PHUTI MOSOMANE
THE ANC national conference got off to a rocky start on Friday evening with some delegates booing and heckling President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The rebellious group, consisting of delegates mainly from KwaZulu-Natal broke into songs calling for Ramaphosa to step aside.
They heckled and attempted to disrupt the delivery of the political report by the embattled ANC president.
The disgruntled group shouted “loadshedding”, and “Phala Phala”, and sang pro-Zuma songs.
ANC’s national chairperson Gwede Mantashe pleaded with delegates to give President Ramaphosa an opportunity to deliver his political report.
Mantashe also threatened to call security if the heckling and booing of Ramaphosa continued.
Calm prevailed for few minutes until former President Jacob Zuma arrived at the conference in the middle of Ramaphosa’s speech, resulting in disruptions which lasted for a good three minutes.
ANC KZN provincial chairperson Siboniso Duma intervened to calm down the KZN delegates after Mantashe called security.
The conference, which started almost six hours later, is attended by close to 4000 delegates in Nasrec, south of Johannesburg.
“This is not the time to display this type of disorderly behaviour,” Ramaphosa said.
“This does not bode well for the ANC.”
Former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe were also in attendance.
INSIDE POLITICS
