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President Jacob Zuma has told ANC members and supporters that the party’s 105 years of existence was a moment to celebrate but “we have not yet achieved all our goals”.
“Our society is still plagued by instances of racism and pervasive sexism and patriarchy,” Zuma said during the January 8 statement, presenting a line of march for the ANC faithful in the new year under the theme of “unity in action”.
More than 40 000 people turned up for the ANC’s birthday celebrations in Orlando Stadium in Soweto today despite the rain.
Zuma said the ANC could still “do more to promote democracy and too many people are still living in poverty”.
“One of our biggest challenges is to build unity and to celebrate our diversity. We have a revolutionary duty to eradicate poverty, address joblessness and fight ever-pervasive inequality,” he said.
Zuma said the ANC was still committed to the National Democratic Revolution, the party’s programme towards achieving its goal of “a prosperous, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa”.
“We pursue our revolution in conditions that are not of our own choosing. These conditions impact on our ability to attain our goals. Ideological and political clarity is a necessary prerequisite for any revolution to succeed,” he said.
He said the ANC needed to be united to fulfil its mission.
“The ANC must concentrate on radical economic transformation and ensure that the people become more prosperous. We must grow the economy, create jobs and return the land to our people,” Zuma said.
He said the ANC “today faces serious challenges to its unity. Divisive tendencies such as factionalism, gatekeeping and manipulation of internal processes exist at all levels of the ANC”.
These tendencies inhibited our ability to give decisive leadership to society, said Zuma.
He said: “The people have told us that we are too busy fighting each other and we do not pay sufficient attention to their needs. Our own research and interactions with members of the ANC demonstrate clearly that the people abhor the apparent preoccupation with personal gain.”
He said the main priorities for the majority in South Africa were jobs, fighting crime and corruption.
“Our task is therefore to grow the economy, create jobs and rigorously fight crime and corruption,” he said.
Above all, said Zuma, “we must commit to the unity of the ANC and the only noble fight that we must engage in is a fight to serve the people and not ourselves”.
