Addressing media on Sunday morning Deputy Secretary General of the African National Congress Jessie Duarte explained that the adoption of the credentials at the 54^th ANC National Conference was delayed by one day given the outcome of the court order on KwaZulu- Natal (KZN), the Free State and the Bojanala region in the North West.

“We have decided that PEC’s of KZN and the Free State, those who are not branch delegates already, would not become voting delegates so that we comply with the judgment,” Duarte stated.

The briefing follows a six-hour delay of the conference with President Jacob Zuma, flanked by Deputy President and presidential hopeful Cyril Ramaphosa, taking the podium to more than 5000 chanting delegates on Saturday.

The individuals who worked on the credentials included Duarte and the head of the organizing division, Fikile Mbalula, together with nine provincial secretaries.

Duarte further noted that the delay was due to the disqualification of 35 branches of the North West as voting delegates.

The delegates’ status at the conference was subsequently converted to non-voting delegates, effectively only granting them permission to participate.

“That takes a bit of work, because we also had to explain to the branches why they’ve been disqualified, because it is a court order and that we are withdrawing their delegation status.”

In terms of the Free State, Duarte said that PEC members who are not branch delegates also hold the status of non-voting delegates.

Duate also denied that branches had inflated the size of their delegations.

Voting process:

NEC voting is expected to commence on Sunday afternoon with approximately 200 members of the 4776 voting delegates to cast their votes per round.

The announcement of the new ANC president expected to be made on Monday morning.

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