President Cyril Ramaphosa‚ in his capacity as ANC leader‚ has called on party members in Gauteng to contest each other as "brother and sister" at this weekend's elective conference.
In his opening address at the event Ramaphosa called for unity‚ saying that after the conference the contestants should embrace each other.
He urged delegates to copy from his example with Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. "Today we are [brother and sister]‚ we are together. We sit next to each other at cabinet meetings ...we hold each other's hands‚ under the table‚" said Ramaphosa‚ to loud applause.
He said there was a new tendency in the ANC where people who are contesting each other could not work together and wouldn't even look each other in the eyes.
Ramaphosa also cautioned leaders from choosing people who they want to be elected alongside them.
He said he made a similar mistake leading up to last year's ANC conference but was corrected by branches.
Ramaphosa said Gauteng was the driver of the country's economy and it was therefore important to his drive for the country to raise $100-billion in investments.
He said the ANC in the province was going to face a tough task in the upcoming elections to regain the support of the people. "We must go back [to communities ] ... to say 'we want your love back'‚" he said.
He said the party needs to act against its members involved in corruption. Ramaphosa further added that the party needed to start a campaign where they ask those involved in corruption to pay back the money they have allegedly stolen.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 