Why the ANC conference started so late

Delays in the registration and accreditation of candidates on the first day of the ANC’s elective conference in Nasrec mean that the party — and South Africans — will probably only know the outcome of its presidential election on Sunday night.

The programme had the announcement down for 24 hours earlier than that, but the highly contested registration process for the conference has thrown a spanner in the works.

The usually punctual President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his speech seven hours after the time originally scheduled (9.15am), and the closed sessions couldn’t proceed as all accredited candidates have to attend them.

“The problem was load-shedding,” one of the ANC’s media guys explained. “When you upload the information from the cloud and it cuts out, then it throws out the whole system.”

Another informed ANC source blamed the software, saying he wished the ANC had invested in better systems by now.

Another message that did the rounds claimed it was “the illegal Ace Magashule-aligned parallel structures from mostly [the] Free State that were trying to register as delegates”. This hasn’t been verified, but it is true that the suspended secretary-general — who isn’t allowed into the venue — was mobilising supporters on the perimeters of Nasrec, and it’s possible that he might try to influence the outcome of the conference.

Whatever the delay was with the accreditation, it was followed by attempts in the conference hall to disrupt Ramaphosa’s delivery of his political report, a 2½-hour speech on policy issues that at times sounded more like a state of the nation address than a speech to 4,000 party delegates.

The hecklers were mainly from KwaZulu-Natal. Their rowdiness eventually died down when provincial leader Siboniso Duma had words with some of the more troublesome individuals. “The province quickly realised that they were going to be marginalising themselves, so they sat down,” a senior figure from the province told the FM.

They did see Ramaphosa’s last, off-the-cuff sentence that the conference should exercise discipline and maintain political consciousness “instead of shouting at each other, instead of howling at each other” as their cue to do exactly the opposite of what Ramaphosa was pleading with delegates to do.

Former president Jacob Zuma, incidentally, timed his entry for the start of Ramaphosa’s speech, and Ramaphosa had to pause as the KZN delegates erupted.

There was a long silence from delegates after the initial heckling died down a few minutes into Ramaphosa’s speech, but it was significant to note the parts that did raise applause or heckles from the delegates.

The parts about advancing women’s leadership and bringing youth into the party got some applause, but it was talk of the electricity grid, state capture and unity that elicited the liveliest responses.

“Poor policy decisions in the past, together with inadequate maintenance, mismanagement, state capture and widespread corruption, have left our electricity system in a critical state,” Ramaphosa said.

He also spoke about the Zondo commission, and ensuring “that those responsible — wherever they may be located — face the full might of the law”.

He added: “We know that there will be resistance, but this must strengthen our resolve so we can protect and advance the gains of our revolution.”

This elicited more applause, with some lone calls of “Phala Phala”, referring to the scandal surrounding the theft of dollars at Ramaphosa’s private game farm.

Ramaphosa’s talk about unity within the party also proved popular, but the delegates were quieter when he talked about municipalities failing to maintain clean audits, and the need to reverse the party’s downward trend in elections.

Perhaps strategically, Ramaphosa skipped the paragraphs in his written speech that spoke about the rule that those within the party charged with serious crimes should step aside.

It’s perhaps just as well that he treads carefully around the step aside rule since the section 89 report by the independent panel appointed by parliament did find that he has a case to answer — and he might find himself subject to the rule some time in the near future too.

The stepping aside “pending the conclusion of criminal proceedings against [ANC leaders is] critical to the renewal of the movement and its standing in the eyes of society”, the hard copy read.

The mention of the words “step aside” would likely have triggered another hail of heckles anyway.

Ramaphosa’s detractors might, from the conference floor on Saturday morning, raise the issue or suggest a motion that the step aside rule be amended or scrapped before any nominations could begin.

This could prove crucial in getting people like Magashule back into the race.