Some members of the African National Congress (ANC) in Mpumalanga are unhappy with the decision made by the ANC Women's League for nominating former Mpumalanga Agriculture MEC Mandla Msibi for the position of treasurer and chairperson at the party’s elective conference that is underway.

Msibi, who has been accused of murder and attempted murder, said if he wins the nomination he will make himself available for the position.

However, some party members feel that his nomination is a way of opposing the step-aside rule that was put in place by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

A Provincial Task Team (PTT) member said that nominating Msibi was akin to allowing criminals to lead the ANC, and that it prompted zero future for the role.

While the conference proceeds, many members of the ANC from different branches are against the conference going ahead due to the issue of unelected delegates.

One of the disgruntled members, Mlungisi Mkhabela, was stunned to find unelected delegates from his ward that were nominated by branch members.

"The issue is that my branch – and not only it, but wards 3, ward 8, ward 10, 11 and 13 – we have a dispute regarding the issue of delegates. In my case we never [had a branch general meeting] to elect delegates, but here we've got delegates while we never elected any," he said.

Mkhabela said that the issue was raised with both provincial and national leadership but the matter was not resolved.

"We’ve been here since ten in the morning, trying to get the last year to assist regarding this matter but we still have not found help. We therefore would like for the conference to discontinue because we will never recognise the leadership that will be elected here, because of this problem,” he said.