African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the closing address at the party’s KwaZulu-Natal conference on Sunday, following the election of new leadership and amid hostility towards him and his supporters.

The conference began on Friday with 1 600 delegates and saw the election of Sboniso Duma as provincial chairperson and Nomagugu Simelane as deputy chairperson. Bheki Mtolo was elected secretary and his deputy is Sipho Hlomuka.

Ntuthuko Mahlaba was elected Treasurer.

“You have made history in this province for choosing a woman as deputy chairperson. I congratulate you all, including the additional members that I look forward to working with and I pledge myself to work with our elected comrades based on trust, cooperation and working together,” Ramaphosa said.

He said the new leadership needed to find inspiration from the legacy of ANC stalwart Jessie Duarte who, Ramaphosa said, showed dedication and resilience in her years serving within the party.

“As we reflect on Comrade Duarte’s life, but more importantly on her contribution to the organisation, we remember her dedication to the freedom of our people and her country. She was a person of enormous integrity, compassion and unfailing loyalty to the cause of our people. We should honour her contribution by striving to learn from her example and to be better activists of freedom and democracy,” he said.

Meanwhile, he stressed the need for the ANC to come out of the conference with a clear programme and an undivided commitment to improve the lives of those residing in the province.

The main focus, he said, should be on the transformation of the economy and society as set out in the National Development Plan, the ANC’s fity-fourth conference and the organisation’s 2019 manifesto.

“We need to fundamentally alter the racial and gender composition on ownership, control and economic management in our economy. We need a South African economy that reflects the demography, diversity and interests of our people. This requires that we address the principal cause of poverty and inequality which is asset and opportunity poverty in our country,” Ramaphosa said.

He also spoke against economic concentration, explaining that by limiting the scope of new entrants to the economy, it hindered the transformation hoped for.

“Economic monopolies still stifle competition and it keeps prices high while encouraging efficiencies on our economy. That is why we need to use the legal instruments that we have to change the structure of our economy. Our transformation objective requires that we diversify our economy, specifically through the support, and the enhancement and the development, of those who were previously denied opportunities and a key role in our economy,” he said.