The centenary conference of Mangaung is a platform to restore the traditions of our 1912 founding conference.
The magnitude and scale at which the antagonistic forces are at play to capture the soul of the ANC as we approach our historic centenary conference in Mangaung absolves our long held view that imperialism never thought our movement would ever celebrate its centenary. This has been proven by the unprecedented effort to undermine the integrity of Cde Jacob Zuma who is both the President of the ANC and the state and equally without fear of any contradiction the face of our national democratic revolution.
It is therefore important from the premise of these difficult conditions imposed by the dominant world of imperialism and neo liberal fundamentalism, that we appreciate the realities that our collective leadership has not just only succeeded in ushering us into the centenary but more importantly in using the strategic and tactical choices of our movement to triumph over the forces of oppression and exploitation.
We are proud that our movement is still cherished by the same ideals that inspired our founding fathers. The ideals whose its core values and principles are for the construction of a non-racial, non sexist, democratic and a prosperous South African society. The new continues to be born out of the old.
Our national liberation movement is traversing the most difficult epoch in its history of leading the struggles for the liberation of our people. Since the adoption of the historic Black Republic thesis in 1928, our movement has been under great influence and support from the former Soviet Union. To this morning of my attempt to write this opinion, the collapse of the soviet block and the 2007 world economic recession have been the most veracious moments in the history of the existence of our movement that so much attempted to fiddle with our outlook.