Pretoria - The ANC national executive committee could this weekend endorse the decisions of the meeting of its working committee with the ANC veterans.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday that following their discussions with the Stuggle veterans, including former Cabinet ministers Aziz and Essop Pahad, along with Beryl Sisulu, Wally Serote and other party stalwarts, at the St Georges Hotel, they would have another meeting.
Mantashe said they could meet as early as Friday before the NEC sits for its scheduled meeting, with the latter expected to endorse the outcome of the meeting.
Both sides said progress was made at Monday’s meeting - which lasted more than four hours - after the NWC agreed to meet the ANC veterans.
Some of them have been calling for the meeting with President Jacob Zuma for months and called for him to go.
Speaking after the meeting, ANC veteran and celebrated poet and author Serote said the call for the president to step down was an opinion of some of the veterans and not the official view of the entire group.
He said there were many issues the veterans had agreed on with the ANC leadership, while some issues remained unresolved.
The veterans tabled a document at what was expected to be a tense meeting between the ANC’s leadership and the veterans who have become among the biggest critics of Zuma.
“We never as a group called for the president to resign; some individuals did, but we never said that as a group. We had very robust discussions, there were difficult moments, but we will address them. We are guided by the president when he says we should meet again so that by the end of December we would have addressed the issues,” said Serote.
The meeting brought together Zuma and the veterans who have laid the blame for the decline in the party”s support and instability in government at his door.
Mantashe said the stalwarts brought “a wealth of experience to us to be able to deal with problems”.
He said the important thing was that they met face-to-face with the veterans.
Serote said a consultative conference to iron out issues was still a possibility. They had agreed they would be guided by the culture, traditions and values of the ANC in discussing the issues presented by the veterans.
Despite the veterans suggesting a consultative conference the ANC has not agreed to the idea in the past.
It has clearly said its programme for next year will not change.
The ANC will have its policy conference in Gauteng on June 26.
The policy conference sets the tone for the elective conference scheduled for December.
Political Bureau