ANC leaders must stop their negativity: Zuma

Zuma delivered the opening address at the ANC's policy conference in Nasrec, south of Johannesburg.

He says some ANC leaders and members have become "conveyors of negative information about the movement".

"The challenge for the country is that this irresponsible, perpetual negative messages by our own people has a negative impact on the economy."

Zuma says they need to discuss how they can balance the ANC's tradition of self-criticism with the need to protect the ANC and provide it with the space to resolve problems in a more organised manner. 

"We also need to be able to differentiate between self-criticism and the furtherance of certain interests and agendas," President Zuma says.

He says discussion at the policy conference will reflect on the setback suffered by the ANC in last year's elections.

"Since the announcement of the election results, members and supporters of the ANC have, out of pain and genuine concern, been engaged in varying degrees of robust discussions about what has gone wrong with their beloved movement, and how we lost the metros."