ANC delegates in cheerful mood
2010-09-20 09:33
Durban - ANC delegates arrived in cheerful moods at the exhibition centre in Durban on Monday morning to attend the ruling party's midterm policy review conference.
The attendees were singing traditional African National Congress songs about former leaders Oliver Tambo and Albert Luthuli.
Madlinyoka Ntanzi, dressed in traditional Zulu attire, said ANC members were "100%" behind President Jacob Zuma, denying media reports of a challenge to his leadership.
"I believe that ANC members are still behind Zuma because he is a unifier. What political analysts are saying in the media is not correct, because they don't sit in our structures," Ntanzi told a Sapa reporter.
2 000 delegates
A huge media contingent was present, with some 500 journalists accredited - 200 more than originally expected.
Some 2 000 ANC delegates from all nine provinces were gathering in Durban for the five-day national general council meeting.
The ANC and its alliance partners, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Communist Party, have asked those attending the event to focus on policy issues and not leadership squabbles.
According to a weekend report in the Sunday Times, the ANC's provincial chairpersons had to step in to save Zuma from a challenge to his leadership at the NGC.
The move reportedly came after Cosatu's general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi blasted the ANC leadership for having "no backbone" in dealing with youth wing leader Julius Malema.
"All we want them to do is to have a backbone and implement the Polokwane resolutions. When are we going to do away with labour brokers? Why are you afraid of young kids like this?" Vavi said at a Cosatu rally in East London on Saturday.
"All we want is for our leadership to be strong and make decisions. This paralysis which is caused by young kids must come to an end."
2010 elective conference
Political analysts have said that the NGC could be a "window" into what will transpire at the ANC's elective congress in 2012.
Cosatu wants Zuma to speed up on implementing the policies adopted at the ANC's 2007 Polokwane conference.
Vavi had said the federation would push for a range of other left-leaning economic policies at the NGC.
These included creating a state-owned bank to cater for the poor, nationalising vital sectors, such as mining, metals and petrochemicals, a more progressive tax system, and abolishing inflation targeting.
- SAPA
