Durban - The ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial conference is now likely be converted into a consultative or non-elective meeting following the Pietermaritzburg High Court’s decision barring the elective conference from going ahead.
The convenor of the ANC provincial task team, Mike Mabuyakhulu said the consultative conference will deal with the election strategy and focus on how to implement resolutions taken at the ANC’s national conference held in Nasrec.
However some branches were not receptive to the idea saying they want to elect the new leadership of the party in the province.
Some members made their feelings clear through songs at the venue. “Uma inkomfa yethu ingahlali kuzoliwa (if our conference does not go ahead there will be war),” sang a group of delegates at the hall.
Video: Bheki Mbanjwa/Politics Hub.
A delegate who took the mic to address fellow delegates said ANC members cannot be dictated to by courts and swore that the branch delegates will see to it that the conference continues and will not leave the venue.
"We were sent here by the branches and we won't be told by the court what to do just because a few individuals have approached the court because things are not going their way in the branches of the ANC," eThekwini region's Mthokozisi Nojiyeza said.
"Comrades let's remain disciplined and not go anywhere because the conference will sit."
By 7.30pm ANC delegates were still milling around the University of Zululand’s main campus, many unsure of the implications of the court decision.
Some provincial leaders had convened impromptu meetings to discuss the court ruling.
ANC member Bheki Cele is one of the leaders attending the conference.
A delegate who did not want to be named said Friday's court application was a clear sign that unity in the party was a farce.