Members of the NEC deployed in Mpumalanga,
Members of the NEC of the Women’s League,
Members of the NEC of the Youth League,
The newly elected PEC of Mpumalanga,
Members of the REC’s of the ANC,
Members of the PEC’s of the Women’s League and the Youth League,
Veterans and distinguished cadres of the ANC in Mpumalanga,
Fellow delegates,
Comrades and Combatants,

The 9th Provincial Conference of the ANC has come to an end. On behalf of the newly elected PEC allow me to thank all delegates and leaders from all levels of the movement for their diligence, patience and love for the organisation.

Once again to use the words of the President, “we have had the opportunity to grow together as we benefited from the collective wisdom of our traditions, our veterans and our developing membership”.

We converged on Nelspruit from all corners of our province, from our towns and villages as descendants, substantially of the humble labourers who continue to toil on the many thriving farms of Mpumalanga, our plantation workers and mine workers and those who provide labour to the reputable heavy industries of our province.

Once again we came to advance the quest to change life for the better for these citizens and communities. Over the last 10 years a great deal has been achieved. We have made education increasingly accessible, we have made health relatively affordable, we have provided more people with houses, water, electricity, telephones and sanitation. We have worked hard to restore the dignity of our people.

In the South African context rural conditions, such as we find in our province, necessarily also entail sharp racial animosities which stems from the feudal master and servant relationship of the apartheid past. The challenge to build non-racialism, cultural diversity, and racial harmony in our province, therefore cannot be treated as ordinary. For sometime to come, our province will remain challenged in this respect. As we return back to our bases to continue work, it should be incumbent on all of us to consistently, consciously and creatively sponsor and execute programmes that impact on our communities, particularly through municipal IDP’s among others, to lay material conditions for the creation of non-racial municipalities of 21st Century South Africa here in Mpumalanga.

We continue to grapple with the challenge to rehabilitate the economic lives of many people by providing them with opportunities for income by creating job opportunities where people live in order to fight poverty.

Still and all, the truth is that many places in our provinces are still as they were.

Conference, comrades, there is no revolution without a revolutionary organisation, and no revolutionary organisation without revolutionaries.

To take forward the work that has been done, to consolidate our achievements, our province, our organisation, needs more revolutionaries. The ANC in Mpumalanga must be an incubator of more agents for change, armed with a clarity of thought and the morals and values of the ANC.

We must perform our organisational duties such that we earn people’s admiration not scorn, because we put the people first not ourselves whenever opportunities avail themselves.

To those among us who are deployed in government we need to display bravery by watching everybody around us become rich but ourselves, because we understand that to take up these duties involves sacrifice.

I wish to echo the sentiments by the outgoing chairperson that many achievements have been scored over the last three years, the challenge is for us to advance further.

This week as we convened here in Nelspruit, we commenced the countdown to the 30th Anniversary of June 16, 1976 next year, an event whose magnitude in our resistance struggle against injustice derives from its authors’ sheer capacity for self-sacrifice. The youth of 1976 have left our youth and future generations to come a legacy they must uphold and preserve. Indeed our province and our communities can only benefit if the Youth League can continue to remind young people that the most lofty thing to do is to always ask ourselves what is it I can do for my country, than what is it my country can do for me.

Conference, as we conclude our business here today, let us take a clear message back home to the ANC branches we represent, that the duties and challenges faced by ANC councillors are the responsibility of us all. We cannot stand by and watch as one municipality after another erupts with violent protests. Where sub-regions do not exist, the REC’s must help coordinate ANC ward branches to provide a forum in order for the collective wisdom of the ANC structure to be brought to bear on the challenges.

To paraphrase the dictum of the father of the Angolan revolution, Augustino Neto,

“The most important reason for our existence is to solve the problems of the masses.”

Fellow delegates, it has been a hard road to get to where we are this day. The many times you have unsuccessfully convened branch general meetings without relenting, to obey the organisational procedures of your movement with discipline, is heartily appreciated. The leadership of the province commends you for that.

Since the beginning of the year to the aborted conference and beyond, a good deal of party time was consumed in preparing for this conference at the cost of other priorities of the organisation in the province.

The unity of our members and structures is not only good for the organisation, it is a strategic requisite for the success of our struggle. We must inculcate in the understanding of all our members this critical challenge, it is a matter never to be taken lightly.

One of the priorities of the organisation after this conference necessarily must be a clarion call for more unity throughout the ranks. We must be determined never to rest until we have attained this goal.

In this regard we must reject with contempt any attempts by the media to sow artificial divisions among us, and to herd ANC members into false camps that are intended to polarise the ANC constituency.

Always remember, our struggle demands that we must at all times exercise political vigilance.

“Learn well how to seek revenge, courage but intelligent courage.”

Discipline is the mother of victory.

We wish everybody a safe journey home. Your families have missed you for the last six months.

Keep the ANC flag flying high.

AMANDLA!