Over 400 delegates won’t be allowed to vote for new ANC leader

A total of 410 delegates will not have a chance to elect a new leader after the ANC scrutinised and finalised the list of eligible voting delegates.

The number of voters dropped from 5‚186 to 4‚776.

This comes after the party's leaders put effect to three court judgments that disqualified a number of delegates from the Free State‚ KwaZulu-Natal and North West's Bojanala region after their respective provincial and regional conferences as well as branch general meetings were found to have been improperly constituted.

Despite expectations of a protracted tussle over credentials‚ ANC delegates adopted credentials without much hassle on Sunday morning.

This paves the way for delegates to nominate their preferred candidates for the top six positions‚ including the much anticipated clash between Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Announcing the adoption of the credentials‚ ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte said Saturday’s delay in dealing with credentials was to ensure the integrity of the conference‚ which ends on Wednesday.

"It is not unusual to delay credentials. We do it for the integrity of the conference‚" said Duarte.

Duarte assured the media that‚ contrary to reports‚ delegate numbers had not been inflated.

She revealed that the conference would now move onto proposed constitutional amendments and hopefully begin leadership nominations and then elections later on Sunday afternoon.

Elections results are expected to be announced on Monday morning.

Among the proposed constitutional amendments is the expansion of the top six structure to include either an additional deputy president as well as one or two more deputy secretaries general.