Is ANC facing toughest election campaign in SA’s d...

Is ANC facing toughest election campaign in SA’s democratic history?

As the African National Congress prepares to deliver its annual January 8 Statement to celebrate its 112-year anniversary in Mpumalanga on 13 January, the party is bracing itself for the toughest election campaign it’s ever had.

Forefathers to guide the party

To prepare for the big day which will take place on Saturday 13 January 2024, where ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address the nation, the National Executive Committee took some time out this week to visit the families of struggle stalwarts in the province.

On Tuesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa led a wreath-laying ceremony at the gravesite of struggle icon, Dr Enos Mabuza at the Louwville Cemetery in Mpumalanga.

ANC national chairperson, Gwede Mantashe said that the wreath-laying ceremony is intended to ask the party’s forefathers to guide the organisation during the election campaign.

“We use those visits as a pilgrimage as well, where we visit people who we want to link up spiritually. We are hoping that they’ll give us guidance and make us strong, particularly in the phase of the ANC under siege.”

Zuma ditches ANC for Umkhonto We Sizwe

The biggest competition for the ANC will come from the newly-formed Umkhonto Wesizwe political party which is led by former ANC president Jacob Zuma, who was also in Mpumalanga recently to campaign against the ANC.

Zuma said that he will not vote for the ANC during the country’s general election in May.

He said that under the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC was a “proxy for white monopoly capital”.

Zuma said he will instead support the newly-formed Umkhonto we Sizwe party, named after the ANC’s military wing.

Mbalula: ANC lied for Zuma

Meanwhile, the ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told delegates during a gathering in Barberton, Mpumalanga on Sunday that the ANC had defended Zuma during his “fire pool” debacle by misleading parliament at the time.

“We went to Parliament and opened an ad hoc committee and said a swimming pool is a fire pool. The police minister [Nathi Nhleko] was sweating, seeing that this was lies, because it is difficult to explain lies. People have lost their careers because of that thing,” he said.

And earlier on Tuesday, SABC News reported that Mpumalanga residents had blocked the R573 Moloto Road East of Pretoria where President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to pass as he visits both the Kingdom Houses of AmaNdebele in Mpumalanga today. However, no visuals were forthcoming. – The South African