The African National Congress (ANC) kicks off 2010 with an anniversary celebration in Kimberley on Saturday to be addressed by President Jacob Zuma.

The party's annual January statement, to be delivered by Zuma at the GKW Stadium to an expected audience of 50 000, maps the party's way forward for the year.

Zuma's address was likely to be a unifying one, according to director of the University of Johannesburg's Centre for the Study of Democracy, Steven Friedman.

He said that Zuma was likely to speak about the ANC's review of local government, expected to be released early this year.

The ANC's national general council (NGC) to take place in 2010 would thrash out policy issues, which Friedman believed Zuma would steer clear of.

"The NGC would look at policy issues... I wouldn't expect him to say anything remarkable on that front."

South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) leaders were expected to give messages of support, as was the ANC Women's League, Youth League (ANCYL) and newly-formed Veterans' League.

The past year saw South Africa lapse into recession for the first time in almost two decades with job losses inching close to one-million in a country already plagued by unemployment.

South Africa's official jobless rate increased to 24,5% of the labour force in the third quarter of 2009, from 23,6% in the second quarter.

The government fell short of creating its 500 000 jobs through the expanded public works programme by December, as Zuma had promised in his inaugural State of the Nation address.

At the end of the second quarter of 2009, the government's expanded public works programme had created 223 568 verified work opportunities.

Early in the new administration's term after the 2009 polls, there was a spate of, often violent, service delivery protests.

The post-Polokwane conference honeymoon ended abruptly for the ruling alliance - the ANC, the SACP, union federation Cosatu and Sanco - with battles between ministers over control of the economy's trajectory.

At the SACP's conference in December, ANCYL president Julius Malema and ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Billy Masetlha were booed as they took their seats.

The league believed that this was because it did not support Nzimande's alleged desire to become ANC deputy president in 2012.

The ANCYL criticised SACP leaders for failing to act when the incident occurred.

Afterwards, the ANC "called on all members to refrain from fuelling tensions and to allow for the NEC to raise its displeasure with the SACP".

Despite this, Malema told reporters "the yellow communists are driven by greed", called on the youth to "go to the streets, let's fight," and repeated that SACP deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin would be taught a "lesson".

The ANC and the SACP were expected to discuss the matter at a bilateral meeting early this year.