ANC 113th Anniversary | Presidential Gala dinner

at the same time the ANC is continuing its 113th anniversary celebrations with a presidential garet dinner this evening at the camp Town International Convention Center the party wants to turn its fortunes around as it has not been doing well in the Western Cape and this celebration comes a year after the party lost its majority nationally forcing it to form a government of national Unity let's take you live to the G dinner at a faster Pace working together this opportunity therefore on behalf of the PBF team PCF team H and the support from the January 88

team um from the HQ who made this H event a success I would like to humbly request one and only President of the Republic of South Africa president seril Mame Raposa to come and address US president please do us the [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] honor let's be seated please program directors the treasurer general of the African National Congress who is our Hostess tonight together with those who assist her as part of the committee that she works with to host these events Deputy president of the African National Congress and Deputy president of the Republic

of South Africa Paul mashati National chairperson gu mantach balula fig balula Secretary General [Music] Nani first deputy secretary General Marini ropa second deputy secretary General and members of the national executive committee of the African National Congress the leadership of the alliance who are here present the leadership of our provinces who are here but in this case more particularly comade JJ the chairperson of our Province here in the Western Cape who is also our host the leadership of our leagues who are here present the leadership of our various other formations who are part of the democratic

movement our premiers as well as our executive Mayors who are here with us our traditional leaders who have also been welcomed by comade basani but I particularly want also to recognize Queen masalon Moi who is also here with [Applause] us your excellencies high Commissioners and ambassadors who are also here and comrades members of the African National Congress and other fraternal organizations and friends this is a moment when we should be happy happy on the eve of the delivery of the message from the national executive committee of the African National Congress the traditional message of the

January 8th and we' wouldd like to thank thank the business people who are here with us whove bought the tables we thank you for continuing to support the African National Congress thank you very much I'm sitting at the table here right in front and the deputy president is also sitting at the table I saw the national chairperson now at my table is also seated the president of thec Youth League when he came in he decided to sit at the head of the table now when I looked at the table where the deputy president is seated

I see at the head of the table is a very serious businessman who you can see that they will have made a serious contribution to what the fundraising effort of the TG now when I looked at the president of thec Youth League sitting at the head of the table I asked myself what has he contributed [Music] [Applause] from a financial point of view sitting at the head of the table and the youth apart from obviously having the great ambition of for leading this country going forward they have a very immediate impatient desire to also sit

at the heads of the table even when contrib it's actually quite a great joy to have the 113th anniversary of the formation of our glorious movement here in the Western Cape and would like to thank the leadership of thec here in the Western Cape and of course the sgo the secretary General's office office for having led the process which was approved by the NEC that we should hold the anniversary of the birth of the ANC here the N the provincial chairperson and others have done a really fantastic job much as we go all over to

mobilize for the hosting or the holding of of the January 8th celebrations in the Western Cape here we found a leadership of thec that had put in a lot of work and I'd like us to give them a round of applause for the work that they have [Applause] done this is a very special January 8th celebration because one of the wonderful ful attractions that the sgo added much as we have a pilgrimage in the latter Days of our movement on the 8th of January we embark on a pilgrimage to go to the various important sites

particularly the burial sites of our former leaders we started off in 2018 when we went to the gravite of the first president of the African National Congress in kzn when we visited the burial site of uh President John langal du we've continued with that tradition which the national chairperson dubbed a pilgrimage and we continue with that practice and this year's continuation of that practice was especially important and profound in that we went to Robin Island and held the celebration and we held the celebration all over the province no doubt but it was especially profound to

have held the celebration one of the celebrations in the the cell of President Nelson Mandela on Robin Island and would like to thank Secretary General and the sgo comade Nani and all those who work in the sgo com balula for having made this possible it was especially wonderful and touching your presence here tonight does bad testimony to the enduring way in which we celebrate January 8th and the birth of our movement and so your presence here is a great honor uh not only to thec but also to the founders of the African National Congress for

