Despite an attempt by the African National Congress to warn off challengers, Ebrahim Rasool will be challenged this weekend for the leadership of the party in the Western Cape.
Provincial organiser Mvusi Madala confirmed on Friday that the names of both Rasool and national MP James Ngculu would appear on the ballot paper handed to delegates at a provincial conference in Cape Town on Saturday morning.
Madala said Ngculu, who is a former ANC provincial secretary, had received more than the minimum ten pre-conference nominations from branches necessary for his name to appear on the ballot.
Ngculu, who on Thursday confirmed that he intended to fight Rasool for the chairmanship, said on Friday afternoon he had not been approached to stand down.
He had had a discussion with ANC national working committee member Zola Skweyiya, but that had been about "other issues", he said.
"This doesn't depend on anyone except the branches of the ANC," he said.
On Thursday Skweyiya issued what he initially told journalists was "an order" - though he later downgraded it to a "preference" - that no-one should stand against Rasool.
Skweyiya told journalists that the part expected "stability politically, and continuity in the province" and that people who had been exercising leadership in the province "remain where they are".
One of the national leadership's concerns is to retain a hold on the coloured vote in the Western Cape, which in the past has been ruled by the National Party and the Democratic Alliance.
Ngculu is seen as a member of the camp of current provincial secretary and Transport MEC Mcebisi Skwatsha, who has been engaged in a battle for the political high ground with Rasool.
The conflict included a public row about Skwatsha's use of provincial funds to boost his image.
The conference, the province's fifth, will be attended by 550 voting delegates from 238 branches.
It comes ahead of the ANC's national general council in Pretoria at the end of this month. - Sapa