Ramaphosa to declare 2025 year of dialogue during ANC anniversary celebration

The ANC was on a campaign to convince South Africans that it was their choice to host its annual event at the Mandela Park stadium, but Danish Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis quickly took to social media to dispute this.

Although the two parties co-govern in the GNU, this week we saw leaders from both the DA and ANC attacking each other over the state of municipalities in the Western Cape.

Ramaphosa and ANC top brass crisscrossed the province this week in an effort to mobilize support for his event. Party leaders also had the opportunity to visit Robben Island, where several ANC luminaries were arrested.

Although the 8 January declaration previously outlined his government program for the year, Ramaphosa is expected to use this year's declaration to confirm the ANC's role as leader of the GNU.

Giving a preview of the statement during the annual gala dinner on Friday night, Ramaphosa said he would address issues that concern people and outline the reasons why the ANC holds the firm view that the National Democratic Revolution is incomplete.

“We need to intensify the execution of the National Democratic Revolution. We still have to achieve the vision that was set out in the Freedom Charter as South Africa to ensure that we actually bring prosperity to our country. All our people have not yet shared the wealth of our country. And the search that continues to be articulated by our people in a broad way, but which is also articulated in a more accentuated way by the young people of our country”, he stated.

He said the ANC will reiterate its commitment to continue with the process of driving inclusive growth that will lead to the transformation of the economy as well as the various institutions of the economy.

“As such, inclusive growth must benefit all South Africans, but in particular, our country's women, young people and marginalized and vulnerable groups across our country. In particular, we must present our citizens with concrete and specific measures to address the challenge of unemployment, but we must also focus on how we empower young people, to prepare them for the world of work, to focus on expanding access to education, as well as improving quality education and enhancing skills development and expanding enrollments in areas required by evolving labor market laws, such as Amendment of Basic Education Laws (Bela Law).