Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) Chairperson Paul Mashatile says if the party does not fight for unity, discipline and putting the people first at the 54th National Conference this month, it will lose the 2019 elections.
Mashatile was closing the party’s Provincial General Council in Irene, where Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa emerged as the province’s candidate for leader.
He says one of the ANC’s biggest challenges is factionalism that has been rife since the 2007 Polokwane Conference that recalled then president Thabo Mbeki.
Mashatile says it has fractured the organisation to the extent that it may lose power in the next general elections.
He called on members to work hard to advance unity to realise shared prosperity, poverty eradication and reduction of inequalities in a growing economy’.
He also urged them to elect a leadership that will win the confidence of all South Africans, and have the courage to address the wrong things happening within the ANC.