on this day we remember the contribution that the founders of our great movement made 113 years ago to form this organization our anniversaries provide us with the opportunity to reflect on our history as an organization but also to reflect on the achievements and the setbacks that we have gone through but they also outline the actions that we must take to advance the struggle for a United non-racial non-sexist and prosperous South Africa now celebrating our anniversary in this beautiful part of our country allows us really an opportunity to commemorate and to honor the contributions of the

people who suffered and struggled for our Liberation the indigenous people of the Western Cape were the first to encounter those who would arrive invade our country take our land and bring slavery to these shores of our beautiful country and oppress the people of our land for centuries equally the people of the Western Cape have a very deep history of resistance to slavery of resistance to colonization forced labor as well as resistance to apartate the first recorded political prisoners on Robin Island are said to have been ashimat the leader of the koi and two of his

other colleagues Yan koi Co rather and Boo in the mid 17th century they were imprisoned there by Yan fan rebec some historians put the date of their imprisonment like less than 10 10 years after Yan fan rebec first set foot on our shows in 1652 now this tradition of resistance carried through to Heroes and heroins of our struggle such as Dr abdur Ram CCE ghoul D Mana oscara philli hosan Ray Alexandra Christmas Tinto Dy September dala Omar Colleen Williams ashri Kel and many others who followed in the tradition of those who started off the struggle

against colonialism and apartate some 340 years ago and tonight we bow our heads to their commitment to our struggle and the many sacrifices that they made we stood in awe in Robin Island as we remembered the sacrifices that were made by people like Nelson Mandela Walter culu Wilton muu and many others Dr sets Cooper who is the chairperson of the robin Island Museum who was a resident also and a prisoner on Robin Island took us around and showed us the various sites on Robin Island including not only the cell but the lime Quarry where Nelson

Mandela and many other prisoners were humiliated and their dignity was sought to be reduced and where their their wers and those who had imprisoned them wanted to break them not only to reduce them to people who did not have dignity but also to make sure that they remain isolated he showed us all the various sides and we were in [Music] awe but we also recognize that this was a place of hope this was a place where they came out of prison being even more determined and committed to prosecute our struggle to the victory that we

finally achieved and due to their struggles we stand here today as a politically free people who can draw on this very proud Legacy to address the challenges faced by our nation and our people as the national leadership of the African National Congress we spent the F past few days crisscrossing the length and the breath of this province Western Cape and especially the City of Cape Town talking to our people engaging with our people and getting to fully understand the issues that they confront issues that pervade the entire country obviously and they raise issues about their

daily struggles struggles of unemployment struggles of a lack of housing lack of services and the challenges that they face of poverty and real suffering and they informed us that they are not receiving the services that they believe are due to them and all this suffering is largely due to centuries of institutionalized racism institutionalized exclusion also from economic opportunities the economic inequality that continues to permeate through all the facets of the lives of our people thec January 8 statement which will be delivered tomorrow from the national executive committee will address issues of concern to the people

of our country and it will will also outline the reasons thec holds the firm view that the national Democratic Revolution is incomplete we need to intensify the execution of the national Democratic Revolution we have yet to attain the vision that has been set out in the freedom Charter as South Africa to sure that indeed we bring about prosperity in our country all our people are yet to share in the wealth of our country and the quest that continues to be articulated by our people broadly but that is more sharply also articulated by the young people

in our country and in this regard I want to to applaud thec Youth League that continues in all their messages to hop on the issue of the economic freedom that must be attained in our country we applaud thec youth league for that we also applaud thec women's league for continuing to articulate the issue of the empowerment of the women of our country but also to articulate the key issues that we need to address with regard to gender-based violence we take off our head to thec women's league for [Music] [Applause] that and we also wish to

