The organising of the African National Congress' Eastern Cape conference will no longer be left to the provincial executive committee (PEC) alone, the party said.

Members of the movement's national executive task team, which was deployed in the province since last year, would head preparations for the conference.

The team would also look at the finalisation of the process leading to the OR Tambo regional conference which has been re-scheduled to the end of February.

Both the provincial and OR Tambo conferences were nullified by the party's national executive committee following reports of electoral irregularities last year.

Provincial spokesman Phaki Hobongwana confirmed that a special committee comprising ANC national chairman Mosiuoa Lekota, Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe, Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza and five office bearers from the provincial leadership was formed to handle preparations.

The committee would also be responsible for deploying leadership to attend to branch general meetings, which must occur before the provincial conference.

He said the exact date and venue for the conference would be determined at the next PEC meeting or a gathering of office bearers.

Hobongwana stressed that only branches audited last September would be allowed to send delegates to the provincial conference.

Newly launched branches and members recruited after the September audit would not be counted as part of a branch meeting quorum.

"We will be working with the old statistics used at the nullified provincial conference," Hobongwana said.

He said the business of the conference would concentrate on new issues, but delegates would not be prevented from revisiting previous matters - Sapa.