ANC presidential candidate Cyril Ramaphosa smiles at the media at the ANC's 54th National Elective Conference at Nasrec, Johannesburg, on 17 December 2017. The ANC gathers to elect new leadership, including a new party president for which Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma are the candidates. Picture: Yeshiel Panchia
The strongest sign so far that Nasrec 68, despite denials by party leaders it did not, had ANC leaders on tenterhooks is a viral video that shows president Cyril Ramaphosa pleading with delegates to not resort to the courts.
He warned a group of delegates that seeking the court’s intervention will create much bigger problems for the ANC.
He said “the conference can not degenerate and be nullified” and to do that that the party must “start the process of instilling the values set out in the ANC constitution from the fathers and mothers of our constitution.”
“There are reports that other comrades felt it should go to court. We have resolved that this must not denegerate into controversy and court action that will nullify [conference].
“What it does, besides that it may no be what we want, I don’t think that people will embrace it. The majority of our members want the ANC that subscribes to values in our constitution,” he said in a video clip.
Nomvula Mokonyane conceded that the conference could have communicated with stakeholders, particularly the media, seamlessly.
“I think we have done well on accounting our work on programmes, the manner in which communication happend can improve. The NEC can adapt. I am saying that part of our discussions is about communications,” Mokonyane said.
Mokonyane again reiterated that she never requested a recount as the only officials with such powers are the “monitors.”
She also denied trying to pack the conference with bogus delegates,
“That is rubbish, it’s a distortion. Me and the mayor of Mangaung…were deployed to deal with disputes in the Free State,” she explained.
She said when the mayor was spotted it was claimed that she was a fake delegate. She said she was, in fact, registered as a branch delegate.
“They said me and Jessie [Duarte] were arrested for bogus delegates. We were given the names of delegates for the conference. It comes to us when it as signed concession of the ANWCL to the SG,”she said.
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