Johannesburg - Thousands of ANC members are gathered at the Nasrec expo centre in Johannesburg for their 55th national conference where the race for the party’s presidency is mainly between Dr Zweli Mkhize and the incumbent, President Cyril Ramaphosa.
As a result, the programme has already been drawn up and is being circulated to members on registration.
According to the programme, by Saturday, if all goes according to plan, the party would have a new leadership duly elected by the delegates.
That’s not all.
On Friday the main proceedings of the day will be the nominations for top six officials and, of course, the tabling of the reports of the George Mashamba-led integrity commission (IC).
It is widely expected that the IC will table its report on the Phala Phala scandal that has entangled Ramaphosa and the Digital Vibes scandal that has entangled his competitor, Mkhize.
This will be done behind closed doors and out of the glare of the prying media contingent currently gathered there to beam the conference to the world.
However, two main activities of Friday will be opened to the media. The first open programme will be the delivering of the political report by Ramaphosa.
This is expected to start at 9am and drag on for three hours, finishing at noon.
Delegates will then break for lunch and come back to a closed session where they will adopt the conference’s programme, rules and electoral rules for the conference.
That will be followed by the credential adoption, a process that is usually contested by factions as that determines who is eligible to take part and vote in the conference.
This is expected to be heated as there are some branches whose presence in the conference is being challenged by the two main factions vying for party power.
The credentials tabling and adoption process will be led by NEC (national executive committee) member Senzo Mchunu.
After Mchunu, the stage will be surrendered to the party’s deputy president, David Mabuza, to present the organisational report that paints a picture of the party and its branches.
The climax of the day will be at 10pm when the electoral comittee opens the floor for members to start nominating their preferred candidates for the top six.
While branches have already picked Mkhize and Ramaphosa for the top position, this process opens the door to branches to nominate their candidates from the floor.
Should they meet the threshold, they will then be added to the ballot for top six positions and contest on equal footing with the two.
That would conclude the day and give delegates time to go and rest and prepare to start voting for the top six positions on Saturday morning.
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