The ANC has blamed glitches in the registration and the replacement of delegates for the late start of the party’s Western Cape provincial conference that was scheduled to start on Friday.
Some delegates were still being registered at the party’s provincial offices in Cape Town.
The conference venue at the Cape Town International Convention Centre was deserted with only some leaders, officials, police and media at the facility after 5pm.
This took place while the interim provincial committee (IPC) was locked up in a meeting with secretary general Fikile Mbalula and members of the national executive committee deployed to the province.
In what could be the first in the ANC conference, the party in the Western Cape has not allocated time to its conference programme.
However, the document listing conference rules and hotel accommodation stated that delegates should be at the conference venue by midday.
Briefing the media, provincial spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni said some regions – Southern Cape and Karoo – had travelled long distances, something that impacted on the registration of delegates.
“I can confirm that 80% of the registration has been done. In fact, we are moving towards the leagues – Youth league, Veterans League and Women’s League,” Mtsweni said.
He said the biggest region, Dullah Omar as well as Boland and Overberg, have their delegates registered.
“We are dealing with the Southern Cape and the leagues.”
Mtsweni also said the delays in registration were compounded by the replacement of delegates who were chosen at branch general meetings.
“We don’t want delegates that are not branch nominated. We have had to ask the Electoral Agency to give the delegates’ forms to see if the replacements are the right ones,” he said.
“We don’t want the conference to start while other people are being registered,” he added.
The conference is expected to be attended by 700 delegates, and 650 will be delegates from the branches, the regional executive committees, IPC and the leagues.
The remaining 50 will be guests from the alliance partners, fraternal organisations and key stakeholders.
Cape Times