By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa issued a stern warning to opposition parties for using unethical tactics to oust the ruling party.
Ramaphosa delivered his closing remarks at the ANC’s two-day national executive committee (NEC) lekgotla in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni on Tuesday.
The lekgotla sitting included alliance partners, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
He said the ANC was aware of the tactic but stated they were ready to defend the movement without any doubt.
Without naming the parties, Ramaphosa suggested that the ANC’s opponents, such as the Multi-party Charter, only had plans to “stop transformative and developmental programmes and also to reverse the gains made in improving the quality of life of the majority of our people”.
“The strategy of our opponents is to consolidate anti-transformation forces through things such as coalitions or pacts, while on the other hand, fragmenting the forces for change through funding a proliferation of splinter groups and smaller parties that they would like to see contesting the African National Congress,” he told delegates at the Birchwood Conference Centre.
Ramaphosa also seemingly hit back at the former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party.
“They actively encourage, in different forms and ways, the creation of rebel breakaway groupings in order to erode the support base of the African National Congress. Often, these groupings start as small factional groups within the ANC, but when the movement pushes back, they mutate into opposition parties.
“Some of these parties masquerade as more radical than the ANC, but revolutionary-sounding rhetoric cannot hide the reality that they have common cause with the forces opposing transformation that is led by African National Congress,” He continued.
He further said the lekgotla reaffirmed that the ANC remained the “party of choice for all who seek to build a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic and prosperous South Africa”.
Ramaphosa said that his party will launch a formidable campaign that will engage with citizens ahead of the 2024 elections. “We will unleash our machinery,” he said.
He further called on all activists and party members to spread awareness in every corner of the country as they sought a renewed democratic mandate to defend and advance the gains of the last three decades of freedom.
The president further urged members to intensify their campaign to emerge victorious in the next elections.
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Video Courtesy of MYANC.