ANC says no to cake

Jacob Zuma

The ANC will be having its birthday cake on Saturday, but has declared that it won’t be eating it.

Instead, President Jacob Zuma and the ANC’s new national executive committee will be cutting the cake at the party’s 101st birthday celebrations in Durban on Saturday.

The cake “will not be eaten by those present, but will be donated to orphanages, old age homes and hospices in and around eThekwini,” the party said in a statement today.

The party said it was expecting tens of thousands of people to attend the rally, which will be addressed by Zuma.

By not allowing its leaders to eat the party’s birthday cake on stage, the party is deviating from its much-criticised practice in previous years.

Last year, following its centenary celebrations in Bloemfontein, ANC chairperson Baleka Mbete at an NEC meeting in February proposed that leaders should not eat cake while those attending the party’s rallies didn’t get a crumb.

“It was proposed that for future January 8 celebrations the eating of cake should be made private, as it does not augur well to eat in front of our members and supporters while they are not eating,” Mbete said in her report on the centenary celebrations.

Then ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe caused a stir at last year’s celebrations by saying leaders were drinking sparkling wine on behalf of the party’s members.