A battle is brewing between ANC Women’s League’s (ANCWL) national leadership and its newly elected KwaZulu-Natal top brass.

At the centre of the dispute is the national leadership’s position that the voting processes during the ANCL KZN conference a week ago have not been concluded, given that about 27 delegates were yet to cast their votes.

The 27 outstanding votes could alter the outcome of the conference as some of the newly elected ANCWL KZN top five leaders defeated their rivals by a small margin. This includes the chairperson, Nonhlanhla Khoza – who is also the Social Development MEC – who defeated her rival, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Bongi Sithole-Moloi, with less than ten votes.

According to ANCWL national executive committee (NEC) member, Pemmy Majodina, who oversaw the conference, the results announced last week were not final.

“Yes, the top five have been elected, but they are elected pending the finalisation of the elections.”

However, despite the uncertainty about the inclusion of the 27 delegates into the voter’s roll, the newly elected KZN top five leadership structure is forging ahead with its programme.

Over the weekend, the leadership held its first meeting.

A member of the provincial top five leadership structure, who did not want to speak on the record, warned of ‘consequences’ should the national leadership continue with voting processes for the 27 delegates.

“There were more than 1 200 delegates who voted during the conference. Also, the conference was duly closed. In the ANC you do not reopen conferences, particularly to accommodate 27 people — irrespective of the circumstances which rendered them unable to vote during the course of the conference.”

“In any ANC conference, errors do happen. There have also been errors in the recent women’s league’s national conference where some of the voting delegates were not able to cast their votes.

“Reopening a conference just because of 27 people who for one reason or the other could not vote is unprecedented in the ANC and the ANCWL,” the source said.

Newly elected provincial secretary, Zama Sokhabase, said as far as the new provincial leadership was concerned, the conference has been closed.

“As I speak, we are having our first meeting. We are not talking about the reopening of any conference. However, if there is that kind of talk, it is likely that it’s happening at the level of the national leadership and certainly not here within the provincial leadership.