Ramaphosa says ANC has 108 years of ‘struggle and experience’

The president of the African National Congress (ANC) Cyril Ramaphosa has said the governing party has “108 years of struggle, of experience,” and of delivering to South Africa’s citizenry.

Ramaphosa was on Thursday speaking at the ANC’s pre-January 8 mass mobilisation drive at the Last Stop taxi rank in Kimberley, Northern Cape.

The party, which celebrated its 108th birthday on Wednesday, will hold its January 8 Statement celebrations in Kimberley on Saturday at the Tafel Lager Park Stadium.

On Thursday, Ramaphosa told the crowd at the taxi rank that the ANC had been in existence for a long time, which makes it an experienced party that knows “how to do things” and how to work.

“We’ve had 108 years of struggle, of experience, of doing things, of moving forward, of achieving things for our people and also in the last 25 years we’ve improved the lives of our people,” Ramaphosa said.

He said that during various walkabouts held in parts of the Northern Cape ahead of the party’s celebrations, many had thanked the governing party for providing “a government that cares for the people, a government that is there for the people, that speaks on behalf of the people, that acts on behalf of the people”.

“Now that is what makes us happy because when our forefathers and mothers established the ANC in 1912, they wanted to create an organisation that would improve the lives of the people of South Africa,” Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa said that 108 years ago the lives of black South Africans were “terrible” and “horrible” and that they lived under oppression and exploitation and their land, their means of survival, had been taken from them and they were not provided with any education.

“And that is when they [the founders of the ANC] met in Mangaung and decided to establish this glorious and mighty organisation,” Ramaphosa said.

He said considering that the ANC’s first secretary-general, Sol Plaatjie, came from Kimberley, it made the town, in a way, the home of the governing party.

“So in many ways, the ANC has come home. Kimberley is the home of the ANC, the Northern Cape is the home of the ANC,” Ramaphosa said.

He said many of the people he spoke with had told him they loved the ANC.

“I concluded that the people of the Northern Cape love the ANC. Is that true?” Ramaphosa asked the crowd, which loudly responded in the positive.

He said on Saturday the governing party’s national executive committee would release the ANC’s January 8 Statement which will outline the organisation’s plans for the year.

He said the statement would also articulate the current state of the country and the difficulties its citizenry has endured and how these would be addressed.

“We will be sharing with the people of our country what the ANC’s plans are and we will be articulating that,” he said, urging people to attend the celebrations on Saturday in their numbers.

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