Marking January 8 in the age of renewal

Every year on 8 January, the African National Congress pauses for collective self-reflection and recommitment to its historic mission. January 8 is the ideological heartbeat of our movement, the day on which the ANC reaffirms its covenant with the people, reasserts its historic mission, and renews its mandate to lead society in the struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, and prosperous South Africa. This moment is not an annual ritual to romanticise the glorious history of our struggle.

On this day in 1912, in Waaihoek, Bloemfontein, our forebears gathered to defy, oppose and resist conquest, dispossession and exclusion. This is how the South African Native National Congress (later the ANC) was born. It was born in the crucible of historic betrayal. The Union of South Africa in 1910 was a settler pact that deliberately excluded Africans, while the 1913 Natives Land Act entrenched land dispossession, stripping our people of dignity, livelihood, and hope. 

The ANC emerged as a powerful revolutionary weapon of national unity to reclaim the land, restore dignity and re-assert the full humanity of the oppressed majority. This marked the beginning of a century-long struggle that culminated in the democratic breakthrough of 1994. January 8, therefore, represents an unbroken ideological thread that links the origins of the ANC to the ongoing task of social and economic transformation.

Throughout the liberation struggle, the January 8 Statement served as our strategic lodestar. Often issued from exile under conditions of extreme repression, it analysed the balance of forces, clarified the tasks of the moment and united cadres across Robben Island, underground structures, mass democratic formations and international solidarity networks. Being caught in possession of this revolutionary document was worth imprisonment, for its content and call to action threatened the very foundation of the apartheid regime.  

Today, more than 114 years since its founding, the ANC confronts a new and complex conjuncture. Political power has been attained, yet economic power remains concentrated in the hands of a few white men. Freedom has been won, yet material inequality persists. The national democratic project remains incomplete. For the ANC and the broader democratic movement, the struggle continues! Aluta continua!

This year’s January 8 takes place at a moment of profound domestic and international challenge. Internally, the ANC faces unprecedented pressures. Our founding values are under siege. The corrosive effects of factionalism, coupled with the erosion of discipline, ethical leadership, and revolutionary morality, have weakened the movement and contributed to declining electoral support. A dangerous culture is threatening to take root. The movement has a responsibility to confront persistent allegations of vote buying, manipulation of internal democratic processes where non-existent branches convene fraudulent Branch General Meetings (BGMs) and Branch-Based General Meetings (BBGMs) that are designed to deliver pre-determined “leaders”. These are not mere administrative weaknesses or procedural failures. They are acts of counter-revolution. They betray the very principles upon which the ANC was founded and threaten to derail the movement’s historic mission. 

These tendencies must be confronted with relentless resolve, sparing neither strength nor effort until they are completely exorcised from the ranks of our movement. They are a fundamental affront to the values and principles of a movement whose cadres are expected to serve selflessly and with humility without any expectations of any material rewards or leadership positions.

Beyond the movement itself, the counter-revolutionary onslaught aimed at weakening and liquidating the ANC continues unabated. The enemy not only funds the traditional opponents of the National Democratic Revolution but also actively identifies individuals within our ranks who can be used to form breakaway parties. These reactionary projects are hugely resourced in order to weaken the ANC and fragment its electoral base so that it can eventually lose state power and therefore its capacity transform society and deliver a better life for all.

Globally, progressive forces are facing coordinated attacks from international right-wing and imperialist powers. The democratic gains of the twentieth century are under sustained assault. The ANC and the broader democratic movement across the world are targets in this global struggle. These forces seek to impose a world order that prioritises profit over people. In this context, the task of renewal is both domestic and international. As the rank and file of our movement, we therefore look up to the NEC January 8 Statement for political guidance and strategic clarity as we grapple with these complex organisational, domestic and national challenges.

As we approach January 8, we must ask ourselves uncomfortable but necessary questions: Have we advanced the interests of the working class and the poor? Have we built a developmental state that serves all? Have we defended the revolution against corruption, careerism, and factionalism? Have we been true to our commitment to the renewal agenda?

Given the state of our movement today, renewal is not optional. It is an existential necessity. We must restore revolutionary morality, organisational discipline and ethical leadership. We must isolate and defeat parasitic tendencies, cleanse the movement of corruption, and reassert the ANC as a leader of society and a movement rooted in service and sacrifice.

January 8 is also a call to reclaim the ANC’s role as the moral and intellectual vanguard of society. We must once again become a movement of ideological clarity and ethical leadership. We must go back to being a movement that shapes national consciousness and mobilises the people for radical, inclusive development.

As we mark this historic day, we must do our best to rescue January 8 celebrations from some un-ANC tendencies. It is not a festival of crass materialism and excess. The vulgar display of wealth and the commodification of revolutionary symbolism represent a profound betrayal of our struggle tradition. It is not Durban July. It is not a stage for tenderpreneurs and slay queens to flaunt ill-gotten wealth. Such excesses alienate ordinary citizens, erode the movement’s moral authority and weaken the ANC’s role as leader of society.

In an environment of mass unemployment, poverty and deepening inequality, January 8 must restore hope and not alienate. January 8 must demonstrate that the ANC is a movement that understands the aspirations of the people, correctly reads the moment, and acts with urgency and purpose.

Throughout history, the ANC has survived formidable challenges before. Today, the task before us is to defeat complacency, moral decay and internal erosion. Renewal is thus not only an existential imperative, but it is a prerequisite to restoring our movement to its former glory.

January 8 is therefore a call to our conscience and to action. It is a call to restore the ANC as a disciplined, ethical and revolutionary movement. It is also a call to place the poor at the centre of transformation. Let us remain firm and unwavering in our commitment to the people until the promise of 1912 is fully realised.

Cornelius Monama is a member of the ANC (King Nyabela Mahlangu Branch, Montana, Tshwane).