Mashatile in plea for one voice at Mangaung

INLSA

SEEKS STRONGER ANC: Gauteng ANC chairman Paul Mashatile

Sapa

The ANC in Gauteng must go to the national elective conference in Mangaung with one voice, says provincial chairman Paul Mashatile.

“We must articulate the policy positions we agreed to at this provincial general council [PGC],” Mashatile told delegates at a special PGC in Alberton yesterday.

“However, we must be prepared to engage with other provinces on the positions we hold. We must be prepared to persuade and to be persuaded.”

Mashatile asked Gauteng delegates to be disciplined and not to arrive at the conference in T-shirts which were not authorised by the ANC, to sing songs which insulted people or to make hand gestures.

“You’ll have the opportunity at the ballot box to vote for your preferred leaders… You will have free and fair elections,” he said.

ANC members who support President Jacob Zuma for a second term usually hold up two fingers, while those calling for change use the soccer sign that calls for a substitution.

At its nomination conference at the end of last month, the Gauteng ANC nominated Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to lead the party.

It was holding a special PGC yesterday to discuss its policy proposals ahead of the national conference.

Policies will be adopted at the ANC’s 53rd conference, which starts on December 16.

“In all we do, we must ensure that the ANC emerges stronger, more united, more vibrant and more capable of leading the national democratic revolution,” Mashatile said.

He said the province was happy that the policy proposals it agreed on at its special PGC in June had been adopted at the national policy conference, especially the proposals on strategy and tactics and organisational renewal.

“Our responsibility is to ensure that these proposals find expression in the resolutions of the 53rd national conference.

“We have a responsibility to emerge… with radical policies and decisive action that will accelerate the pace of social and economic transformation.”

Mashatile said the ANC had to renew its commitment to restore the party’s core values that had kept it alive the past 100 years.

Some of the main policies Gauteng would discuss were included in the papers on organisational renewal, economic transformation, social transformation, and legislature and governance.

“This PGC must reiterate that for the ANC to effectively lead the national democratic revolution [NDR], it needs to renew itself and be more vibrant so that it remains relevant to the changing conditions of struggle, both locally and internationally,” said Mashatile.

Part of this was investing in the ideological development of its members through the institutionalisation of political training and education.

This was so that the party could produce cadres with technical ability, competence, discipline and commitment to advance the goals of the NDR.

The ANC was dedicating the next decade to the cadre.

Social transformation also had to be at the centre of the NDR.

A developmental state needed to be created, Mashatile said.