Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma has told a fundraiser on
the eve of the ANC's 103rd anniversary that the party has a superior claim to
power than other political parties because it was born out of the need to
defeat white colonial rule.
"You must remember that a man called Jan van Riebeek
arrived here on April 6, 1652 and that was the start of the trouble in this
country," Zuma told the Friday evening event, where guests paid R3m to sit
at his table.
"What followed were a lot of struggles and war,"
he said, adding that colonialisation and the disenfranchisement of African
people found its fullest expression two and a half centuries later with the
declaration of the Union of South Africa.
Liberation movement
He said the ANC was born in Mangaung in 1902 in response to
this, not as a political party but as a liberation movement.
"This is important for us to understand why the ANC is
different from other political parties."
It was formed not just by South Africans but by the southern
African region as a "vehicle to liberate black people" and Africans
throughout the continent have long reminded its leadership that they too have a
stake in the party because of its historical legacy.
Expanding on a message he has delivered on door to door
visits in poor areas in the Cape Flats and Western Cape countryside throughout
this week, Zuma hyperbolically said the ANC ruled "the whole
country".
'The ANC belongs to everyone in SA'
To laughter from the audience, he quickly added that there
might be "provincial administrations" but this did not alter the fact
that the ANC was in power "even in the Western Province which is ruled by
the Democratic Alliance.
"The ANC belongs to everyone in South Africa even if
they belong to small little parties," he said.
Earlier this week Zuma said the province was "ruled by
the wrong people".
The party is celebrating its anniversary with a rally in the
Cape Town Stadium on Saturday in what is widely seen as a concerted effort to
reclaim support in the province ahead of local government elections next year.
