Video by Kamogelo Moichela
Johannesburg - President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday announced that the ANC’s national officials were going to meet ANC Women’s League leader and former Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini to discuss her perjury conviction.
Speaking on the sidelines of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) national congress, Ramaphosa defended the ANC’s failure to enforce its step aside rule after Dlamini was convicted of perjury by the Johannesburg Regional Court for lying under oath in affidavits in which she attempted to explain her role in the social grants debacle.
“The decision is that the officials are going to meet with Bathabile Dlamini and that is a process. We are a process-driven organisation whether you like it or not,” the president said.
Ramaphosa said: “We are going to meet with her and we are going to have a discussion. I know the media wants to see action now immediately but we are process-driven and we are going to meet with her and we are going to have a discussion with her.”
During the congress, Ramaphosa was delayed after delegates demanded that he wait until they had resolved differences over the adoption of credentials.
Some delegates wanted him to stay at their congress for the entire day.
”They are dealing with credentials issues, it was not hostility towards me. They have to find a solution,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the delegates wanted him to stay for the duration of the congress.
“There is nothing wrong with that, it’s just that my programme does not allow that,” he said, adding that there was no hostility towards him whatsoever.
Ramaphosa left the congress immediately after his address because he had to see the NUM’s founding president James Motlatsi, who he said has been unwell, as well as attend to matters of the state.
He urged the congresses and conferences of the ANC and its allies, the SA Communist Party and Cosatu, scheduled for later this year to elect leaders who are going to take the organisation forward.
Video: Kamogelo Moichela/ IOLPolitics
”We must put our organisations first not individuals. Our organisations must be our primary interests,” said Ramaphosa, insisting that the organisations should not have a preoccupation with individuals.
Political Bureau