applaud the articulation by thec veterans League of ensuring that thec becomes an organization of integrity and continues to work on the renewal project that thec must continue to broaden and to deepen in our organization and we thank thec veterans league for that as well now we know that as the movement we need to expand our programs that are aimed at tackling the unacceptably high unemployment rate the pervasive poverty as well as lingering inequality and thec thus reiterates its commitment to continue with the process of driving inclusive growth that fundamentally will lead lead to the transformation

of the economy of our country as well as the various other institutions of our economy and such inclusive growth must benefit all South Africans but in particular the women of our country the young people and the marginalized vulnerable groups throughout our country in particular we must put before our people concrete and targeted measures to address the challenge of unemployment but we must also focus on how we Empower young people to prepare them for the world of work to focus on broadening access to education as well as enhancing quality education and strengthening skills development and expand

enrollment in areas demanded by the evolving labor market and laws such as the basic education laws Amendment the Bella law are aimed at ensuring that we improve our education system and we insist that indeed that law the Bella Act is going to be implemented whether people like it or not it is going to [Applause] happen and a core component of preparing the Youth of our country for changing the nature of work obviously will be about working together working together with the private sector to link Technical and vocational training to skills that are required particularly in

the digital age and emerging Industries specific interventions to ensure greater participation by women and vulnerable groups in the economy will also be expanded and strengthened now our strategy which we will speak to tomorrow which the NEC has spent considerable time focusing on and crafting the January 8th statement will also be about how we should transform and build an inclusive economy and an inclusive economy that will grow particularly grow one important area industrialization Innovation as well as how we can utilize new technology particularly artificial intelligence increased industrialization must also lead to supporting localization and building labor

intensive Industries in efforts to prevent deindustrialization we want our government to continue to work with the private sector to develop solutions to mitigate and also to prevent job losses we now seeing quite a number of companies talking of reducing their capacities in various sectors and we would like obviously government to work with those and today here we have business people and we'd like them to come forward with ideas on how we can prevent calamities such as job losses that can UE our government must continue to support small and medium Enterprises and we would like those

who are part of the business Community here to also come forward come forward with innovative ideas creative ideas that will enhance the capability of government to address the growth of the small medium Enterprises as enjoined by the freedom Charter we will also want to ensure that we implement the national health insurance act the nhi and provide universal access to Quality Health Care that is free at the point of service meaning that the nhi will be implemented we will proceed with that and of course we will also in the NEC statement want to talk about how

we build a safer and crime free country and how we will want to engage Society more broadly to work with the various law enforcement agencies so that we can root out criminality amongst the various communities and by so doing to ensure that we have a safe Africa we repeat our call and this will be made much clearer tomorrow as well Toc structures to lead various campaigns in our communities to ensure that the process of protecting our people the process of ensuring that the a continues to be the leader of society becomes a real real realized

and we will also talk to the understanding that we have brought to bear about the painful electoral setback that the African National Congress suffered in 2024 and we will also speak to the reasons why we suffered this setback and what the ANC needs to do to claim background and how we can ensure that the African National Congress not only regains ground but regains the trust and confidence of our people we've always said that the strength of the African National Congress lies in its footprint in every Ward throughout the country whether it's in the urban areas

in the rural areas in our towns and Villages and even as we have gone around here in the Western Cape we have seen that the people of our country still have a very strong love affair with the African National Congress they still love thec and therefore it behoves on us to deepen and broaden the renewal program that we upon and accelerate the rebuilding and capacitation of the African National Congress particularly its branches thec s left and a multiclass pro poor movement with a working class bias together with its Alliance Partners the South African Communist Party

as the Vanguard of the working class the Revolutionary Trade union movement KATU and the Civic movement Sanko continue to represent the aspirations of millions of South Africa from all walks of life working together with a broad Democratic Movement we do believe that our our revolutionary and living Alliance remains best placed to unite the broadest SWA of society in our country around the common goals that are represented in the aspirations of our people and where we can continue as the Democratic movement and the alliance to lead our country towards the establishment of a national Democratic Society

