The ANC\u2019s annual birthday celebrations, to be held this weekend, are much ado about nothing, metalworkers\u2019 union Numsa said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cExpect nothing new from the ANC\u2019s January 8 statement. The ANC has run out of ideas, and morals,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The ANC would celebrate its 105th birthday at Orlando Stadium on Sunday. President Jacob Zuma was expected to deliver the national executive committee\u2019s statement on difficulties facing the party and priorities for the new year.<\/p>\n
However Numsa, which was expelled from the ANC-aligned trade union Cosatu in November 2015, said the event had lost meaning and relevance.<\/p>\n
It said the ANC had no concrete socialist plans to solve deepening inequality and joblessness and the over-burdening of the workers through \u201cslave wages\u201d.<\/p>\n
It blamed the ANC\u2019s economic policies for the high unemployment rate, deepening poverty, and an apartheid economic structure which it said was still intact 22 years after democracy.<\/p>\n
‘Death throes of a once great liberation movement’<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhat we will be witnessing on Sunday are the death throes of a once great liberation movement. The ANC\u2019s abandonment of the Freedom Charter has destroyed the soul of the organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n Numsa said the 2016 #FeesMustFall protests were the \u201cANC\u2019s failure laid bare\u201d. Its response to the crisis was reminiscent of the apartheid government.<\/p>\n Numsa said it would be in the front line of student protests in 2017, which it said would commence in earnest in a few weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing to suggest that there will be less confrontation and violence,\u201d Numsa said.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of free, decolonised and quality education, the ANC is offering the poor more debt through interest bearing loans. Dare we remind everyone that former banker and member of the elite Sizwe Nxasana is the new head of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n It called Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande a \u201cdubious socialist\u201d and \u201cyellow communist\u201d for condemning the student protests.<\/p>\n Numsa rejected the Fees Commission, which is investigating the feasibility of free higher education, and said a \u201ctruly revolutional organisation\u201d would focus more on implementing this.<\/p>\n