It’s all systems go for the 54th African National Congress conference which gets underway at Nasrec, outside Soweto, on Saturday.
The party has warned that this is the most hotly contested conference since Polokwane in 2007 and will not be collapsed by disgruntled members.
The outgoing NEC members are on their final inspection of the conference venue.
The walk was led by Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe, who like the entire national executive, will hand-over the baton to the new leadership. Mantashe is satisfied with the preparations for the conference.
“Conference is going to be successful and is not going to collapse. Those who predicted that the conference will collapse, I am sure they are disappointed already. They may try other tricks but the conference is on its way to the proper ending.”
The party is also confident that the elections will run smoothly.
At the heart of many leaders’ hopes is that this conference will restore unity within the deeply divided organisation.
Gauteng Chairperson Paul Mashatile says: “All the leaders are saying unity is critical for the ANC to survive going forward. All of us are committed to unity we want the conference to succeed.”
The road leading to the conference has been rocky, with an avalanche of court cases across provinces , which have threatened to collapse it.
The nomination processes by the branches was marred in some cases by irregularities, which led to some of the court challenges.
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