African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa congratulated the party in the Eastern Cape for conducting its elective conference with dignity.

He said it was impressive that commitment and resoluteness was shown to ensure that the conference takes place.

“This is the year that we must use all that we have to demonstrate that we are indeed a revolutionary organization, we are disciplined but moreover proving that we are here to unite and to strengthen our movement, not just in the ANC but all of the congress movement,” he said.

He congratulated the newly elected leadership. Oscar Mabuyane was re-elected Eastern Cape chairperson.

He also applauded those that were not elected and said that they remained leaders of the party.

“That they were not elected does not mean they are not leaders of the ANC. We will always see you as leaders of the ANC. In the end, the branches have spoken and they represented their will and your decisions as the branches of our movement. You came to this conference divided but now that you have elected your leader you are saying that you want to work with them and help in the renewal of the ANC,” he said.

He noted that the mandate of the elected top five was to unite the ANC in the Eastern Cape.

“It is up to you to assume this mantle of comradeship and cadre-ship and take forward our programme of action as  spelt out in our January 8 statement.  You should be reminded that you are coming into your leadership at a critical time for the province, our movement and for our country as a whole,” Ramaphosa said.

He urged leaders to be at the forefront to eliminate hunger and increase investments in the Eastern Cape.

“However one defines poverty, comrades, this situation is unacceptable. This also means that too many people continue to be economically excluded and too many people cannot provide for themselves therefore going to bed hungry,” he stressed.

He said Eastern Cape holds many competitive advantages which must be leveraged to create jobs and lift people out of poverty.