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ANC National General Council
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Speeches and Media Releases
 Premier's Office

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 EASTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL GOVERNEMNT
WELCOME SPEECH BY PREMIER  STOFILE AT THE ANC NATIONAL GENERAL COUNCIL
 PORT ELIZABETH UPE CAMPUS
11 JULY 2000

Comrade President;
 Members of the NEC of the ANC and Veterans of our Movement;
 Leaders of the Tripartite Alliance and of SANCO;
 Leaders of the Womens and Youth Leagues of the ANC;
 Your Excellencies, members of the Diplomatic Corps.
 Distinguished Guests from Fraternal Organisations;
 Esteemed Delegates to the NGC;

The honour and privilege of welcoming you to this august event is overwhelming and deeply cherished.Believe me when I say that it is not 
only the Tripartite Alliance and the rest of the MDM that feels honoured at our Province having been chosen to host the NGC.Indeed even the 
ordinary citizen of the Eastern Cape who does not normally support the ANC feels very excited about this singular honour.The management of 
UPE have written a letter to express such feelings in black and white.

This is the first national conference of the Movement to be hosted in this Province after more than 40 years! In 1983 the City of Port 
Elizabeth hosted a special consultative Conference of the United Democratic Front to discuss a very sensitive issue at the time.The 
question of whether Coloured and Indian Communities should participate in the proposed Referendum which was designed to lead to whether or 
not the regime of the day would allow them to participate in the Tricameral Parliamentary Elections.

Comrade President, anyone who says debates in that Conference were easy is an outright liar.But from that Conference we came out stronger 
in our resolve to boycott both the proposed Referendum as well as the Tricameral Elections.The rest is history.

We have no doubt that the Friendly City of Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Cape will once more afford the leadership and delegates the kind 
of atmosphere that will assist us deal adequately with whatever issues the NGC will challenge us with.If Kabwe laid the foundations for the 
final defeat of the apartheid regime, Port Elizabeth must surely lay the foundations not only of consolidating our democracy but also of 
putting to rest the legacy of the past.Of burying for ever the gaunt-eyed skeleton of racism, poverty and corruption that continues to 
rattle in the apartheid cupboard with years of injustice.

Whatever you find amiss with the logistics, please whisper it to the organizers.Whatever pleases you about Port Elizabeth, the Eastern Cape 
and the NGC, shout it to the mountains for all to know that we are not only about Welfare problems.There is plenty to offer for the 
discerning eye and the unbiased soul.

We are confident that the spirits of great stalwarts of the Movement who have already moved on to the spiritual realm will find way to the 
Eastern Cape and Port Elizabeth very easily.All of us should leave Port Elizabeth exuding with the inspiration that we will have derived 
from here.And the people of South Africa, nay, of Southern Africa will be better off as the rejuvenated ANC marches on ahead of them to a 
Better Life for ALL.

A VERY WARM WELCOME TO YOU ALL!

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