WATCH: ANC KZN delegates cheer for Zuma, heckle Ramaphosa at conference

The ANC’s 55th national conference has kicked off to a chaotic start in the south of Johannesburg after some delegates from KwaZulu-Natal heckled President Cyril Ramaphosa over the Phala Phala scandal.

ANC elective conference 2022

Delegates from KZN chanted: “change, change” as Ramaphosa arrived inside the conference plenary at the Johannesburg Expo Centre, with ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe threatening to call security to quell the chaos.

While Ramaphosa received a cold reception from KZN delegates, his predecessor, former president Jacob Zuma, received cheers from the delegates who welcomed him to the conference.

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The delegates sang pro-Zuma songs and attempted to drown out Ramaphosa as he started making his political address.

“Let us start with our conference, let us all be seated, please. Asihlale phansi sibambe umthetho [can you please seat down and observe the rules],” said Ramaphosa.

Even some delegates from Gauteng sang the popular Wenzeni Uzuma [what has Zuma done] song in support of the corruption-accused former ANC president.

Late on Thursday night on the eve of the ANC elective conference, the Jacob Zuma Foundation released a media statement stating that Zuma had instituted a private prosecution against Ramaphosa.

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Load shedding

KZN delegates also shouted repeatedly “load shedding! load shedding!” in response to the rolling blackouts affecting the country after Eskom on Friday morning announced stage 6 power cuts.

The chaotic scenes at the conference in Nasrec come after more than six hours of delays before the five-day gathering officially started due to accreditation problems.

The conference was meant to begin around 8am on Friday but only started around 4pm.

‘Disorderly behaviour’

Ramaphosa has described the behaviour of the KZN delegates as “disorderly”, saying their actions did not bode well for the ANC and its public image.

He pleaded with delegates to express their displeasure respectfully.

“This meeting is a hallowed meeting of the ANC and I want to appeal to all of us to respect this meeting that has taken place 55 times in the life of our organisation.

“I want to appeal to everyone who raises their dissatisfaction to do so in an orderly manner in the way that we do here in the ANC… this is not the time to come and display this type of disorderly behaviour in the presence of international guests and as our nation is watching what is happening here,” said Ramaphosa.

Additional reporting by Getrude Makhafola.

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