ANC leaders mustn’t attack ANC leaders

File picture: Sizwe Ndingane

File picture: Sizwe Ndingane

Published Mar 11, 2017

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Port Elizabeth - African National Congress branches in

Nelson Mandela Bay were told on Saturday to unite, that members and leaders

should not weaken the party by fighting over positions and criticising other

ANC leaders in public.

After much delay, ANC national spokesman Zizi Kodwa

finally took to the podium on Saturday to address branches at the party's 5th

regional elective conference at the Eastern Cape Training Centre in Zwide, Port

Elizabeth, this weekend.

Kodwa called for unity and pleaded with members not to

fight among one another.

"When an ANC member takes on another ANC member in

public you are weakening the ANC. Leaders of the ANC must not attack leaders of

the ANC, you are weakening the ANC," he said.

The last regional conference in Port Elizabeth took place

during April 2012 and three years later the REC was disbanded after a long,

bumpy road of factional battles and dwindling party membership numbers.

A regional task team (RTT) was appointed with a mandate

to bring stability to the structures.

A total of 46 branches will now elect a new leadership

which is expected to regain lost ground following the ANC being booted out of

power in the metropole during the 2016 local government elections.

Kodwa encouraged members not to join in criticising in

the name of ANC leaders where members attacked other leaders but ironically

campaigned in T-shirts bearing the face of President Jacob Zuma.

"It's not only assisting the opposition but it's

weakening the ANC," he said.

The ANC had learnt from its mistakes and in the 2019

general elections the party would reclaim Nelson Mandela Bay from the

Democratic Alliance-led coalition government.

"But it depends on what we do; if we fight among

ourselves that possibility may be impossible. It's natural for ANC members to

have different views but you must accept that at the end there must be a

decision. We must show our readiness to reclaim this metro and not fight over

positions," he said. AFRICAN NEWS

AGENCY

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