The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) is approaching the upcoming national and provincial elections with a more nuanced and robust intent to wrest political power.
“We are no longer prepared to play second fiddle to anyone. We are serious. If land reclamation is to become a lived reality for the African people, the PAC must be at the forefront of this call,” PAC spokesperson Jacki Seroke said.
Seroke, in his interview with Sunday World, said that contrary to what was happening previously, the PAC is more energised and is approaching the upcoming elections with more zeal and greater focus.
“Today, the PAC is more buoyant. In the past, we were content to merely participate in the political space, but this time we are robustly contesting these elections with more purpose and vigour.
“All around, we want to have decent representation both in the provincial and national elections. Our target is to at least send 10 MPs to represent us in the National Assembly, but we want more,” Seroke said.
He said three weeks ago his party held its national 2024 manifesto launch at the Orlando Communal Hall, Soweto.
“It was by design that we chose to hold our manifesto at the Orlando Communal Hall, not anywhere else. This is the venue in which the PAC held its inaugural launch as a party in 1959, where Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was first elected as its first president, after a great breakaway in which Sobukwe and his other comrades, such as AB Mda, left the ANC to form the PAC.
“We went back to the source of our origin in Orlando East to remind ourselves of the purpose for which the PAC was formed, which was a political struggle for the return of land to its rightful owners, which are African people,” he said.
He said the manifesto launch in Orlando East was primarily attended by Gauteng supporters, but the organisation is planning to hold more launches in various parts of the country.
“We run things our own way, considering we are confronted with the reality that we operate on a shoestring budget. But we were quite satisfied with the outcome of the launch.
“The spirit of the PAC is back. Our ancestors are hearing our cries for the return of the land to its rightful owners, which are the African people. We are re-energised from the source of our origin. The PAC is back, and we strive for unity, the revitalisation of the Africanist cause,” Seroke said.
In his preamble to the manifesto, PAC president Mzwanele Nyhontso pronounced that his organisation was serious about achieving several milestones for the party, which, among other things, must include the restoration of the land to its original owners, which are the African people.
He said the PAC would stick to the concrete ideas of Sobukweand Mda as encapsulated in the 1949 Programme of Action, which was the reason for the breakaway from the ANC in 1958 and its formation in 1959.
Of Mda and Sobukwe, Nyhontso said: “These are outstanding thought leaders whose legacy we are inheriting and pursuing until the final victory is achieved.”
Sobukwe and Mda were leaders of the ANC Youth League at the University of Fort Hare in the 1940s, and both qualified as lawyers and teachers in later life.
