the good life, while the rest of us peasants try and scratch a living on what remains of a once vibrant economy
Now we are back to the ANC that is detached from the reality of what is happening in the rest of country, where did we go wrong?
So RET is now “anti-transformation” ?? I think the President needs to come out of his “anti-transformation” rabbit hole and realise that the country is best managed by competent professionals who do not need to rely on “transformation” crutches. In that sense “anti transformation” needs to be actively embraced along with De Ruyter’s “renewables agenda” !
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If the ANC just ran the country decently – not even excellently, just decently – it would have no worries about opposition. If the ANC allowed business to flourish instead of killing off the mining, steel, power, manufacturing and other sectors, our unemployment rate would be below 20% – possibly much lower as our economy boomed. If the ANC ran SOEs with a fraction of the skills required, our ports and rail networks would still be the envy of countries around the world, ditto for Eskom (its only 13 years since Eskom was lauded as being best in class!) – and the industrial clusters that underpin the maintenance and expansion of these sectors would be thriving. If the ANC and its union partners gave a damn about the people of South Africa, it would provide excellent education and healthcare, rather than the unfit for purpose kids who leave school and the rampant looting and murder in the healthcare sector. Ditto for safety and security, and in fact for pretty much every sector the ANC meddles in. The fact that no President since the early Mbeki era has been able to present their achievements as a standalone speaks volumes about the gross failures of the later Mbeki years, and the totality of the Zuma and Ramaphosa tenures: they do not dare have their administrations work analysed separately, because they will be shown for what they are; corrupt, useless, inefficient and utterly uncaring.
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