Ramaphosa appeals for unity following bruising EC leadership battle
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has once called on party members to do away with factions.
The calls follow a bruising leadership battle in the Eastern Cape which saw the re-election of Oscar Mabuyane as chairperson.
Delegates were split down the middle, with some on Mabuyane’s slate while others backing his opponent Babalo Madikizela.
This has led to questions about whether the two factions would be able to work together once the conference is done and the real work of delivering services to some of the poorest areas in the country starts.
Ramaphosa delivered the closing address at the East London ICC on Monday afternoon.
“It is important that we renew and rebuild our organisation to equip the movement to better adapt and respond to the changing world and the challenges that face us. We must also renew our movement to deal with the negative tendencies and practises that have crept into our movement over time.
“This movement must be principled and more decisive in dealing with such instances - the sowing of divisions and other ills that bedevil organisational ethos and processes.”
All of Mabuyane's allies came out as winners against Madikizela's slate, including Mlungisi Mvoko, who was elected as the deputy chairperson.
Lulama Ngcukayitobi was elected the provincial secretary.
“The tasks that we face require that the ANC in the Eastern Cape should be united and unite behind the leadership united here. We must do so regardless of what our leadership preferences were," Ramaphosa continued.
“If we came to this conference divided, if we came to this conference being factions, if we came to this conference having different perspectives, all those differences must now melt away and disappear.
“The factions must now be collapsed. We cannot keep saying this is Mabuyane’s group or this is Madikizela’s group, it must be the ANC.
“We must do it for good effect,” he added.
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