WATCH LIVE: Cyril Ramaphosa delivers January 8 statement

“African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa is delivering the annual January 8 statement at the party’s 112th birthday celebration at Mbombela stadium in Mpumalanga.

The January 8 statement is expected to address several issues, including the country’s high unemployment rate, corruption and load shedding.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa says ANC committed to tackling ‘global problem’ of youth unemployment

While ANC leaders while in high spirits during the week, party preparations faced a setback on Saturday morning when members of the ruling party travelling from Limpopo were involved in a fatal accident.

“[It’s] a very devastating experience, there are those that have been confirmed, but we’re waiting for the police to clear the entire area. The MEC of health from Limpopo is also at the scene, numbers have been shared, but we believe that up until we get confirmation from the authorities, we know that lives have been lost. We are quite saddened by that and we commit to do better in their own memory,” said ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane.

Watch Ramaphosa’s speech below, courtesy of the SABC

‘Enough is enough’

On Thursday, ANCYL president Collen Malatji called on Ramaphosa to fire government officials who are not doing their job, saying the youth was available and ready to serve.

Malatji urged the president and his administration to create more work opportunities.

“It can’t be that we’re the ones who are given donations by countries that have nothing, it must be us who give them donations.

“Africans should no longer be a charity case of Europeans, people that have nothing, who use our raw materials to build their economies and later say Africa is poor and give us food, after using our raw materials to build their economies,” the ANCYL president said.

READ MORE: ANCYL calls for R4 500 grant for unemployed graduates, wants SRD grant increased to R1 500

“Enough is enough! Young people want to partake in the economic activities of their own country. It is not normal for a minority in the country to carry the majority, it should be the other way round.

“We can’t have Eskom collapsing due to engineers retiring while we also have unemployed engineers. Hire these young engineers to solve our problems. We cannot have a shortage of doctors when we have unemployed doctors,” Malatji added.