Some 4000 delegates were expected to arrive in Bloemfontein on Saturday for the inaugural conference of South Africa's latest political movement, the Congress of the People (Cope).

The conference with the theme "A New Agenda For Change and Hope" will start at the University of the Free State's Bloemfontein campus on Sunday.

The conference will end on Tuesday, 16 December ? South Africa's Day of Reconciliation.

On Saturday, registering will take place at the Vista University Campus.

The inaugural conference follows a Pretoria High Court ruling, on Friday, that Cope can use the name 'Congress of the People'.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) opposed the name in court.

The ANC argued that no party or person could exclusively appropriate the name of the Congress of the People, an event in 1955 where the Freedom Charter was born.

The court held that Cope's use of the name Congress of the People did not convey a false message.

After the ruling, Cope's deputy chairman Mbhazima Shilowa said party delegates would arrive in Bloemfontein in high spirits.

"The people of South Africa are beginning to see new dawn beginning, a new agenda, a new hope for our country," he said.

The ANC has indicated it would appeal the high court's decision.