Down to business, says Gigaba

Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba. File photo: Brandon van der Mescht

Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba. File photo: Brandon van der Mescht

Published Dec 18, 2012

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Bloemfontein - The ANC's national conference can get down to business now that delegates have voted for the party's top six officials, national executive committee member Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday.

“The one thing that would have been a burden on the conference is heavy contestation. Now that the contestation is normalised, and people have voted for officials, conference does settle down,” he said on the sidelines of the conference in Mangaung (Bloemfontein).

“At this stage it is no longer about whether you can influence the outcome [of the election for the top six]. The outcome has been decided.

“So now we can focus on conference, and the actual business of why we are here.”

Delegates completed voting in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The results were expected to be announced on Tuesday afternoon.

Gigaba said delegates at the conference were better behaved than at the last conference in Polokwane in 2007.

“We were able to adopt the credentials in time, compared to Polokwane. The only problem impacting on the credentials of conference is not in the conference, it is in the courts. It is not inside here.”

The Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that the ANC Free State's provincial elective conference and the elected provincial executive committee were invalid and unlawful.

Gigaba, who is also public enterprises minister, said minimal investment by South African companies was not because of a “lack of clarity” on the ANC's stance on nationalisation.

“They would not invest ... money even if there was no discussion in the ANC conference about nationalisation,” he said.

“The problem with investors in this country is that they have been coming up with excuses year after year... about why they are not investing. We are sitting with a problem that ultimately we need to resolve.”

He hoped the topic of nationalisation would be resolved in the conference and that “new excuses are not going to emerge”. - Sapa

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