Being vertically challenged myself, I can say this: Sihle Zikalala, the chairman of the disputed ANC leadership in KwaZulu-Natal, is a very short man.
But don't let his height deceive you, for Zikalala is no political dwarf.
On the shoulders of this diminutive figure from KwaSonkombo, Ndwedwe - on the rural outskirts of Durban - rest the hopes of scores of ANC members and followers who want to see Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma succeed President Jacob Zuma in December.
As the leader of the party's biggest province, Zikalala will lead the biggest delegation to the elective conference to be held at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg, just before Christmas.By the time he finished speaking, more than half the delegates were on their feet cheering him on. If anyone had still been in doubt about who between Mbeki and Zuma had the most support, those doubts would have vanished by the time Zikalala returned to his seat.
I ask Zikalala if he remembers the incident and why the league objected to the voting method that was being proposed by Luthuli House.
"We had a serious feeling that if we allow this electronic counting we were going to have a problem because ... if people are not observing and participating, you will then have doubts [about the result]. We then said let's vote manually and count manually, which was contested, but at the end all of us agreed."
It is Friday night and we are at a hotel at OR Tambo International where Zikalala has agreed to meet us. He is on his way to Pretoria for the funeral of Lumka Lubisi, wife of Cassius Lubisi, director-general in the Presidency.
I point out to Zikalala that of those who were most vocal in campaigning for Zuma ahead of 2007, he is now the only prominent one still in the president's corner.
Zwelinzima Vavi, Blade Nzimande and many others are now Zuma critics while the likes of Fikile Mbalula can no longer be described as being part of the inner circle.
Does this make Zikalala Zuma's most trusted henchman?
He denies it and insists that many of those who backed Zuma's bid in 2007 are still with him.
COMMITTED TO NDZ
"The crew that was there is still there and working closely with the president. Vavi is not there because you know he is not even at Cosatu now. So he will not be close to the president of the ANC because of his position. Blade might not be close now because of recent issues with the SACP taking a particular posture towards the president," Zikalala says.
He may not admit it but the circle of Zuma admirers in the ANC has certainly become smaller, making it harder for Zikalala and others to sell the president's preferred successor to party structures.
Even in KwaZulu-Natal, a province that went to the last two national conferences to vote as a bloc for Zuma, there are branches that are opposed to Dlamini-Zuma.
There are those who support Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to become the next president while others say the position should be given to ANC treasurer-general, Zweli Mkhize.
But Zikalala says he is confident of a Dlamini-Zuma victory.
ACCEPTABLE DISSENT
"We support Comrade Nkosazana. I think she is going to emerge.
"But if it was to happen that someone else were to be elected, we'll then as ANC members support anyone who is elected," says Zikalala.He admits, however, that the province will not go to Nasrec 100% behind Dlamini-Zuma.
"If you saw our provincial general council going to the policy conference we were more than united. If you saw our contribution at the policy conference itself, KwaZulu-Natal was united.
"There will be of course a few comrades who will want to vote for someone [else]. That's acceptable.
"In an organisation you must not suppress the dissenting views. But I speak with confidence that the overwhelming majority is of the view that supports Comrade Nkosazana."
But why her, I ask. Is he just doing what Zuma wants, or does he genuinely believe that Dlamini-Zuma is what a divided ANC needs going into what is likely to be the tightest general election yet in 2019?
He replies that he has four reasons for supporting Dlamini-Zuma:
She is senior to the other candidates - "She is one of those who are senior in the movement after the generation of presidents Mbeki and Zuma." I notice that he fails to mention Baleka Mbete or Jeff Radebe, who are also candidates and joined the ANC around the same time as Dlamini-Zuma in the 1970s.
She is above ANC factions - "Among all the candidates who are said to be campaigning, she is the only one who is saying if she's not elected she will support anyone elected."
She demonstrated that she has the courage to take on big corporations when she was health minister - "She managed to lead the banning of cigarette advertising. There was resistance from those who were involved in the business."
And she is the only leader fit to advance "radical economic transformation" - "She has courage and is very firm on principles and the vision of the organisation."
Zikalala then says that if Dlamini-Zuma was not available for the post, he would not back any of the other candidates.
"In fact, if it wasn't for her we would have gone down to the young leaders of the ANC from the youth league, and looked for leaders from there, because we need people who are not going to compromise now. We must take this battle where it belongs, we can't afford sustaining the status quo."But what is wrong with Ramaphosa?
He evades the question. "I'm not going to discuss other people. At the youth league [event] one comrade said Cyril was part of Marikana, I corrected this thing on the spot ... I would not speak about other leaders. But I will speak about the one I think is a potential leader and why I choose that person."
Is KwaZulu-Natal opposed to Ramaphosa just because he is not from the province? Is this not fuelling the perception that top ANC leadership in the post-apartheid era is reserved for Ngunis?
The question irks him.
"If that question is fair we should have asked that question when president Tambo was stepping down ... handing over to Madiba. Why a leader from the Eastern Cape was replacing another leader from the Eastern Cape.
"We should have also asked that question when president Mandela was stepping down with Thabo Mbeki taking over. In the ANC this thing of looking at things through regionalism ... We are a unitary organisation. It's not about where you come from."
Actually, Mandela did ask that question. In the run-up to the announcement of his cabinet in 1994, he wanted Ramaphosa as his deputy precisely because he was concerned about such perceptions.
KZN KEEPS IT IN THE FAMILY 
In a soon-to-be-released book, Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years, co-authored by Mandela and Mandla Langa, Mbeki confirms that Mandela told him that he "thought that Cyril should be deputy president" because he feared that a perception would be created that one ethnic group was "monopolising power".
The talk of a Plan B - that Zuma backers would switch support to Mkhize if the Dlamini-Zuma campaign falters - is not helping to dispel the perception that the KwaZulu-Natal ANC wants to keep the presidency in the province.
But Zikalala strongly denies that there is a Plan B. He says the Mkhize campaign did approach him for support but he sent them packing because all KwaZulu-Natal wanted was Dlamini-Zuma.
"I want to be honest - there will be no Plan B in our approach. From the point of the province, we don't have a Plan B. We've got Plan A and it's Plan A until the end."I held a number of discussions with comrades who held a view that Comrade Zweli must be the president, and I had to be honest that the organisation is feeling that Comrade Nkosazana must be the president, let's give her a chance."
As we are still talking about this, Mkhize appears in the room - seemingly from out of the blue. He and Zikalala warmly greet each other, shaking hands, laughing and exchanging a few words, betraying no indication that they are in the middle of a highly emotional political contest.
Mkhize, it seems, is at the hotel for a different engagement.
Zikalala tells me that despite their political differences, he enjoys a cordial relationship with Mkhize.
What of Senzo Mchunu, the former ANC provincial chairman with whom Zikalala has been fighting over the past two years?
"I was a deputy to Comrade Senzo. We worked very well with Comrade Senzo and I would say that I learnt a lot from him. Given the fact that I had not been in the province from 2004 to at least 2008, when I came back we worked very well. As the provincial secretary he never had doubts to delegate tasks to me and we always supported each other."
WATCH THE CAMP FOLLOWERS
Zikalala says there were attempts to resolve the differences between himself and Mchunu ahead of the 2015 conference, but people around them were so divided that it became impossible to find an amicable solution.
"We tried to talk, but the situation unfortunately could not be resolved."..