President Ramaphosa has opened the ANC’s 6th National Policy Conference. The conference was held on Friday, 29 July, attended by Former president Thabo Mbeki, all ANC delegates, the media and the president himself.
According to Paddy Harper, Mail and Guardian journalist “the conference, which runs until Sunday, is aimed at checklisting progress on implementing ANC policy resolutions in both the party and the government since the last national conference in 2017 and at fine- tuning policy recommendations to be tabled at the next conference in December”.
The ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa began his speech at the conference by unpacking all the details that surrounded the policy proposals on the economy and job creation.
“This conference should be seen as a place where we have a festival of ideas, where the ANC lives up to its role as the leader of society by developing policies that relate to the lived experiences of our people where they live, to shape the trajectory of our people”
“We have exhibited revolutionary discipline in our various discussions from whens we have come and our exchanges have branch regional and provincial level in various preparatory conferences have been quite extensive. This should under pin our approach to the discussions that we are going to have, but the discussions must also be underpinned by finding solutions to the challenges” he told his delegates.
In an hour long speech, the ANC president also addressed the division in the ANC because of various cases that has also led to citizens not having hope in the party in question.
President Ramaphosa hit back at the Former president Thabo Mbeki’s comment that was made during the memorial service of former ANC Deputy Secretary- General Jessie Duarte. The comment that the president responded too was the one of Thabo Mbeki calling out the ANC leadership that includes Ramaphosa, for failing to fulfil the promises they made to the South Africans in the beginning of this year.
“We are continuing to put together the social compact, despite delays, despite challenges and I know that a number of us are continuing to be frustrated, to be disappointed with us not being able to conclude this” said Ramaphosa.
