Mantashe: 'Factional Battles Won't Hinder Conference'

“We can’t plan a conference of the ANC on the basis of factions."
African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General Gwede Mantashe gestures during a media briefing at Luthuli house, the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 29, 2017.
African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General Gwede Mantashe gestures during a media briefing at Luthuli house, the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 29, 2017.
Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the party is all-systems-go ahead of their national conference this weekend.

"We are going to the conference, we have done everything. We have done preregistration, we have developed whole master lists for delegates as nominated from the branches. We are ready for the conference," he said.

Mantashe was briefing media on Thursday at the Nasrec exhibition centre, where the conference is going to be held.

Asked about his decade-long tenure as secretary-general, Mantashe said it would be difficult to differentiate the good times and the bad.

"We have done a lot of work, the best we can do under very trying times... There are no worst times when you are leading a living organisation... you keep your feet on the ground all the time. If you determine your term in the worst times and the best times, it is difficult to determine," he said.

He said factional battles will not hinder the conference.

"We can't plan a conference of the ANC on the basis of factions. Comrades lobby one another when they go to conference; there is nothing wrong with that. It's not a question of trying to pull together two factions –– there will be no shootout. There will be elections," he said.

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