ANC veterans and stalwarts league president, Snuki Zikalala, at the consultative conference in Constitution Hill, Johannesburg. Picture: Getrude Makhafola/ANA
Dr Snuki Zikalala has officially been nominated as the sole candidate for the Presidential seat by members attending the ANC Veterans League third elective conference in Boksburg.
This is at the conference which started yesterday (Friday) and will end tomorrow, and, speaking moments just after his unopposed nomination this afternoon, Zikalala said: "I feel good that the veterans have confidence in me. I will serve the veterans and society."
This will be the 72-year-old's second term at the helm of the Veterans League as its president, a position which he has held onto since 2017.
Zikalala was pegged to run against Tony Yengeni for the position of the top seat, however, Yengeni was reportedly notified at the last minute that he could only attend the conference as a guest and not as a delegate.
Mavuso Msimanga was also elected as the sole uncontested nominee for the position of Deputy president of the veterans league, while the former Social Development Minister Susan Shabangu was touted for the position of the league's Secretary General.
Addressing the gathering of over 450 voting delegates from six provinces with the exception of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, Zikalala on Friday highlighted how the first priority for the league had to be working towards the renewal of the party itself.
He said in addition to that, veterans had to push to ensure that pertinent issues such as load shedding, economic recovery, better service delivery in the maintenance of infrastructure, strengthened efforts to combat crime and corruption, and building a better Africa, were at the forefront of the mother body's agenda.
Zikalala added that revitalising the League would require efforts, and they would have to energise and establish credible and legitimate branch structures of the ANC veterans league.
He also called on veterans to be at forefront of the renewal of the ANC, which involved engaging the battle of ideas, developing and modelling what kind of ANC cadre they wanted to see, and proposing concrete steps the mother body should take and be accountable for.
Over and above that Zikalala called on members to take a hard line on factionalism and the practice of controlling and owning members by other members.
"We must push for the verification of members and the exclusion of individuals who have criminal records. All new ANC members should undertake lifestyle audits and all members both current and new must take the pledge of allegiance."
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