Siyabonga Sithole
Following a recent ANC National Executive Committee meeting, held from 2 to 4 July, the ANC has urged South Africans to join hands in support of Mandela Month, which kicked off on 1 July 2022.
The party says there is a range of opportunities for ordinary South Africans to get involved to honour the legacy of former ANC president Nelson Mandela, known across the globe for his philanthropic work. These include growing food, establishing and supporting community unity and backyard food gardens and planting trees and community clean-up projects as part of the Letsema Campaign.
"The NEC welcomed the report on the Letsema Campaign, through which the ANC members and communities are working together every Friday and Saturday to clean their communities, fix potholes, work in community gardens and campaign against gender-based violence," the party said in its document.
The ruling party further says it calls for all communities to strengthen organs of people's power, which include community policing forums, while ensuring that they work with law enforcement agencies to fight crime in their neighbourhoods.
"Together with the ANC Women's League(ANCWL), these efforts will enhance the Molo Makhelwane programme as part of knowing your neighbours, securing communities and taking forward the fight against crime and gender-based violence. Through the Letsema Campaign and the Molo Makhelwane campaigns spearheaded by the ANCWL, we will, during Mandela Month, mobilise ANC members and structures, community members, civil society and faith-based organisations to improve food security," the party says.
On issues of fuel price hikes as well as the rising cost of living, the meeting of the executive committee says it notes the increases, which in turn have resulted in hiking municipality tariffs.
"The NEC commended a number of interventions by government to mitigate reusing food and transport costs, such as timely payments of social grants, the school nutrition programme and efforts by the Competition Commission to protect consumers from unreasonable price increases".
The meeting also called on government to intensify its support for small and subsistence farmers to ensure ongoing food security with a call for the country to build and produce its capacity to grow its own fertilizers in the country and within the continent.