This week has been the busiest that Kimberley has seen in a long time and brought life to the Diamond City, with the ANC’s 108th birthday celebrations.
Events leading to the main event were characterised by blue lights convoys and the visibility of ANC’s memorabilia and banners everywhere in the city, culminating in the delivery of the ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa’s January 8 speech.
ANC members from all over the country converged at the Tafel Lager Stadium as early as 6 o’clock on Saturday morning to attend the event. The ANC President’s statement touched on myriad of topical issues affecting the country.
While there are mixed reactions to the statement, it seems Ramaphosa’s message resonates more with the youth as explains Piet Molotsi from the Northern Cape.
“I’m hopeful and I trust what the President has said. I believe that whatever the concerns we had we’ve given to the President and hopefully, we will get what we want from the President. We’ve got the belief as Northern Cape about the President.”
Another young person, Ayabulela Nkane, who is from the Eastern Cape says, “They instilled new hope and we really need jobs. There are many graduates out there. I’m also one of them who needs a job. We really need jobs and there are high levels of alcohol abuse, this is because of what? Lack of jobs.”
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa’s January 8 statement below:
Meanwhile, the Freedom Front Plus (FFPlus) has described the deployment of the South African National Defence Force to Kimberley in the Northern Cape during the African National Congress’ (ANC) 108th-anniversary celebrations as unconstitutional.
The FFPlus says in terms of Section 201 of the Constitution only the President may grant permission for soldiers to be deployed alongside the police.
It says the fact that the soldiers were reportedly withdrawn immediately after their presence became public knowledge means that an illegal command was probably issued to deploy the soldiers. The accountable persons are going to have to explain why this happened.
The FFPlus says it will pose questions in Parliament to determine who issued the command. It will also enquire whether any steps were taken against the relevant persons who issued the seemingly illegal command.