we intend as we articulate the tasks that lie ahead to strengthen the alliance so that it can meet the challenges before us and as we do that we also want to invite the the progressive business forum and various other Progressive organizations to join us in ensuring that the ideals that we subscribe to are achieved now these are the tasks that lie ahead which the national executive committee has decided we should focus on in the year that we have just started and this we shall do this year we will be having a number of other manifestations

very important manifestations one of the key ones is the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the freedom Charter we will want to spent time during the course of this year to focus on the key elements of the freedom Charter the loadstar document that has inspired our movement a loadstar document that to a large extent has also led to the transformation that we see in our country having been adopted 7 70 years ago we will celebrate the adoption of this document but we will also want to spend time reflecting on the extent to which we have

gone ahead to implement the freedom Charter this year another important manifestation which the treasurer General Dr ropa also spoke very strongly about is how South Africa will be the first African country to host the G20 this is an important opportunity it's an important opportunity to place the needs and the interests of the people of our country but also the interests of our continent but also importantly the interest the developmental interest of the global South more firmly on the global agenda being small country that we are of just 60 or so million people history has bestowed

on us an important role to play a very big role in global Affairs and this presidency of the G20 is a presidency that is bestowed on the shoulders of all of us as South Africans so each one of us is president of the G20 we must make sure that we pray that role as we know we will be holding meetings of the G20 some 130 meetings you will have seen last year one important meeting was held in Johannesburg there will be many other meetings 120 meetings that will be held in our country in all our

provinces and we call upon South Africans to own this G20 we call on South Africans to be willing and prepared to welcome the world to South Africa as we play a key and important role to you here in the Western Cape there will be a number of meetings and we say be excellent hosts there are many sites where these people who will come to the G20 meeting will be going to one of those sites which as I said we visited on the 8th of January was Robin Island Robin island is a very special UNESCO site

and it now receives some 300,000 people every year and we want that number to go up they receive a thousand people a day and many of those people come from South Africa so we want to popularize Robin Island and many other sites including places where slaves were held so that the image the reputation of our country is put on a much higher pedestal and this is the great moment that we have as South Africa as we welcome all these people who will be coming to the G20 one other important aspect of the G20 is going

to be holding a social G20 Summit we learned this from Brazil where president Lula D Silva called or convened a G20 social Summit bringing together non-governmental organizations or social movements from all over the world and we will want to to do precisely that if not better and bigger to bring them here to South Africa another key manifestation that we are going to have is to hold the national dialogue we have committed ourselves to a national dialogue this year the national dialogue offers a comprehensive platform for all citizens of our country to be part of the

political process that should ensue but which should also help to craft a great future for our country and to ensure that we involve our people in a discussion in a dialogue about the type of South Africa we want to have so we will be going on with that National dialogue another important one for us as the African National Cong Congress we will be holding a very important uh uh meeting where thec members and branches will be coming together to hold the National General Council and NGC so all these important manifestations will be taking place in

2025 and as they take take place we want our members we want the various parts of the alliance we want our people to get involved in discussions in engagement in interaction and we do also want to put our continent on the map and we remain Resolute Resolute in advancing the interests of our continent particularly agenda 2 63 we are very pleased that even at this dinner there are people from various countries in our cont on our continent who are present here and as the TG said we welcome them and let's give those from various countries

on our continent who are here a round of applause and thank them for being here so we will continue to advance the interests of our continent and the attainment of agenda 2063 and at a time of global tension and uncertainty for us it is now more important than ever that we address or Advance the interests of the principles of solidarity of equality and sustainable development which are the themes of our G20 uh presidency and it is vital that in doing so we should continue to strengthen the multilateral system and also that will lead the reform

of global institutions particularly the financial institutions and the governance ones and this is where we will want to heighten the argument of reforming the United Nations so in the end we get thousands of our people to come together tomorrow and comrade JJ tells me that they have mobilized the attendance of our people so much and he said the people of the Western Cape are going to be full in that stadium and those who come from other provinces will be outside of the stadium so if you are here and you come from other provinces find a

