Organised by Cosatu in the Mpumalanga province, the CR17 campaign threatens to turn the tide in the build-up to the 54th national elective congress of the ANC at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Soweto by conscientising branches and society of the right choice towards conference.
A campaign for Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to take over from President Jacob Zuma in December 2017 saw community members and ANC members filling up the Nazareth community hall in Middelburg to hear leaders speak.
ANC NEC member Joe Phaahla, provincial SACP chairman Lucky Mbuyane as well as Cosatu deputy national secretary December Mavuso spoke at the hall, with Phaahla becoming the key note speaker.
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Phaahla said something has gone wrong in the ANC.
“But I’m saying comrades not all is lost,” he said.
“We still have the legacy of OR Tambo as we celebrate it this year, we know what is right. I’m saying to you comrades the future of the ANC is in our hands, we can rescue the organisation from being captured by money from tenders and Guptas. We can start rescuing the ANC in December but comrades what we must know is that the work is not going to be easy,” he said.
He urged the community and branch members to make sure they win delegates in branch general meetings “because that’s what matters in conferences”.
“With conferences comrades, whether you appear on TV everyday, you are popular and when they do surveys you are number one, it doesn’t matter. If you do not manage to get the delegates to the conference, forget,” Phaahla said.
The event was a memorial lecture organised in memory of late ANC president OR Tambo.
Ramaphosa is contesting for the position of ANC President as well as Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Zweli Mkhize, Lindiwe Sisulu and Baleka Mbete.
Member of Parliament Siphosezwe Masango, Cosatu Mpumalanga leader Thabo Mokoena and YCL provincial secretary Tinyiko Ntini also attended the gathering.
The CR17 group says the only unity needed in the ANC is the one which maintains the ANC tradition of the deputy taking over as President and not the other unity that is being preached, which they say is factional and opportunist, especially the one by ANC Mpumalanga chairman DD Mabuza who also has interests in the top 6.
(edited by MLM)
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