President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the audience before the ANC 55th elective conference ended on Tuesday. He was joined in the Nasrec plenary by the party’s new vice president, Paul Mashatile.
They were joined by two new deputy secretaries, Nomvula Mokonyane and Maropene Ramokgopa, as well as the new treasurer, Dr. Gwen Ramokgopa.
Ramaphosa was beaming during the singing of the young choir adjacent to the stage.
Many delegates applauded as new Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula recognised his leadership, waving banners from Free State, Limpopo, Gauteng, Northern Cape, and Eastern Cape.
The absence of KwaZulu-Natal delegates in the plenary hall was due to the province’s devastating loss.
Former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe were among the SACP and Cosatu leaders present.
Ramaphosa recognised previous ANC president Jacob Zuma, who did not attend the ANC president’s closing remarks.
“We are going to continue with the finalisation of this conference on 5 January 2022 in a hybrid fashion. As conference is finalised on the 5th of January, we will also be hosting the January 8 celebration in Mangaung. This conference is going to continue to solidify our unity as the movement. The branches have spoken by choosing the leadership that will take this movement forward. There is no other reason for ANC other than to unite and work for the people of this country. We have chosen a renewal and restoration of our movement, and we are on the right path to build this glorious ANC. The path of the principled unity is what we believe in. We also came with different proposals and, finally, we came up as a unity. And this is despite an act of others who wanted us to fail. The discipline among the delegates was great, the branches have spoken and made their choice on who should the leadership be,” said Ramaphosa.
He added that the ANC had its own flaws and had paid hard in many ways.
“As ANC, we have made mistakes and paid for such in many ways. Even after finding ourselves on the brink of collapse, we stood up and pushed ourselves back. There is no other reason for the existence of the ANC but to mobilise, unite and rebuild our nation. This conference has provided guidance for our structures in government to end gender-based violence and femicide. This conference has committed to build the better country and the better Africa,” added Ramaphosa.
He said that it is great progress to have women represented in the top seven leadership.
“We need to advocate for equality in all our structures in terms of participation, roles and structures. The equality that we speak of must be practiced by the ANC. We recognise that corruption in the ANC is a serious threat in our movement. We also acknowledge that we have not done enough to address the issues and adversity of corruption,’ he said.
Delegates sang “Phakama Ramaphosa” after he had ended his speech, concluding with the national anthem
»President Ramaphosa addresses the delegates at the ANC 55th elective conference on Tuesday«