For the past few days‚ Khaya Sithole has been eloquently sharing his political wisdoms on the ANC national conference on news channel eNCA.

But on Wednesday even he threw his hands up as the drama around the election of party secretary general dragged on for another frustrating day.

"It's official people. We have given up trying to make sense of this election fiasco‚" Sithole said.

Free State leader Ace Magashule beat Senzo Mchunu for the key post‚ according to election results released on Monday.

It later emerged there was a dispute over 68 votes that had gone missing‚ raising the spectre of legal action. Other reports suggested that the steering committee of the conference had resolved the standoff.

By midday on Wednesday‚ it had become increasingly difficult to make head or tail of the conflicting reports – even for astute analysts.