adminincumbent President Jacob Zuma.
The NEC is the ANC’s highest decision-making structure in between conferences.
Thus Motlanthe, who remains the country’s deputy president, at least for now, is no longer a member of any leadership structure, but would serve as an ordinary member of the ANC.
The conference ends Motlanthe’s 15-year career in the ANC’s top six — a decade as secretary-general and five years as deputy president.
On Tuesday, he graciously congratulated the new party leadership and wished them strength in their tasks.
Motlanthe’s decision to stand for the ANC presidency — and to decline nomination on Monday at the Mangaung national elective conference to be Zuma’s deputy — had suggested a breakdown in the relationship between the two.
Addressing delegates gathered in the plenary marquee on Tuesday afternoon to hear nominations for the NEC, Motlanthe said: “The ANC is the epitome of democracy, so we must continue to champion democracy, in South Africa and the world over, lead our people in deracialising South Africa and ensuring that we eliminate sexism in our midst.
“We must continue to sharpen our ability to hear the cries of our people, attending to the economic challenges, unemployment, poverty and inequality.”
He expressed “full confidence” in the new leadership core to take forward the party’s mandate and address the country’s economic challenges. “Our leaders were elected by the entire membership of the ANC, and so we continue. We should keep that in mind.”
Motlanthe also said delegates should know they work “under the watch and guidance of a capable leadership we have just elected”.
He thanked Zuma for allowing him to address the delegates after the party leader had spoken, despite protocol usually not allowing this.
On Monday evening, a source told Business Day that Motlanthe was not prepared to serve in the ANC’s senior structures, where the party’s constitution was being “misinterpreted”.
Delegates elected multimillionaire businessman Cyril Ramaphosa as the governing party’s new deputy president.
Motlanthe had been nominated for the presidency by three ANC provinces — Gauteng, the Western Cape and Limpopo — as well as the ANC Youth League.
Earlier in the day, Zuma also appealed for unity, asking delegates to treat each other with respect, irrespective of who they voted for.
“We agreed for members to have preferences. That is their democratic right . . . Don’t just pay lip service to that, you must put it into practice,” he said.
“We agreed that contestation is part of our democratic culture,” he added, addressing ANC members as the party’s re-elected president for the first time.
“Once elections take place and ANC branches have spoken . . . the decision is the decision of all of us.”
The pro-Zuma “slate” emerged on top at Mangaung.
“We begin here to advance the fundamental principle of the ANC, the unity of the ANC,” Zuma said.
“You elected comrades to lead this organisation, it must be a united organisation . . . Let’s handle each (other) as comrades.”
He emphasised that both the winners and losers remained part of the ANC — and that all members should place the organisation, not individuals, first.
Meanwhile, reports that Motlanthe was leaving government immediately should be treated as rumours, his spokesman Thabo Masebe said on Tuesday evening.
“I’m not aware of this; he hasn’t said anything to me,” Masebe said.
Jacaranda FM on Tuesday wrote on Twitter that reports were emerging that said “Kgalema to leave government immediately”. — bdlive.co.za/Independent Online.
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