South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called on delegates to the African National Congress provincial conference to rally behind the current leadership which they elected in eMalahleni town of Mpumalanga province on Sunday.
Addressing the 13th Mpumalanga Provincial Conference, Ramaphosa, who is also ANC president, called on the delegates to remain “focused” and not to be distracted by the party’s internal squabbles.
“The conference must be the start of making sure that the ANC continued to grow at branch level,” adding that the issue of “power and access to resources would have detrimental effects for the ANC if it is not addressed,” Ramaphosa said.
He told delegates the ANC needed to go back to its founding principles of service to the marginalised in society.
Ramaphosa congratulated the newly elected leadership for setting a good trend that a conference of the “ANC can be peaceful and fruitful in the name of unity and renewal of the party.”
The conference elected Mandla Ndlovu as the new chairperson, with Speedy Mashilo as his deputy, Vusi Chirwa as secretary and Lindiwe Ntshali as deputy secretary.
Mandla Msibi, who’s facing double murder charges, was elected as the new treasurer of the ANC in Mpumalanga, leaving Ramaphosa to advise the new provincial leadership to take the party’s 2017 “step aside” resolution seriously.
This would need to be addressed vigorously by the newly elected leadership and the ANC branches because it formed part of the renewal project in the ANC, Ramaphosa said.
Msibi was not present at the gathering in keeping with the resolution which calls for his stepping aside till the matter was resolved after he appeared in the Nelspruit High Court following his murder cases.
