By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Five ANC members who died in a bus crash on their way to the party’s 112th anniversary celebrations in Mbombela, Mpumalanga were laid to rest in a mass funeral in Botlokwa outside Polokwane in Limpopo.
Mashao Setabola, Mosima Makganyoga, Mapula Rakubu, Magret Rakubu and Manti Mafomo were killed when the bus they were travelling in lost control and overturned.
The crash happened on the R71 in Makgobakloof outside Tzaneen last Saturday.
Scores of ANC members, including National Executive Committee members and provincial leaders, gathered at the Eisleben Sports ground in Botlokwa for their official send-off.
Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula emphasized that a mammoth task that lies ahead for the ANC.
“To renew our spirits about remembering these comrades, the most important thing is what do they stand for and at the same time what are the tasks that we are facing and how to overcome them, these comrades were full of hope. The fact that you can leave as far as Limpopo to go to Mbombela, you know in Mbombela, there are people who could not even get inside.”
Ten people who were injured in the crash are still recovering in hospital.
He has also emphasised that the governing party has done nothing to former president Jacob Zuma.
Mbalula said the ruling party’s National Exeuctive Committee (NEC) should make a decision about the stance of Zuma sooner rather than later.
“I have said this on behalf of the ANC many times that the ANC will pronounce and when it meets at the NEC it will deal with that because it is not a matter that you would leave hanging on.
“When somebody says ‘I have left but I am still a member, I am staying in this organisation and I am not leaving wholly and part of me is gone in terms of the vote but I am still a member’, obviously the party will pronounce itself from that. But for the fact that he has gone out and mobilised against us, we will meet on the ground in terms of rebutting the things he says.
“There is no self-respecting party that will spend time on the opposition when we are in government. President Zuma was a president in this country, he governed and lead for a specific time and therefore we can be spending time reflecting on him.
“Distortions that are made will be rectified as we go on, but we are concerned about our agenda on what the ANC has committed to the people of this country.”
Zuma also spent the day in Limpopo, where the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) is campaigning.
He is set to visit several villages in the province.
Mbalula further added that Zuma is part of the ANC election DNA.
“We did nothing to Zuma and as a result what I can say about his presence here (Limpopo) is that he is going to be part and parcel of our elections DNA to understand that he is on the other side, so it cannot be all the time when he is around where we are for whatever reasons, we can’t be concerned about that but he has got a political party to support and to campaign for and we have got to be concerned what the ANC does for the people.”
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Video Courtesy of MYANC.