Pretoria - ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa will have his hands full this week as he launches his party’s 111th anniversary in a faction-riddled Free State province that has failed to hold its elective conference four times due to divisions within the party.
Ramaphosa kicked off the celebrations with a wreath-laying ceremony at the party’s Fezile Dabi region at the gravesite of the Reverend Zaccheus Richard Mahabane, the third president of the ANC, in Seeisosville cemetery, Maokeng, yesterday.
This is one of the events marked to drum up support for the main January 8 statement expected to take place at the Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium on Sunday.
Ramaphosa later proceeded to lay wreaths at the gravesite of Dr James Sebe Moroka at the embattled Mangaung region before meeting with local ANC structures.
The party in the Free State, where the ANC was formed in 1912, has been riddled with factions and has failed several times to hold an elective conference before last month’s 55th national conference.
The interim provincial committee (IPC) had planned to hold its conference on December 3 and 4 last year, ahead of the national conference that saw Ramaphosa elected, but it failed to do so, after also failing to hold one in May/July.
The conference was later postponed to October, but this also collapsed due to infighting and the fact that most branches were disqualified.
Disgruntled members of the party in the province have taken it to court for a litany of issues including its failure to hold conferences owing to factionalism and in-fighting.
The host city, Mangaung, which is rife with service delivery challenges and mismanagement, has been placed under administration owing to the lack of service delivery by the ANC-led municipality.
However, at the wreath-laying event yesterday, Ramaphosa was adamant that the celebrations would unify the party, saying that Mahabane was an example of unity among the divided ANC.
“We remember him (Mahabane) because one of his key tasks was to unite the ANC and make it a united force that was able to fight a good fight against our oppressors.
“Beyond this, we will carry on with the renewal and rejuvenation of the ANC. Our presence here is about growing strength, is about drawing wisdom, it’s about getting these bones that are lying here to talk to us,” said Ramaphosa.
He said the newly elected ANC leadership would steer the renewal project to stop factionalism within the party.
“This is a new year and this is a year of real renewal of the ANC and a year of action. With the new leadership that has been elected, it is a leadership that is action-oriented and it’s a leadership that wants to bring about change in the lives of our people.
“We are a merchant of hope and a leadership that has to instil hope in the minds of our people because that is what the ANC is all about. The ANC must bring hope. As we renew ourselves, we will be spreading hope,” he said.
Ramaphosa hailed Mahabane’s family for their continued support of the party, hinting that with its many problems many would have left the party.
“We are privileged to have the family of Mahabane that is so positive and supportive of the ANC.
“When we met with them earlier we commended them for taking the heritage of this great movement forward and also upholding the name of the leader of the ANC.
“We were overjoyed that they have remained members of the movement,” he said.
Pretoria News