The start of the African National Congress’s (ANC) repeatedly postponed Western Cape provincial conference was delayed once again on Friday.
By 6pm, three hours after the originally scheduled start time, no more than a handful of the 720 expected voting delegates had arrived at Cape Town’s International Convention Centre.
Registration was taking place in Gugulethu, about 15km away.
A senior party member said he expected the conference would get underway later on Friday night, but only after delegates had attended to the dinner being prepared for them in a hall next to the conference venue.
President Jacob Zuma is due to address the gathering on Saturday morning.
The conference is expected to see the election of a provincial leader to take the place of Ebrahim Rasool, axed from the post by the party’s national leadership in 2008.
Since 2009 the province has been run by a caretaker leadership with a mandate to heal the internal rifts which have cost the party the province and the City of Cape Town.
Former provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha and Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Marius Fransman are said to be the front runners for the leadership.
The conference is taking place without voting delegates from the province’s largest region, Dullah Omar, which covers the city.
The region was unable to hold its conference before the provincial meeting. — Sapa