The African National Congress (ANC)’s December national conference will serve as a springboard to propel the party to new heights, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Thursday.
Speaking during the launch of the ANC parliamentary caucus website in Cape Town, Mlambo-Ngcuka said the party would surprise its critics and come out of the conference more united than ever.
”We will emerge at the conference united and the strongest party; we will emerge having made the right leadership choices; we will emerge with the best foot forward,” she said.
Up to 5 000 ANC delegates — representing qualifying branches from across the country, as well as the youth league and women’s league — will attend next month’s conference in Polokwane, where a new leadership will be elected and ANC policy for the next five years cemented.
ANC parliamentary caucus spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said the launch of the website was part of the organisation’s response to the current deluge of criticism directed at the party by both the media and opposition parties.
He said there was a need for the ANC to bolster its communication machinery so that the party could be better positioned to ”counter the ”onslaught”.
”The development of the caucus site is informed by the need for the ANC to reinforce its communications machinery to enable efficient and effective dissemination of objective information pertaining to its policies and programmes,” he said.
‘The struggle continues’
Meanwhile, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday said that policy discussions — and not the succession race — should dominate the ANC national conference in Limpopo.
”Cosatu is campaigning for delegates to adopt policies contained in its national congress resolutions and progressive policies adopted at the ANC’s June policy conference,” general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said.
He said Cosatu had produced a document comparing ANC policy conference resolutions with Cosatu’s standing policies in order to educate members about overlaps between ANC and Cosatu plans.
Cosatu will send a delegation of 25 members to the Limpopo conference.
They will be able to participate in all discussions, but will not vote.
Cosatu president Willie Madisha would not form part of the delegation.
He has stepped down as Cosatu president following his alleged involvement in an incident when R500 000 was donated to the South African Communist Party (SACP) by businessman Charles Modise.
Madisha allegedly received the money and transported it in the boot of his car to the SACP’s general secretary Blade Nzimande.
Nzimande denied that he had received the money.
Vavi also said there was a need to have a post-ANC conference evaluation as the conference would have long-term ramifications for the ANC and its allies.
”We must evaluate the outcome of the conference and finalise the debate on how we should position ourselves in the context of this outcome, guided by the main conclusion of our ninth national congress — that the struggle continues.
”A united ANC is the top priority, as a divided ANC will not help workers … it would be a mistake, however, to underestimate the element of class contestation underlying the leadership contests,” he said. — Sapa