Watch Cyril Ramaphosa’s Powerful Speech: “Why Have Our People Turned Against Us?”
South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a powerful speech at the Chris Hani memorial lecture in Uitenhage, in the Eastern Cape, on Sunday… saying it was time for the ANC to correct itself. “As we start preparing for the 54th conference, let’s go and correct the African National Congress,” he concluded, after pointing out […]
South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a powerful speech at the Chris Hani memorial lecture in Uitenhage, in the Eastern Cape, on Sunday… saying it was time for the ANC to correct itself.
“As we start preparing for the 54th conference, let’s go and correct the African National Congress,” he concluded, after pointing out that those who criticise are not disloyal if what they say is true.
He said money is killing the ANC, and there’s already buying of votes ahead of December’s conference with money circulating in paper bags. The Deputy President admitted the ANC is going through its greatest period of turbulence and uncertainty since coming into power in 1994… and that if problems aren’t resolved, support from voters will continue to fall.
Ramaphosa acknowledged that South Africans no longer feel that the ANC represents hope; that comrades are engaging in “bitter exchanges” on social media, and that “the manner and the form in which the cabinet was reshuffled a few weeks ago heightened those tensions within the movement”.
He said that while the people who took part in the recent marches in cities around the country may not have represented the views of the majority of South Africans, they still represented an important constituency that the ANC should be engaging and mobilising to bring about social and economic change.
Ramaphosa said in the past it was the ANC that was able to mobilise forces… but “now those forces are being mobilised against us”. He said the party is “pushing many important constituencies away from us – people who have always been on our side.”
With opposing parties now consolidaing against the ANC, Ramaphosa said: “we need to ask ourselves: why have our people turned against us?”
News24 editor Adriaan Basson tweeted afterwards: “23 April: the day Cyril Ramaphosa finally launched his campaign for ANC president in Uitenhage, EC. #ChrisHaniMemorial.”
Short Versions of Ramaphosa Speech:
[WATCH] Cyril #Ramaphosa says that the #ANC should ask themselves why people are turning against them. #ChrisHaniMemorial pic.twitter.com/9XXJQIuIdk
— eNCA (@eNCA) April 23, 2017
[WATCH] Earlier: "Criticism cannot be disloyal if it is honest.." – Cyril #Ramaphosa speaking at #ChrisHaniMemorial pic.twitter.com/HrzfnLc1cF
— eNCA (@eNCA) April 23, 2017