BUILDING AZAPO BRICK BY BRICK
By Kekeletso Khena
Newly elected AZAPO Gauteng Provincial Chairperson
It was inspiring to see Towers (AZAPO members) descending in their numbers upon Katlehong in the East Rand to attend the AZAPO Gauteng Provincial elective congress at Phoko Community Art Centre on Sunday 24 November 2024.
The vibrant mood was assuring that AZAPO is ready to take the bull by its horns.
Similar provincial congresses will be held countrywide, and they are part of a plan to prepare for the 27th National Congress of AZAPO scheduled for 6 to 8 July 2025 in Mangaung, where the party’s new political programme will be adopted, and a new national leadership component will be elected.
The rapid growth that AZAPO is experiencing in Gauteng places the organisation in a better position to contest the 2026 Local Government Elections.
As the newly elected Gauteng Provincial leadership of AZAPO, the party’s members have instructed us to build an AZAPO that is connected to the people; they reminded us that the Liberation project remains unrealised; that us are people are jaded, humiliated and used by politicians and thieves for their own personal advancement.
The Government of National Unity (GNU) is proof of unprincipled politics at play and our people, black people, need a champion; someone to take on their fight for justice, economic access, dignity and put up a real fight against neo colonialism, capitalism and white privilege.
They need a champion ready and unafraid to demand the restoration of what was stolen, namely the land, its minerals, its people, our artifacts, our ways of being and our dignity.
AZAPO is that champion and so the newly elected leadership of Gauteng commits itself to be a servant leadership grounded in Black Consciousness, Ubuntu and a strong desire to see Black Consciousness in action, and to build community programmes that foster self-reliance and Black pride, peace and gender justice.
We promise to be a thorn that would give the sell-out GNU sleepless nights as we engage in an unrelenting fight against the unjust system that is yet to deliver the Liberation of our people.
To those poisoning and killing our kids, to those destroying our economy, to those abusing our hospitality as a nation, rapists, abusers, drug peddlers, we are coming for you!
You better believe this is not a threat but a promise.
Let there be light as we strive for one Azania, one nation!
The newly elected AZAPO Gauteng Provincial Executive Committee members are as follows:
1.Kekeletso Khena (Chairperson)
2. Papi Baloyi (Deputy Chairperson)
3. Boreka Motlhanthe (Secretary)
4. Manku Noruka (Organiser)
5. Robert Mcijane (Treasurer)
6. George Malete (Political Commissar)
7. Jacqueline Thekiso (Elections Director)
8. Morebudi Mahlakwana (Projects Director)
9. Katlego Radebe (Secretary for Youth)