Cyril takes ANC back down memory lane
Party founders praised
The ANC national executive committee [NEC] meeting will give an indication of the balance of forces for party president Cyril Ramaphosa when it meets today.
The NEC, the highest decision-making body in between ANC conferences, is meeting in East London after the election of new leadership last month to discuss the January 8 anniversary statement to be delivered by Ramaphosa on Saturday.
The discussion at the meeting will give those pro the recall of President Jacob Zuma from government a picture of whether Ramaphosa has majority support.
There have been calls for the NEC to recall Zuma but ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte has said the meeting would just discuss the January 8 statement.
Yesterday, Ramaphosa and the party’s top officials crisscrossed the Eastern Cape to drum up support for the 106th anniversary celebrations at the Buffalo City Stadium in East London on Saturday.
Ramaphosa visited Xhosa King Mpendulo Sigcau at Nqadu Great Place in Willowvale after he was accompanied by ANC leaders including his deputy David Mabuza, national chairman Gwede Mantashe, secretary-general Ace Magashule and treasurer-general Paul Mashatile to lay a wreath at the grave site of Walter Rubusana, a founding member of the ANC.
At Rubusana’s grave site in Brylene, Ramaphosa said: “We are delving deep into the memory bank of the ANC in terms of what the ANC stood for, in trying to rekindle that spirit, that commitment.
“His [Rubusana] intellect was one of those that really conceptualised the formation of the ANC.
“Working with other gigantic intellectuals like Dr Pixley kaSeme, Sol Plaatjie, John Langalibalele Dube and many more, these are the people we are remembering. We are not only remembering them, but are also deriving lessons from them.”
Ramaphosa said the ANC membership should use the lives of founders of the ANC “as a mirror to see whether we are fit for the purpose that they conceptualised right at the beginning of the ANC”.
“This process is the revival of the ANC. Through this, membership is becoming galvanised, and is going to be focusing on the great values which have always driven the ANC. For us this is memory lane, the historic lane and also a lane full of lessons and examples that we need to draw from.”