ANC NEC to elect NWC members and discuss load shedding, rising cost of living

The new leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) will hold its lekgotla this weekend, to discuss a number of issues concerning the country including load shedding.

Before the lekgotla commences, the ANC national executive committee (NEC) will convene a two-day ordinary sitting starting on Friday.

This follows the induction of the 80 NEC members at the Esselenpark Conference Centre, east of Johannesburg, on Thursday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to deliver his closing remarks on Monday

Resolutions

According to ANC secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, the NEC will elect the new members of the national working committee (NWC) which comprises the party’s top seven officials.

“Our national executive committee will process the national conference resolutions and the [ANC] Constitution as you know we didn’t have amendments. We will elect national working committee and we will go through the resolutions and the implications of those resolutions for our programme of action,” he told reporters on Thursday.

“On Sunday, we will start our NEC lekgotla that includes our deployees in government to plan for the implementation of what we said we will do in the January 8 Statement.”

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Mbalula said the ANC was also looking at ways to cushion the poor from the rising cost of living, including the effects of rolling blackouts.

“The rising cost of living, load shedding is on the agenda and of course that will include a report from the NPC [national policy conference] that we received.

“Just in generalisation, we are looking at cushioning the poor including in terms of load shedding by incentivising the SMMEs [small, medium and micro enterprises]. These are the issues that will constitute largely,” he said.

The lekgotla will also prepare for the president’s State of The Nation’s Address (Sona), which will guide the State of the Provincial Addresses, set for 9 February.

It will further discuss the move of state-owned entities (SOEs) from the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) into their relevant government departments, according to reports.

At its December elective conference, the ANC resolved to move Eskom to the Mineral Resources and Energy Department, which falls under the party’s national chairperson Gwede Mantashe.

Energy symposium

The ANC hosted an energy symposium at the University of Johannesburg on Wednesday, where Mbalula conceded his party was responsible for South Africa’s electricity crisis.

“We cannot deal with [load shedding] by running away and cutting corners as if we are not in power.

“Load shedding started in 2008, and we have been grappling with it until now. ANC does take responsibility, and that does not mean you don’t deal with the issues at hand.”

Mbalula also warned that ANC-led government would be overthrown one day.

“Not on fact, but on conspiracies,” he said after being cut off by load shedding. 

The ANC secretary-general further defended Gwede Mantashe yet again amid calls for the Energy Minister to be fired.

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