Cyril positive of unity after Nasrec

President on course to rein in factions to pull in one direction

President Cyril Ramaphosa has conceded that bringing together the mixed leadership elected at Nasrec was “never going to be easy”, but that it was important to “find one another and forge unity”.

Ramaphosa was answering questions at a meeting with the South African National Editors Forum in Cape Town yesterday.

Ramaphosa was asked about how he was dealing with the dynamics in the ANC following the governing party’s elective conference at Nasrec in December.

The leadership which emerged was a mixed bag between factions, with two of the top-six leaders aligned to his opponent in the presidential elective race, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The ANC’s top leadership structure, with the national executive committee split between the two groups, is a dynamic which observers have pointed out could hamper Ramaphosa’s ability to reform and renew both the party and the state.

“It was never going to be easy to bring strands of people diametrically opposed... but what unites us is the ANC... sometimes it may seem people are pulling in different directions, it takes time, unity is not a one day event, it’s a process,” Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa said, however, that he was given a clear mandate to do his work in government.

The government’s move to place the North West province under administration showed how government could take decisions and move ahead, even though the party processes seem to be lagging behind.

In the situation around former president Jacob Zuma, it was the party who forged ahead first and the government followed. He added that there were “dynamics” on both sides which needed to be “managed”.