Thought Leader

After the release of the National Development Plan (NDP) late 2011, the alliterative 2012 seemed to hold much promise. But it became a year of talk shops. For the first time ever, the national policy and elective conferences of the ANC, SACP, and Cosatu all fell in the same year. There was no implementing the…

By Petunia Mpoza I wake up to the beep of my phone, signalling messages from friends and comrades alike, ensuring departure centres and time. It is at this moment that I realise that it is more than simply individuals from all walks of life who congregate in African National Congress regalia. It is not simply…

The African National Congress’s centenary has not been the unalloyed propaganda opportunity it hoped for. The 100th birthday has mostly served to sear in the public mind the contrast between the ANC’s glorious past and its grubby present, as well as a rather grim-looking future. Its leaders had assumed a year-long drumming upon the ANC’s…

For every occasion, there is an instance so poignant only the willfully blind and the intentionally deaf can miss it. Such moments tend to happen outside and in spite of the rehearsed and the orchestrated. They can be dramatic or surreal. In the FIFA World Cup of 2006, such a definitive moment occurred in the…

Despite the jealous jeers from detractors at the sidelines, the African National Congress is deservedly proud of the centenary it is celebrating. It marks a remarkable achievement – the ANC’s existence as Africa’s oldest surviving political movement, as well as one of the longest in existence worldwide. From its nascence as a tiny struggle vanguard,…

The African National Congress, Africa’s oldest liberation movement, has a glorious and illustrious history. The ANC has for the majority of the 100 years of its existence held the hopes and aspirations of the majority of black people in South Africa. This is the ANC that has always been creative and industrious in its fight…