ANC Gauteng nominates Motlanthe
2012-10-07 17:46
Johannesburg - Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has been nominated by the Gauteng ANC provincial executive council (PEC) to lead the national ANC, provincial leader Paul Mashatile said on Sunday.
"As this PEC we have been calling for the renewal of the ANC change in leadership," Mashatile said in his prepared remarks at the special provincial general council in Johannesburg.
"We have been doing this guided by the objective reality that today [Sunday] our movement finds itself operating in a very modernising world and therefore we are required to modernise the ANC."
In addition to nominating Motlanthe as ANC president, the PEC also named Febe Potgieter as deputy secretary general and Mashatile as treasurer general as its preferred candidates for the ANC national elective conference to be held in Mangaung in December.
While the Gauteng PEC was unanimous in its recommendations for those positions, it was split on the rest of the top six.
The PEC recommended both Tokyo Sexwale and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for deputy president, Joel Netshitenzhe and Gwede Mantashe for secretary general, and Thandi Modise and Naledi Pandor for national chairperson.
Mashatile said the PEC had "extensive discussions" on the nominations and believed its list would ensure "generational transitional mix".
"We agreed that we need a renewed leadership that will catapult our movement and ensure that we grow and move it to greater heights," Mashatile said.
He said the PEC's nominations were only about unity and he denied they were about removing leaders.
Mashatile said the nominations of the PEC were not final and could be changed in the nomination process to begin on Monday.
He said provincial ANC members were now free to lobby and campaign for their chosen candidates but he advised them to conduct themselves in a "dignified manner".
- SAPA
