Babalo Madikizela had made his intentions of wanting to leave government clear in May following his defeat against former ally Oscar Mabuyane in a race to become ANC provincial chairperson.

Nqakula said there is simply no other way to deal with the challenges raised by former secretary general Gwede Mantashe’s 2017 diagnostic report on the state of the organisation.

Those in his inner circle have told Eyewitness News that no vacuum would be created as the party’s president would not have any no-go zones.

KwaZulu-Natal officials have claimed that the rule is being used to target certain political opponents.

Its organisational report questions the whereabouts of the NEC – when its own members undermine the organisation in public and on social media.

Newly elected ANC KwaZulu-Natal chairperson, Siboniso Duma and four others won a tight race to lead the province to the ANC's December conference and toward the 2024 elections.

On Saturday Mashatile backtracked, telling journalists the party would hear from the presidency if Ramaphosa would be free to attend the event - this at odds with his confident response the previous day - claiming that Ramaphosa was indeed set to arrive and address the conference.

More than 1605 votes will be cast to elect the province’s top leadership.

Zikalala will face off with Siboniso Duma for chair - while secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli will fight it out with Bheki Mtolo for control of the ANC’s engine room - in the party's biggest province.

Zikalala addressed the contentious 2017 resolution during his political address at the conference on Friday.

Following a delayed start, the sticky point of credentials – which often results in conferences being delayed by days, has passed at a relatively seamless gathering of ANC members in KZN.

Zikalala has told the ANC KZN provincial conference - which kicked off on Friday night that bread-and-butter issues were at the core of the ANC’s continued loss of support.

Its ninth conference was expected to formally kick off at 10 am on Friday, but there's been little activity at the venue with delegates still queuing up to register.

The KwaZulu-Natal ANC conference is expected to go down to the wire with more than five proposed slates doing the rounds ahead of the start of the conference on Friday.

The six including, Nkomazi Mayor Johan Mkhatshwa, ignored ANC councillor selection process outcomes, which recommended Phindile Magagula as the preferred mayoral candidate.

The president sent his request on 15 July, which was denied on 18 July. He now has seven days to respond to the questions as the Chapter 9 institution invokes its subpoena powers in line with Section 7.4(a) of the Public Protector’s Act.

Insiders say a handshake and light banter between Ace Magashule and party president Cyril Ramaphosa at Duarte’s home on Sunday meant nothing in the greater battle for the soul of the ANC.