Daily Dispatch
Many awaiting Cyril’s words
NEWLY elected ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa will make his first official address next week when an expected 100 000 members converge in East London for the party’s 106th birthday celebrations.
Officially known as the January 8 Statement, card-carrying ANC members and supporters will be looking to their new president to set out the priorities for the year ahead and provide guidance on how to achieve said goals.
For the ANC, last year was largely characterised by a bruising succession battle that saw a party divided along factional lines in the run-up to the national elective conference in Johannesburg last month.
In the Eastern Cape, the differing opinions on who should lead resulted in a physical confrontation when the province convened to elects its executive. Chairs were flung, with some members having to seek medical attention.
As the ruling party, ANC politics not only impacts on its own members, but its actions and decisions also affect the average man in the street. And with the national elections scheduled to take place next year, there will be more pressure to ensure service delivery is not overshadowed by the party’s inner turmoil.
Former ANC president Jacob Zuma in his final January 8 Statement in Soweto last year highlighted a number of key objectives of the ANC-led government. It included, among others, land reform, economic growth and job creation. Key was also to unify the party.
The ANC made a move towards the land reform issue when at its 54th national conference last month, the party adopted a motion to amend the Constitution to allow the state to expropriate land without compensation. However, the party did not set a deadline.
The road ahead will not be an easy one for the new ANC leadership. Fraud and corruption have eroded the people’s trust in the ANC-led government, state-owned enterprises are in a shambles and the country is losing jobs.
The scandal involving the Gupta family and allegations of state capture hangs like a dark cloud over the country. The economy grew by only 2% in the third quarter of 2017, down from the previous quarter, while 83 000 formal jobs were lost between September 2016 and September 2017.
State-owned enterprises are in financially precarious position.
Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown revealed that arms manufacturer Denel had debts of about R687-million, Eskom had R102-million outstanding to creditors while Transnet had R728-million. State-owned regional airline SA Express had R382-million in debts.
To top it all, the country needs clarity on the issue of fee-free education, as announced by Zuma last month, before it sparks further student uprisings.
Ramaphosa will carry a tremendous amount of responsibility on his shoulders to not only unite the party ahead of the national elections, but deal with the ills plaguing the administration and focus on serving the people.