ANC adjourns conference without adopting any policy resolutions

In an unprecedented move the ANC adjourned its 55th national conference on Tuesday without adopting any policy resolutions.

The party will do so during a hybrid session on January 5. . Re-elected president Cyril Ramaphosa said in his closing address on Tuesday that this was in line with the way “a number of conferences across the country” were held in the past year.

Ramaphosa addressed the handful of delegates still at the Nasrec exhibition centre and international guests, diplomats, party veterans and journalists. Former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe were in the crowd, but Jacob Zuma, who made a late entrance during Ramaphosa’s opening address, was not there.

After the bruising contest between himself and former health minister Zweli Mkhize for the top job, Ramaphosa emphasised the importance of unity in the organisation to address social and economic problems such as power cuts.

“We came from different provinces and different branches holding different views on who should be chosen and with different proposals on which policies should be chosen, but as always we have ended up as a united organisation,” he said.

Without elaborating, Ramaphosa said: “There have been attempts to divide us, to provoke us and to divert us from the tasks that we must undertake.” He said there were moments at the conference that “tested our unity and cohesion”, but delegates were not distracted by their differences “thanks to the political consciousness and, for the most part, the discipline amongst yourselves as delegates”.

Ramaphosa’s remarks on increased representation of women in the ranks of the party’s top officials elicited most applause. Three of the new top seven  are women, but Ramaphosa said it’s not enough. “We should not rest until we have achieved full equality in all structures of our movement — equality in terms of representation, of participation and of opportunity.”

He said the conference took a “firm stance against corruption”, but as with his opening remarks on Friday he did not mention the party’s step-aside rule.

There were no new policy positions to announce as there was no time during the conference to adopt policy resolutions due to accreditation and voting taking up most of the time, but Ramaphosa hinted that reforms would continue to build an economy “that bridges the huge gap between wealth and poverty, between privilege and disadvantage, between black and white, between men and women”.

He said that measures such as “trade incentives, tax rebates and a compact of the private sector” could be adopted to accelerate rolling out mobile infrastructure and fibre in rural areas and townships. The ANC also wants to adopt measures to address crime, such as changing the police force into the police service and overhauling immigration laws “to meet the new challenges facing the country”.

After Ramaphosa’s address, the new top seven leaders posed for pictures with leaders of fraternal organisations invited to the conference.