@myanc
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and party officials visited Robben Island on Wednesday as the governing party marked its 113th anniversary.
Main celebrations are taking place in Cape Town with the traditional January 8th statement to be delivered in Khayalitsha on Saturday.
Ramaphosa visited the cell where ANC stalwart Nelson Mandela was held, with the ANC saying it symbolised the enduring legacy of sacrifice and struggle for freedom.
He also placed a stone at the lime quarry where Mandela and fellow freedom fighters toiled under harsh conditions.
“To remember Madiba and to remember the formation of the ANC. So Happy Birthday ANC, and that you were formed, and you struggled to make us all free,” Ramaphosa said.
Meanwhile, the ANC said the party’s visit to Robben Island served as a reminder of its duty to protect the hard-won gains of liberation and to lead South Africa toward a future of dignity, equality, and progress”.
National spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, said it was their responsibility to maintain the status of the ANC as the organisation that led the people to freedom and liberation.
"We have a responsibility to maintain this illustrious legacy. More importantly, to ensure that which many had died and made sacrifices for is not destroyed in our hands and that we will rebuild," she said.
Bhengu-Motsiri said the ANC recommitted to renewing and rebuilding the organization, while also working to restore the faith of South Africans in the “ability of the ANC” to see them realising full emancipation and freedoms, both political and economic.
“By visiting Robben Island on this most important of days in the life of our movement, we are reaffirming our determination to advance the struggle for the complete liberation of all South Africans from all forms of oppression.” - ANC President, Cde Chril Ramaphosa
— African National Congress (@MYANC) January 8, 2025
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