ANC55: Accreditation crisis on first day of conference

ANC delegates are yet to arrive at the Nasrec conference venue as accreditation problems persist on the first day of the five-day gathering.

According to the programme issued to the media on Friday, the conference was scheduled to get underway at 8:30am.

However, by 10:30am, nothing was happening.

Owed to the delays, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s political report address will only start at 2pm.

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Massive delays

National spokesperson Pule Mabe held a briefing, but failed to elaborate on why conference was running late.

According to insiders, accreditation crisis caused the delays.

Those who managed to get accredited waited for transport hours on end.

At Ormonde, just a stone’s throw from Nasrec, delegates waited in vain for accreditation.

The conference could only start after lunchtime, said a source who wanted to remain anonymous.

“It’s a mess; nothing is working properly there,” she said.

“There was no preparation, really. And load shedding added to the mess. Ormonde accreditation center is a crisis as we speak.”

Speaking to Radio 702, the ANC Veterans’ League convener Snuki Zikalala confirmed that some delegates were late to arrive at the conference due to transport arriving late.

Zikalala said the ANC underestimated the number of delegates that would arrive at the conference.

It is understood the delays over accreditations was due to load shedding and system failures on Thursday.

Over 4 000 voting delegates are expected at Nasrec.

Additional reporting by Thapelo Lekabe.