The African National Congress (ANC) is well prepared for its third national general council (NGC), which takes place in Durban next week, ANC national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said on Wednesday.
The meeting, which will proceed under the theme “Towards 100 years of selfless struggle, working together to build a democratic society”, will start on Monday September 20 and end on Friday 24 September.
According to Mthembu, all the provincial general councils were concluded successfully over the past weekend in the lead-up to the national event. The youth body of the ANC, the ANC Youth League, held its own conference during August and through its president, Julius Malema, indicated that it will engage robustly with policy issues during next week’s event.
“We are equally elated with preparations that the women’s league has put into the work of the NGC. Our allies and our MK veterans have also prepared to engage in the review and evaluation mechanism called the NGC,” Mthembu said.
build-up activities
“There will be build-up activities in various regions and sub-regions of KwaZulu-Natal. These activities include mini-rallies, delegates’ meetings and sectoral meetings, which among others will be addressed by the leadership of the ANC, both at provincial and national levels.”
About 2 000 party delegates are expected to descend on the Durban International Conference Centre, with an additional 800 invited alliance partners and mass democratic movement formations, guests and observers.
The first day of the conference will be dedicated to the opening of the NGC and the political report by the president, Jacob Zuma, which will be followed by an organisational report by the secretary general and the financial report by the treasurer general.
The second and third days will be dedicated to commissions that will engage critically with all the discussion documents meant to review the work of the ANC since the last conference in Polokwane. The last day, Friday, will be dedicated to reports to plenary on work done in the commissions. The day will also mark
the president’s formal closure of the NGC after its declaration has been adopted. After the closure of the NGC, all the delegates will proceed to attend the heritage celebration.
Mthembu added that accreditation of the media has gone smoothly so far and more than 300 hundred journalists have been registered.