seat outside the stadium because it will be full of people from Cape so we look forward to a really successful January 8th celebration tomorrow as the Western Cape leadership leads us to a very good January 8th tonight we continue to re request you as business people to continue to support this glorious movement as I was about to come through here generalists from various TV stations were asking the TG how much money are you raising at this dinner and she was very evasive she did didn't want to fully disclose and they kept on saying how much

is it costing uh anybody to sit at the deputy president's table she didn't disclose how much is it costing to sit at the president's table she didn't disclose I am now able to and willing to disclose but I'll disclose to those who want to contribute more money to thec so we thank you [Applause] we thank you for being here this for us is an important occasion we've started a tradition as thec which I now see is being copied by a number of other organizations we were the very first organization to hold a dinner uh either

before our conference or January 8th now we continue to hold it in style I want to see see what they are further they are going to copy the ANC continues to lead and the ANC also continues as we will talk about it tomorrow to lead the process in the governance of this country there are those who thought that yes thec having gone below 50% it means that it will not continue leading we lead and as we work with nine other political parties we've ensured that the political stability in our country remains solid and it remains

solid because the ANC continues to execute the task that it was given in 1912 when it was formed to unite the people of South Africa and to ensure that there is stability in the country and we will continue to ensure that there is stability in South Africa even against those who may want to bring about stability stability will continue in South Africa because the African National Congress is leading thank you very much [Music] [Applause] all right that ISC president sir Rapa they delivering the keynote to addess of the anc's Gara dinner now this is the

last event that takes place on the anc's diary just ahead of that January 8 statement that will be delivered tomorrow uh in Kye by the anc's president but of course uh we do also know uh that the ANC did hold a NEC meeting earlier on in the week and in the week uh it's where uh the national executive committee of thec discussed what would be contained in that January 8 statement and the president of the ANC also there giving us a glimpse of what we can expect when he delivers uh that message to ANC supporters

tomorrow in KY of course touching on a number of issues uh one thing that did uh uh well that was pointed out by the ANC uh president reflecting on the activities that took place uh throughout the course of the week and saying that this uh January 8 statement is quite special to thec as you would have seen during the week the party of thec the NEC or rather spending time at Robin Island and saying that it was very important uh for them to go back uh to Robin Island and particularly uh to the uh sell

of former president Nelson Mandela saying that it was wonderful and and quite touching uh to be uh in that Cy of course uh saying that the anniversary uh of the ANC uh is a time to reflect on the organization uh the achievements of thec as well as uh the actions uh of thec and of course that will be outlined tomorrow even further uh by thec saying that celebrating allows the party to commemorate the contributions made uh by the people uh who suffered for our country's Liberation also touching on the Western Cape uh being the host

for this year's January 8 uh celebrations and this is the first time thec uh you know goes back uh to the Western Cape it's been a decade since they last held uh their January 8th statement uh in the Western Cape and going back there saying that it is quite important because this is where the first people of the country suffered and uh this is where the first prisoners of Robin Island were also recorded uh being some of the leaders uh of the koi so going back to Robin Island being quite significant there for thec and

recognizing uh the contributions that were made um of course uh by leaders of the ANC saying that the prisoners were humiliated uh but of course uh and they wanted to break them making reference there uh to the aparted regime and the aparted government but saying that you know uh isolating the people of our country and also saying that as a people uh they wanted uh to humiliate them and make sure that they did not have any dignity but today thec says that uh uh as a country We Stand free uh saying We Stand politically free

but of course uh more will continue to come out of um the anc's January 8 statement but that will be done uh tomorrow and remember that this is a message of uh the anc's national executive committee and of course of course saying that they'll be outlining a number of issues but of course reflecting on what they did throughout the week speaking to the people of the Western Cape and of course uh you know talking about uh the issues there facing the people of uh the Western Cape when it comes to Poverty a high unemployment rate

a youth unemployment um and of course Service delivery uh in the Western Cape but let's uh move on now e