Heavy early-morning rain on Monday did nothing to dampen the spirits of supporters of the front-runners in the African National Congress leadership race as the second day of the ruling party’s 52nd national conference got under way.
A cheering contest between supporters of ANC leader Thabo Mbeki and his deputy, Jacob Zuma, ensued as delegates arrived at the main marquee at the University of Limpopo where sessions would be held.
”Thabo Mbeki, my president,” intoned one group. Some Zuma supporters standing on the sidelines were unimpressed, saying: ”It’s just Limpopo and the Eastern Cape.” When the Zuma camp approached the Mbeki supporters, the latter group began booing.
One placard read: ”A thousand percent Eastern Cape Thabo Mbeki.” Some of those in the other camp held up newspaper pictures of Zuma. ”JZ for two terms only,” read a placard.
The conference programme was running late as Sunday’s opening proceedings had taken much longer than expected, partly due to the ANC Youth League’s objection against computerised counting procedures being used in the leadership election.
By Monday morning, the nominations process had not even started, and treasurer general Mendi Msimang still had to present his financial report, which had been scheduled for Sunday evening.
However, there was some confusion about what was happening in the conference marquee on Monday morning as members of the media were firmly kept at a distance, with ANC security officials turning journalists and photographers away as they arrived for the first morning session, which was supposed to be open to the media.
A security official told the Mail & Guardian Online: ”The session is open, but now we have been told otherwise.” Some officials allowed the media to stand close to the marquee, but others threatened to have journalists removed if they did not retreat to the media centre, about 1km away from the marquee.
ANC communication official Donovan Cloete said the planned open session, during which messages of support would have been heard, would be split up and addressed in between the delayed sessions from Monday evening, all of which were closed to the media.
ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama, addressing the media outside the marquee, said the conference would hear Msimang’s financial report, followed by sessions on constitutional amendments and the party’s credentials report, which compares pre-conference numbers of voting delegates with attending delegates to verify voting numbers.
Vote counting
Ngonyama said that NEC nominations may finally get under way on Monday afternoon — ”perhaps once the issue of [vote] counting is truly acceptable to everyone”.
Referring to Sunday morning’s jambled opening session, in which ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota had difficulty in keeping discussions on the ANC Youth League’s vote-counting motion on track, Ngonyama said: ”Some people have gone overboard in the way they have handled themselves against the chair.” He also blamed the venue’s microphone system for confusion over who should have been allowed to speak.
He said that at an ANC steering committee meeting on Monday evening, no agreement had been reached on the vote-counting method. Some of those who oppose the electronic counting system asked: ”Why are we moving away from what we have been doing all these years?”, said Ngonyama.
Asked about dissent in ANC ranks over leadership, he said: ”Out of this, all of us will emerge quite strong.”
A press conference was announced for 10.30am on Monday morning to brief the media on the state of the event and the programme for the rest of the day.