Pretoria – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has sent his best wishes to the ANC for a successful elective conference which has already been mired by the Eastern Cape provincial conference held this weekend past. 
 
During his opening remarks of the annual Bi-National Commission held in Pretoria on Tuesday, Mugabe said the ANC should not be torn.

“We wish the ANC every success at the congress so that it can continue into the future, breed and strengthened,” said Mugabe. 

He added that the ANC played an integral role as a liberator on the African continent. 

In the build-up to the national elective conference, the Eastern Cape held its provincial elective conference over the weekend which was embroiled in a factional spat while KZN took the provincial executive committee to court over the validity of the 2015 elective conference. 

WATCH: Violence erupts at ANC Eastern Cape conference

The Eastern Cape conference started on the wrong foot after members disrupted events on Friday night, while others who attempted to storm the venue on Saturday night had to be dispersed with stun grenades. 

Violence erupted at the conference in the early hours of the morning on Sunday, during the adoption of delegates’ credentials. 

Seven delegates were taken to hospital and one was wheeled out of the conference venue on a stretcher. Footage obtained by News24 showed delegates throwing chairs at each other. 

Meanwhile, the party’s national executive committee (NEC) was working towards resolving problems faced by the KZN provincial leadership.

Several ANC KZN members took their provincial executive committee (PEC) to court to challenge the validity of the 2015 elective conference. 

The Pietermaritzburg High Court found the conference and the election of the PEC unlawful.

The KZN PEC is currently appealing the judgment.