President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for unity in the ANC after the election of new leaders in the Eastern Cape.
Three of the former leaders retained their positions after Oscar Mabuyane was re-elected chairperson, Lulama Ngcukayitobi as provincial secretary and Helen Sauls-August as deputy secretary.
Ramaphosa, who made the closing remarks on Monday, said there must be no purges in the party against those who were not elected.
Babalo Madikizela failed in his bid to dislodge Mabuyane.
Mabuyane had also earlier called for unity in the party.
He also backed Ramaphosa for a second term.
In his speech Ramaphosa said this was the time for unity in the ANC irrespective of who had won.
Those who lost the election battle remained ANC leaders and must be given responsibility.
He said despite the branches coming with different preferences they should now rally behind the ANC.
The ANC remained the centre of political power.
It is the branches that choose leaders and the branches must support those who were elected.
“The tasks that we face require that the ANC in the Eastern Cape should be united and unite behind the leadership elected here. We must do so regardless of what our leadership preferences were. With this decision you have taken as branches of the ANC I would say comrades if we came to this conference divided, if we came to this conference being factional if you like, if we came to this conference having different perspectives, all those differences must now melt away and disappear.
“The factions must now be collapsed. The groupings must now be collapsed. There must now be no longer a Mabuyane group, there must now be no longer a Madikizela group, there must now be one group belonging to the ANC. Even those comrades who have been elected, we expect that they will not be railroading other comrades out of positions,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the ANC must now strengthen its branches and other structures.
Political Bureau