Turning point for the ANC

TODAY Cyril Ramaphosa presents the ANC’s January 8 statement. It is an important moment, effectively even more important than the State of the Nation Address on February 8, when the president of the country speaks to the nation as he opens Parliament for the year.

Currently, we have two centres of power because Jacob Zuma, the president of the country, is no longer president of his party. The ANC says there is no such thing, that the party is the only centre of power in this country.

If we are to take this at face value, then what Ramaphosa says in East London is critically important because he, not Zuma, will be dictating what is said in Cape Town next month – and indeed how the budget will need to be set up when it is revealed a fortnight later.

There are many issues Ramaphosa will have to address today; chief among them is the issue of state capture.

He will have to speak with far more clarity on how the scourge of graft is to be addressed, not parrot the same empty phrases that have been rendered so devoid of meaning that they have now become part of Zuma’s official lexicon.

He will need to provide details on how the state will expropriate land without compensation while not affecting the nation’s food security, and explain how the government will fund the promise made a month ago by his predecessor to provide free tertiary education to poor students.

The ANC has been tireless in East London this week reconnecting with the grass roots.

Today, though, it all has to come together as a blueprint for a plan that will finally and truly begin to deliver on the promise of a better life for all made by Nelson Mandela in 1994. It’s a tall order, but achievable if the people get behind this new initiative. They can only do that if they are told the details of this plan.