Thursday, March 28, 2024
spot_img
HomeHeadlinesThabo Mbeki celebrates Sisulu in a lecture at WSU

Thabo Mbeki celebrates Sisulu in a lecture at WSU

Former President Thabo Mbeki delivered the Walter Sisulu Memorial Lecture on Saturday afternoon where he reflected on the Freedom Charter adopted in Kliptown, Soweto on this day 66 years ago.

In 1955, the African National Congress (ANC) sent out 50 000 volunteers into townships and to the countryside, to collect “freedom demands” from the people of South Africa and the charter was officially adopted on Sunday the 26th of June.

The lecture was organized by the Walter Sisulu University Convocation to celebrate the life of the struggle stalwart.

A spokesperson for the University’s Convocation, Simthandile Ford said that they are not only celebrating the life of Walter Sisulu but also of the people who were in Kliptown in 1955.

“Today is a day that we feel we are not just celebrating just a life that contributed to the democratic society, but we are also celebrating the people that were in Kliptown in 1955 to go and shape the vision of the society that they wanted to see. The university is also taking a new shape as it takes itself into a position of becoming an African university that seeks to pursue excellence in its programs, She added.

Paying Tribute to Sisulu Mbeki said he was an outstanding and beloved leader who many did not know and an “irreplaceable leader” of our time. Sisulu passed on in May 2003 at age 93. Mbeki said he is one of a great galaxy of leaders who had given their all to save the people of our country from the intolerable pain of contempt and humiliation. They believed that their lives were worth nothing unless they were dedicated to the service of the people.

In him, our liberation movement was blessed to have a leader like him who was prepared to go to the gallows singing but refusing to sell out his own. He was a very important member of the collective of that leadership of Xuma and Rev Calata he said. He was the founding member of the ANC Youth League and became its first treasurer. He was elected general secretary of the ANC replacing Reverend Calata. This position he held until the banning of political parties in 1960.

He played a critical role in the process leading to the drafting and adoption of the Freedom Charter. He cultivated along with other leaders the establishment of the underground and missions outside the borders of our country and the establishment of Umkhonto Wesizwe in 1961.

He called on the ANC to make an honest assessment about how much the quality of the life of the people has changed in accordance with the 1994 election manifesto which Walter Sisulu was part of its drafting.

He said the sharp decline in economic activity and the pain South Africans are feeling as a result of the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic was worrying. He congratulated the government for the role it is playing to limit the ravaging effect of Covid 19. He decried the rising levels of inequality, poverty and unemployment. He said unemployment is 40% and rising while 50% of the population lives below the poverty line and the GDP has been falling since 2014. 

He called on the ANC to be serious about what it calls the fundamental renewal. It is only a renewed ANC that can lead the national effort to reduce the coronavirus effects bring about the real rapture with the past.

“The NEC has done nothing to honor the 2017 conference directives and the January 8th statement on the renewal of the ANC” he added.

He said the ANC will remain a dominant political player in the country for a long time. The failure to effect that renewal threatens the very survival of the organization. This failure threatens the survival of the 60 million population. This renewal is an urgent imperative. 

He said policy uncertainty and corruption and may lock the country in a negative growth trajectory for over a decade.

Thabo Mbeki celebrates Sisulu in a lecture at WSU
Caleb Tayi
Caleb Tayi
I'm a critical reader and a lover of words. As the ECToday Editor my job is to polish and refine a story or an article, check facts, spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.
RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

- Advertisment -
Google search engine

Most Popular

Recent Comments