Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa had by yesterday been nominated by five provinces to become the ANC president, while his opponent Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma received support from four provinces.
KwaZulu-Natal province, nominated Dlamini-Zuma at its provincial general council (PGC) last night.
Dlamini-Zuma has also received support from the Free State, North West and Mpumalanga.
Ramaphosa has received backing from the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Limpopo and Northern Cape.
It is not clear who is leading the national race, though.
At conference the leagues, made up of the ANC Youth League and ANC Women's League, and uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association, still have to vote.
This is also the case with the provincial executive committees and the national executive committee (NEC), apart from delegates.
Yesterday, the ANC Limpopo PGC in Polokwane almost degenerated into chaos when a delegate was thrown out of the meeting by security.
But calm was restored when Ramaphosa was announced as the preferred candidate to lead the ANC.
Ramaphosa received 391 votes, while Dlamini-Zuma secured 104. Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu was nominated as deputy president with 189 votes and outgoing ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe as national chairman with 384 votes.
Former ANC KwaZulu-Natal chairman Senzo Mchunu was nominated to take over as secretary-general with 379 votes, while ANC Gauteng chairman Paul Mashatile received 377 votes for the position of treasurer-general.
The tension was clear throughout the proceedings with Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma supporters shouting at one another.
ANC NEC member Thoko Didiza's pleas to delegates went unheeded.
"To have a preference is okay but we can't degenerate to a process where we have insults," Didiza told delegates.
ANC Limpopo chairman and premier Stan Mathabatha, a known Ramaphosa ally, pleaded with delegates to stop singing derogatory songs.
"We are comrades of the ANC here and we must listen to each other," Mathabatha said.
As Mathabatha took to the podium to deliver an opening address, some delegates booed him. His speech was disrupted when delegates from Sekhukhune region entered the venue singing.
This angered the Dlamini-Zuma supporters who demanded that Mathabatha call them to order.
Mathabatha took a swipe at President Jacob Zuma, saying South Africans should learn from Zimbabwe that no leader should be allowed to be more powerful than his party. "It should not be difficult to call a leader to account. Leaders should still be subjected to discipline when they have erred.
"The other lesson is that leaders should not be surrounded by praise singers."
Mathabatha also spoke about unity, telling delegates that the province would be
behind whoever gets elected at the national elective conference next week.
ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte agreed with Mathabatha: "It does not matter who emerges as a leader of the ANC.
"Without the ANC that person will not be anything."
Duarte said ill-discipline was not going to be tolerated at the national conference. "What happened here today is unfortunate," she added.