Accreditation shambles at Northern Cape elective conference

DAY one of the provincial elective conference of the ANC in the Northern Cape was plagued by logistical problems‚ with the electronic system used for accrediting delegates delaying proceedings for much of yesterday.

By 1pm‚ more than half of the 700 delegates expected to participate in the conference had not taken up their seats as the accrediting system struggled to function optimally.

“The electronic system keeps crashing,” one of the officials managing the process said.

“We have to reboot it now and then and that takes a lot of time.

“We’ve had to prioritise PEC members as well as voting delegates for accreditation, while everyone else will get theirs later.”

When journalists arrived at the accreditation venue on Wednesday night‚ the details of delegates‚ guests and the media were being captured manually.

Accreditation tag pictures were being taken by a single photographer, who then had to remove the memory card from the camera each time‚ hand it to another official to download the image onto the system and prepare to take the next person’s image.

The first day of the conference got off on a divisive note following a surprise cabinet reshuffle by premier Sylvia Lucas on Wednesday.

Outgoing provincial secretary Zamani Saul‚ who is tipped to win the provincial chairmanship‚ reacted angrily to the reshuffle.

He said the provincial executive committee of the ANC had not been consulted by Lucas and that there would be consequences after this weekend’s conference.

The chairman’s position is vacant following the resignation of John Block after he was convicted of fraud and corruption related to government tenders.

Lucas is expected to challenge Saul in the contest for the provincial chairmanship and is believed to have the backing of the pro-Jacob Zuma grouping while Saul is on the opposing side and is backing Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The deputy president is due to deliver the keynote address at the provincial congress today.

Lucas is said to be backing Dr Nkosana Dlamini-Zuma while Saul has publicly backed Ramaphosa to succeed Zuma when the ANC elects new leaders in December. – TMG Digital/TimesLIVE