African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted that what the party has been doing in the past few years, have not benefited South Africans. He says they’ve embarked on an organisational renewal.
Ramaphosa was speaking in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, where he referred to the need to establish commissions of inquiry, the corruption of some ANC leaders and political killings.
Ramaphosa says the ANC will emerge stronger and wiser after the commissions. He has also admitted that, though the ANC leadership was there when there were mistakes in the past, they’re committed to correcting them.
“We’ve been going through rough times with commissions of inquiry and all that and I’m saying, out of all that comrades, we should never be disheartened. We should never be discouraged, this is a necessary path that we should go through and as, we go through this path, we’re going to emerge much stronger much better, much wiser beyond these commissions. Others keep saying yes; where was the ANC, where was the leadership of the ANC and so forth. Yes, we were there yes, we admit that we were not doing the right things.”
Ramaphosa has commended the ANC leadership in Limpopo for removing some party leaders implicated in the looting and the collapsing of VBS mutual bank. Provincial deputy chairperson and Vhembe district executive mayor, Florence Radzilani and Treasurer Danny Msiza, have been removed from the PEC after the Reserve Bank report implicated them in the VBS saga. Officials of seven municipalities, including a mayor were also sacked.
Ramaphosa said comrades should not deter from rooting out corruption.
“Comrades, I really applaud comrades here and I say stand firm do not be deterred, root out corruption. Root it out because that is the path that our fore-bearers have always wanted us to embark on. We cannot allow the ANC to forever descend into the quagmire of corruption and bad behaviour.”
Ramaphosa has also promised to visit the families of the late senior officials of trade union Samwu, Ronald Mani and Timmy Musetsho. The two, who spoke strongly against corruption, were killed in two separate incidents.
WATCH: ANC President, Cde @CyrilRamaphosa’s meeting at Thohoyandou with religious leaders #GrowSouthAfrica
— Fikile (Mr Fearfokkol) (@MbalulaFikile) February 15, 2019
Earlier, Ramaphosa met with traditional and religious leaders. Traditional leaders want government to expedite land redistribution. Chief Aaron Mahumani says they also want full control of their land.
“President, you’ve got a passion for land. You know land is a natural resource…but our dignity is nowhere, we don’t have land we’re called de facto owners of the land and the Minister of Rural Development is called de juro owner of the land, which should be vice versa, our country is a democratic country.”
Ramaphosa says government will ensure that land is expropriated without compensation.
“As we look at the land question, there’re great opportunities where we’re now going to say we’re now going to implement our resolution of expropriating land without compensation to make sure that our people get land. Now, Limpopo has great agricultural potential, we need to perfect this. We were meeting earlier with the traditional leader and one of the things we were talking about is land. They’re also hungry for land. They also want land so they can participate in growing the economy of our country.”
Ramaphosa will address the provincial leg of the ANC 107th anniversary at the Thohoyandou stadium later on Saturday.
LIMPOPO PEOPLE’S MANIFESTO LAUNCH
WATCH: ANC President, Comrade @CyrilRamaphosa speaks at Thohoyandou stadium #PeoplesManifesto #GrowSouthAfrica
— Fikile (Mr Fearfokkol) (@MbalulaFikile) February 16, 2019
