Msholozi and Friends

Linked below is ANC President Jacob Zuma’s unforgettable speech to the closing session of the 52nd ANC National Conference, at Polokwane.

Also linked below is the Conference Declaration. This declaration is also published in the first post-Polokwane “ANC Today”, which also contains a letter from President Jacob Zuma and another one from President Thabo Mbeki.

Click here to open the ANC’s page of links to other Conference Documents. Still to came at this moment are Resolutions, Constitution, and Strategy and Tactics.

This should be the last substantial Communist University post this year, and it was intended to be a simple one. It has taken much longer than expected but it now gives a very full picture (taking all the linked documents together) of who was elected to the new ANC National Executive Committee, who was nominated but not elected, and who was on the outgoing NEC. The full result of the “top six” office-bearers’ election is given again, as a document this time. The previous attempt to include it here as an image file was not a success. Hence you have four documents today that, taken together, will tell you nearly everything you need or want to know about the elections at Polokwane.

One very outstanding aspect of this 52nd ANC National Conference process was the way that it succeeded in producing more than sufficient women nominees so that when the decision was taken to go ahead with the “50-50” resolution, the organisation took the subsequent election in its stride and appeared to have no difficulty in electing the requisite 41 woman additional members to the NEC.

This is really a triumph, and it can provide a good example for the SACP of what can be done and how it can be done. It can also provide a practical help to the Party in the form of the new pool of female leadership that has been brought forward in this great mass organisation. There can be no revolution without the wholehearted agency of masses of women.

We made a false start with the Progressive Women’s Movement. The latter is no more than a funded storefront for rent to any funder of the day, whether corporate or state. 50-50 parity in formal structures is a huge advance as compared with that. It is not the end of the road but it takes us a long way forward. It will stand to the eternal credit of the African National Congress.

The last linked item is Ranjeni Munusamy’s article from today’s Star. We may forgive, but we must not forget.

Click on these links:

ANC President Jacob Zuma, closing 52nd National Conference (2354 words)

Declaration of the ANC 52nd National Conference (998 words)

New ANC National Executive Committee elected at 52nd Conference

Nominated but not elected to the ANC NEC at the 52nd National Congress

Outgoing ANC NEC prior to 52nd National Conference

ANC NEC top six (office bearers) election results at 52nd Conference

Zuma can heal the ANC, Ranjeni Munusamy, The Star (1065 words)