The first leg of the African National Congress' policy conference is a consultative process, with various independent organisations said to attend – but it seems that nobody important got an invite, or they've declined the invitation.
At a press conference on Thursday, ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe said the first two days will focus on an engagement with faith-based organisations, veterans and stalwarts, academics and members of the organised business sector.
But it seems all the big names in these groupings aren't attending – so the question remains, who is?
HuffPost South Africa spoke to members from the following organisations who either said they were not invited, or were invited but are not attending:
- The South African Council of Churches;
- The National Religious Association for Social Development
- The National Religious Leaders' Forum;
- Treatment Action Campaign;
- Corruption Watch;
- Section 27;
- The Banking Association of South Africa;
- Business Leadership South Africa;
- Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa); and
- Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac).
Mantashe said 30 members will also be deployed from the alliance partners, the South African Communist Party and COSATU.
The conference will begin on Friday and will continue until Wednesday next week.