ANC struggle cannot be betrayed for the crumbs of WMC - Magashule
18 May 2019
In remembering ANC stalwart Walter Sisulu, the party’s current Secretary General Ace Magashule has told supports the struggle cannot be betrayed for the crumbs that come from the well laden table of White Monopoly Capital.
Magashule was delivering the keynote address for the Sisulu memorial lecture at the Waaihoek Methodist Church in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
He told the crowd at the birthplace of the ANC that the struggle which the ruling party faces now is the economic emancipation of the people and the restoration of dignity.
“Economic self-determination of the African people is the next vital frontier of struggle,” Magashule said.
“It just cannot be that 25 years after our first democratic elections the control of the resources [of] our country and our country is still primarily in the hands of white people, who are the descendants of the colonists who stole our wealth and land in the first place,” Magashule said.
“We cannot allow a few of us to be co-opted into the power structure of the (mainly white) rich, while many - indeed most black and African people - still remain poor.
“We cannot defeat White Monopoly Capital by allowing it to co-opt us.”
He said that Africans must build their own industries, and manufacture the very goods that they need.
“In fact, to put it bluntly, we must consume what we produce. We must go back to basics and rebuild our own economy, starting with the township economy.
“We must build our own economy that will be answerable to our national interests. All independent nations run their own economies. It is only us who wish to be given a slice in other people’s economies.”
Off script
Answering what challenges are still faced as they celebrate the birth of Sisulu, Magashule said there are quasi-political formations that seek to blind the ANC from their mission.
“We are now faced with the clamouring noises of our detractors who seek our downfall. The forces of darkness that seek to sow confusion in our ranks, and want to divert our attention away from the last lap towards true freedom.”
Going off script, Magashule also told the crowd not to sing songs about ANC leaders who are still alive.
“Never sing songs about leaders who are still alive because they are going to think they are important. They are promoted by the media. They think they are more important than the ANC itself.”
ANC mandate
The ANC secretary general also repeated the ANC’s mandate, which he said includes land expropriation without compensation, the nationalising of the Reserve Bank, achieving free education as well as stopping the privatisation of state owned enterprises.
“Our mandate is the transfer of the political and socio-economic power into the hands of the overwhelming majority of our people, Africans in particular, and the black people in general.”
Magashule said that in the memory of Sisulu, the ANC will continue to defend the resolutions taken at the Nasrec national elective conference in 2017.
