People who are stealing the resources of the country must be dealt with severely because the country does not want corruption‚ President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday.

He was addressing a church service at Esikhawini near Empangeni in northern KwaZulu-Natal‚ after dominating the news in the morning when he was photographed on a FlySafair flight to Durban.

Ramaphosa told the congregants of the Covenant Fellowship Church International that the African National Congress conference in December had enabled the ANC to deal with challenges facing the organisation and the country.

“The conference went well and today‚ we have new leaders and we will ask you to keep them in your prayers that they continue to do good work and do things differently than in the past period‚” Ramaphosa said.

He said the congregants should also pray that these leaders should grasp and embrace what the party called the "new dawn".

“Prior to the conference there was no unity in our ranks. Our movement was factionalised. But in this new dawn‚ we have come out with a clear message of unity and renewal.”

He said the ANC had come out with a message that the ANC in government must begin the process of being the servant of the people.

“We must put our old ways behind us. Where there was corruption‚ we must say goodbye to corruption.

“Where there was stealing of the resources of our people‚ we must say goodbye to those ways and put them behind us and where there were people who were stealing the resources of our country‚ they must be dealt with severely because we don’t want corruption in our country‚” Ramaphosa said.

He said people wanted service delivery that would serve all the people and not the service delivery that would look only after certain people.

He said the new dawn meant that the country must address the challenge of unemployment in a serious manner.

“Last week‚ we started to demonstrate that we are serious about addressing the issue of unemployment‚ particularly amongst the youth of our country because 60% of people who are unemployed are the youth of our country.”

He said the new dawn also meant the country must address the challenge of poverty in a most vigorous way.

He said government would start by getting rid of corruption in the state-owned enterprises so that they work for the people.

“They must address the issues of poverty‚ they must address the issues of job creation‚ they must address the issues inequality. All those state owned enterprises should not advance the interests of certain families or certain individuals.

He said the new dawn must also mean the country must address the issues of radical socio economic transformation.

“Black people must become the owners and the controllers and the managers of the country’s wealth.

“In the time past‚ the country’s wealth was in white hands‚ contollred by whites and owned by whites. We say this new period in which we are must result in a demonstrable change.

“We must change the structure of our economy‚ economy and wealth must go back to the hands of the people of SA.”

He said the conference also decided on the question of land.

“The land of our forefathers and our foremothers must return to our people without any fail and without any payment of compensation and it must happen now.”