Siphelele Nketo
THE Eastern Cape ANC chairperson and premier Oscar Mabuyane has identified 10 key priorities from the January 8th statement for the party’s 2026 agenda.
He noted that these priorities offer members clear guidance as they prepare for the upcoming elections. He also stressed that party members must take responsibility for implementing these priorities through concrete programmes.
On January 30, he spoke at the party’s January 8th rally in EmaXesibeni and said that the first priority for the party involved the renewal and rebuilding of the ANC. Other priorities include: fixing the local government and improving state capacity; accelerating inclusive economic growth and job creation; building a capable, developmental state; land reform, rural development and food security; advancing social justice and improving quality of life; the fight against crime, corruption and gender-based violence; youth, women and generational renewal; nation-building, social cohesion and democratic values; and international solidarity and a just global order. Mabuyane said that Alfred Nzo cannot remain a labour-sending district forever, and therefore, growth must be rooted locally through agriculture, agro-processing, infrastructure programmes, SMMEs and emerging industrial activity linked to the Mbizana Industrial Park.
He called for the party to internalise all these priorities to correct deliberate historic exclusion of the Eastern Cape province.
“We need the national government to be deliberate in assisting us to change this unfortunate sorry state of the economic situation,” he added.
The ANC marked its 114-year birthday at a ceremony in the North West Province last month in which it outlined strategic priorities.
