Some ANC branches in KwaZulu-Natal have indicated they want the country's axed police commissioner Bheki Cele to lead the party.

The ANC's provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala said: "Some of our branches, they've said to us they are nominating his name and we've said we've got no problem. There is nothing that precludes his nomination."

However, he rejected recent media reports claiming that Cele was campaigning for the job.

"Many people have written in newspapers saying that Bheki Cele is running a campaign against President Zuma. There is no such campaign."

He said that he had been to various branches with Cele and had not witnessed him doing any campaigning. He said that no evidence of Cele conducting a campaign had been forthcoming.

President Jacob Zuma fired General Bheki Cele because of role in the awarding of a R1.7 billion contract for police accommodation. The former national police commissioner is engaged in a court battle to attempt to get his job back after he was dismissed in June.

Zikalala said the African National Congress was not "fixated or obsessed" with the selection of the leaders at the party's 53rd national conference in Mangaung in December.

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal would hold its nominating conference on November 24. Zikalala said branch delegates would then consolidate nominations for the party's national conference.

The province would send 974 branch delegates, elected by the party's 828 branches in the province, to the nominating event.

He said although the party had hoped to achieve an audited membership of 350,000 before the nomination process, he was satisfied with the current 331,020 ANC members in the province.