The ANC elective conference was set to resume after it was postponed on Friday. Picture Leon Lestrade. African News Agency/ANA.
The ANC Western Cape was expected to resume its elective conference on Saturday morning, having been forced to postpone it late on Friday amid delays in the registration of delegates and occupation of hotel rooms by “friends of delegates”.
The postponement took place after 10pm. The media was told there was pending registration of only 20% of the delegates.
This happened despite earlier insistence that secretary-general Fikile Mbalula would open the conference, followed immediately by the presentation of political, organisational and financial reports as well as the nomination of and voting for the top five positions.
Interim provincial committee convener Lerumo Kalako said on Friday the bulk of delegates from the Southern region had begun registering and “the comrades are sitting in hotels”.
“The problem they are creating is that some of them are friends of delegates,” he said.
Kalako told of an instance where he was confronted by voting delegates from the Boland region who were without hotel accommodation despite having been allocated rooms at one of the hotels, along with the Overberg region.
“In the rooms they were supposed to be, there are other people.”
He said they were told by ANC staff that there were no keys that were distributed to delegates.
“We are going now to postpone the opening and open tomorrow (Saturday) early in the morning,” he said.
Cape Times
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