WATCH: Man tries to storm stage as Ramaphosa addresses ANC branches in North West

Chaos erupted when an unidentified man ran into the auditorium and tried to storm the stage where President Cyril Ramaphosa was sitting in the Mmabatho Convention Centre, in the North West, on Saturday.

The man was quickly manhandled by the presidential protection unit and removed from the venue.

Screams of “tshwara motho o” (grab that person) could be heard in the auditorium.

North West provincial chairperson Nono Maloyi claimed the man was mentally challenged.

Watch: Man attempts to run onto the stage where Ramaphosa is seated

ANC branches raise grievances

The top seven of the ANC and the National Working Committee (NWC) are in the North West to try and resolve some of the grievances raised by branches in the province.

Some branch members have raised concerns about poor service delivery because the municipalities are broke.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa in North West to try resolve ANC factional issues

They have also accused ANC councillors of working with opposition parties where the ANC is in a coalition.

They accused the councillors of furthering agendas of their coalition partners rather than those of the ANC.

Some of them have also accused ANC members coming late to council sittings, not submitting sticking notes and deviating from the mandate of the party in council.

Ramaphosa will later address the branches after the grievances are submitted.

ALSO READ: Court dismisses ANC NW members’ bid to set aside provincial conference

ANC members’ court bid dismissed

On Wednesday, the North West High Court in Mahikeng rejected a bid by disgruntled ANC members to overturn last year’s provincial elective conference.

In October last year, ANC members in the province lodged a legal challenge after alleging that they had been removed from the first and second leg of the conference, and that delegates who were not on the list had been substituted in their place.

Nono Maloyi was elected as the party’s provincial chair at the conference.

The members, however, wanted the high court to declare the 9th ANC provincial conference unlawful and to invalidate all the decisions taken at the conference.

One of the applicants, Sello Molefe, accused ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile, who was the governing party’s acting secretary-general at the time, of perjury, fraud and forgery.

Molefe alleged that Mashatile misled the North West High Court in Mahikeng when he submitted an alleged falsified affidavit to justify the reappointment of the then North West interim provincial committee (IPC) after its term had expired.