The ANC's centenary torch is set to arrive in Gauteng as part of the organisation's centenary celebrations.
|||The ANC's centenary torch will arrive in Gauteng on Friday as part of the organisation's centenary celebrations, a spokesman said.
“The torch will be arriving in the Gauteng province on June 1 from the Eastern Cape,” said Mandla Nkomfe on Thursday.
The torch would arrive at Carletonville at midnight and be kept at the local police station until it was handed over to Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe at 8am.
He in turn would hand it to provincial ANC chairman Paul Mashatile. The torch would spend five days in the West Rand and then move on to Sedibeng, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, and from there to Limpopo at the end of June.
The centenary celebrations started in Mangaung, in the Free State, in January.
“It's not just a celebration. We are reconnecting with our people,” Nkomfe told reporters in Joburg.
Former president Nelson Mandela received the flame at his Qunu home in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday.
Nkomfe said the celebrations in June would also include paying tribute to Alfred Xuma, the ANC's president from 1940 to 1949.
President Jacob Zuma would deliver a lecture on Xuma's life and contribution to the ruling party at the Joburg city hall on June 15.
Nkomfe said the centenary was about renewal and facing modern challenges such as the party's social distance from members, misuse of resources, service delivery, and good leadership.
“The celebrations serve as an acknowledgement that the ANC remains a genuine organisation of the people.” – Sapa