ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa said the second leg of the party’s 55th national conference must address rising cost of living, unemployment and rampant load-shedding crisis in South Africa.
Eskom’s load shedding continues to make a profound economic impact, affecting everybody from ordinary citizens to commercial businesses and public enterprises.
“The ANC 55th National Conference needs to send a clear signal to voters that the ANC is taking all necessary steps to deal with challenges of unemployment, poverty and the rising cost of living, crime and instability, poor service delivery and load shedding,” Ramaphosa said as he opened the second leg of the party’s 55th national conference held through hybrid format.
The first part of the conference was adjourned in Nasrec, south of Johannesburg.
On Thursday, Ramaphosa said the conference delegates in December took a firm stance against corruption within the state and across society in general.
“They resolved to eradicate all forms of factionalism and disunity, and other negative tendencies within our organisation,” he added.
Ramaphosa said at the core of the tasks identified by the national conference in December was the need to restore the party’s relationship with the people of South Africa.
“Our duty as the ANC is to mobilise our people and to serve them. Welcome to the second part of our 55th ANC National Conference. We have convened this session in a hybrid format as we were unable to complete the business of Conference as scheduled on the 20th of December last year,” he said.
The people of South Africa are looking to the ANC’s 55th National Conference to set out a clear, credible programme of action that directly addresses the crises that confront the country today.
“We have said that we need to earn the position of leader of society through our work and by regaining the confidence and trust of the people,” Ramaphosa said, adding that the party needed to acknowledge its weaknesses and work to correct them.
The ANC, under his leadership, will demonstrate humility, honesty and integrity to regain the trust of the people.
He urged delegates to exercise patience and understanding as they interact with each other on an online platform that may give rise to challenges.
“This may not be the most ideal way to conclude conference but we are called on to exercise discipline to bring a conclusion to this historic conference,” Ramaphosa concluded.
The hybrid national conference kicked off at 10:30AM as planned and all the nine provinces were connected.
“We are on track and all provinces are connected,” ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said on Thursday.
Mbalula said the registration process went smoothly in all nine provinces.
“We are off grid, using satellite connections and secure from any possible cyber attacks,” Mbalula said.
In Mangaung in the Free State, ANC officials were led by President Cyril Ramaphosa and supported by the party’s NEC members.
In Durban, former President Jacob Zuma joined Dr Zweli Mkhize and over 800 conference delegates.
Today, the conference will discuss and adopt various commission reports.
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