The ANC must position itself as a leader of society – it must lead the moral regeneration campaign and fight the scourge of women and children abuse, and its members must go out of their way to help in their communities.
This was the message delivered by ANC national executive committee (NEC) member and Communications Minister Nomvula Mokonyane.
She was speaking at the launch of the ANC volunteers campaign, where she addressed about 600 party members who will campaign for the governing party for next year’s general and provincial elections, at the Clemens Kadalie Hall in Braelyn in East London yesterday.
“We must renew and rebuild the ANC by being leaders of society. When people don’t have money to bury their loved ones, the ANC must come in and help.
“When people don’t have food or water, the ANC must come in and help. Our campaign must not just be volunteers campaign; ANC volunteers must go house to house and give hope to the people,” she said.
Mokonyane said ANC members should make the party a change agent, fight corruption and crime, fight the killing of women and children and promote cleanliness in their communities.
“We must make sure we have campaigns to protect women. We must start with the ANC men who think we are punch bags. We must tell them we won’t support them if they abuse their partners. Their children must not miss father figures while their fathers are alive and in night clubs,” she said.
The ANC has for years been battling to rid itself of the tag of being a corrupt party while its leaders – like MP Mduduzi Manana and Nelson Mandela Bay councillor Andile Lungisa – have been convicted of assault.Lungisa is appealing his two-year prison sentence for assaulting DA councillor Reyno Keyser with a glass water jug last year, while Manana, who was fined R100000 for assaulting women outside a Johannesburg restaurant, is now facing a new assault charge for allegedly throwing his former domestic down a flight of stairs.
Then there is former president Jacob Zuma who is facing 16 charges of fraud, money laundering and racketeering.
Mokonyane told ANC members to be mindful of the fact that they did not join the party for opportunities but to serve South Africans.
“This is a party of people who don’t want racial division. The ANC is a party of the people and we join the ANC to serve.
“You give of yourself – not to gain but to see a nation that respects women and children,” she said.
Mokonyane said ANC members should be loyal to the party itself, not to other party members.
She said the ANC was about land going back to the majority of its citizens.
She called on ANC branches to take care of people and solve their problems.
“People who are deployed by the ANC must go and do what they have been sent to do.
“They must promote the ANC through actions. People must say ‘I cried to the ANC and the ANC helped me’,” Mokonyane said.
She said the Thuma Mina (Send Me) campaign was not about T-shirts but about solving problems.
ANC provincial executive committee member and head of organising in the province Mncedisi Nontsele said Thuma Mina was a platform not for questions but for solutions.
Among those present at the launch were Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister Pam Tshwete, Buffalo City Metro mayor and Dr WB Rubusana regional chairman Xola Pakati and Dr WB Rubusana head of campaigns Sinethemba Mashalaba...