National Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC), Gwede Mantashe, has opened the 9th Free State ANC Conference at the Imvelo Safari Lodge in Bloemfontein by stressing the need to unite party factions in the province. The opening of the Conference was delayed due to protests and disruptions.
Mantashe says delegates have a collective duty to resolve their differences. He has also expressed concern that the Thabo Mofutsanyana, Fezile Dabi and Xhariep regions are yet to convene their conferences.
At least 667 delegates from 242 branches are attending the conference.
Factional battles
Mantashe has added that the duty of the members is to save the party. He says ANC members in the Free State are duty-bound to work closely with the national leadership in addressing their disputes.
Mantashe says they will deploy national executive committee members to the Free State.
“It is the duty of ANC members comrades and activists to save the ANC at all levels. At all levels you will save the ANC in the Free State. You are not going to ask for any national persons to save you. We will deploy ANC members to the province. Those NEC members will only complement your work. Now between June and July we visited all the regions in the Free State all five of them. And we discovered that at the time there was not single branch that was in good standing.”
ANC National Chairperson Gwede Mantashe addresses delegates at the Free State Elective Conference:
