The three-day meeting beginning on Friday takes place at Gallager Estate, Midrand.
The NGC will review the party’s policies and most controversially, the national development plan that has seen problems in parastatals and e-tolls saga, amongst others.
According to uncle ‘Gweegz’ as Mantashe is known, every delegate to the party’s national general council brings expertise with them – especially its branch members, who make up more than half of its 4049 delegates, that includes Leagues of the ANC and its alliance partners, Umkhonto WeSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), fraternal organisations, notably the Former Liberation Movements – MPLA (Angola), Zanu-PF (Zimbabwe), CCM (Tanzania), FRELIMO (Mozambique) and Swapo (Namibia).
Worried veteran ANC leader Frank Chikane said he hopes a document which contains suggestions for the renewal of the ANC will be discussed at the NGC.
In the document Chikane warned the ruling party that it had reached a point of no return and faced the possibility of losing elections unless it owned up to its problems.
He said the risk of ANC support falling below 50 percent in the next national election was real and dangerous.
Alliance partner and trade union Cosatu says it will be keen to see how the NGC progresses.
The provincial break-down of members is as follows:
Eastern Cape: 403 delegates
Free State: 165 delegates
Gauteng: 285
KwaZulu-Natal: 513 delegates
Limpopo: 276 delegates
Mpumalanga: 315 delegates
North West: 257 delegates
Northern Cape: 125 delegates
Western Cape : 162 delegates
