Newly elected President of the African National Congress, Cyril Ramaphosa, will deliver his first January 8 Statement in East London on the 13th.
The January 8 Statement is traditionally used by the ANC to convey the party’s unmediated messages and directives from its President.
At all times, the theme of the January 8 Statement is informed by an appraisal of the internal and external challenges the organization faces. Such an analysis, enables the ANC to identify and minimize both the weakness and the threats it faces. At the same time it enables the ANC to exploit the opportunities that are available as it builds itself into robust machinery
The Statement is an effective way of creating a sense of community for disparate formation of cadres. It also served the purpose of ensuring that all ANC members read from the same hymn sheet. Doing so ensured that all members of the organisation, irrespective of their location, carry the same message. With the ANC re-asserting itself as the strategic political centre, the January 8 Statement now looms large in almanac.
The Statement prefigures what the President’s State of the Nation Address would entail.
With an overwhelming 1.2 million strong members, the gathering for the January 8 Statement has become a sort of annual pilgrimage. At this gathering, the ANC converts and their fellow travellers congregate to receive an unmediated message and directives from the ANC President.
The condition of freedom has introduced behavior that the ANC considers alien to its character and culture. It has packaged it as sins of incumbency. These include; careerism, abuse of power, bureaucratic elitism, use of state institutions to fight intra-party conflicts.
In a large measure, aside from economic issues, these are some of the issues that pre-occupied the elective conference.
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