Butt out, Youth League tells ANC leaders

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Angry members of the ANC Youth League say failed verification processes and the interference of senior party members, including secretary general Fikile Mbalula, mean that this weekend’s conference, the league’s first in eight years, will not be legitimate. 

As of Thursday afternoon, several regions and two provinces had complained of an unfair audit process which they said would prevent their delegates from participating in the much-anticipated national youth league elective conference. 

While the ANC has signed off on the conference, with Mbalula telling the Mail & Guardian it would go ahead as planned, ANCYL members and leaders are considering taking the party to court. 

The youth league has not sat for a conference since 2015, when Collen Maine was chosen as president in what many considered a dubious election. Maine, who was favoured by the so-called “Premier League” — a powerful faction that included then North West premier Supra Mahumapelo, Mpumalanga’s David Mabuza and the Free State’s Ace Magashule — was elected, despite suggestions that he was too old to qualify as leader of the youth league.

Since then, the league has been unable to shake off its image of being the puppet of ANC party elders, without an agenda of its own.

In this year’s election, Gauteng’s Collen Malatji will take on Aphiwe Mkhangelwa for the post of president. They have accused each other of being a lapdog of the elders. 

Malatji’s close relationship with Mbalula has been a cause for concern among those contesting the election, as has Mkhangelwa’s ties to Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane. 

Claims that the two senior ANC leaders are behind the campaigns of the two candidates have been further fuelled by the outcome of the Eastern Cape ANCYL conference this week where another Mabuyane ally, Luntu Sokutu, was elected, unopposed, as the provincial chair. 

Just hours after his election, Sokutu proclaimed Mkhangelwa the province’s preferred candidate for league president, rejecting another Eastern Cape top-six contender Mntuwoxolo Ngudle, who is in Malatji’s camp and hopes to be elected secretary general.

Sokutu said Ngudle would be fully supported should the conference back him but added that there was no indication he had received endorsement for the position.

Ngudle’s camp is said to be supported by Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams who, until recently, was Mabuyane’s ally, but is now said to be aligned to Eastern Cape secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi. 

Ngcukayitobi and Mbalula were against the sitting of the Eastern Cape conference. 

A letter that Mbalula sent to the ANCYL in the province — seen by the M&G — said its planned congress had not been duly and properly authorised. Mbalula said there was no evidence that the required audits had been done or the requisite verification reports issued.

Audits are required to verify whether branches have conducted their general meetings and meet the requirements to select their preferred candidates. They also allow branches to register their delegates for participation at the elective conference. Without verification, a branch is not eligible to take part.

Mbalula’s nullification of the Eastern Cape conference has raised the ire of those supporting Mkhangelwa. According to them, the ANC secretary general — along with Mdu Manana, who heads the dispute resolutions committee — have frustrated the process. 

In Vhembe, Limpopo, warring factions in the youth league have caused regional officials to take legal action. 

A legal letter was sent to the league’s national task team, as well as the ANC headquarters Luthuli House, threatening to take the league to court over the audit process. 

Vhembe has declared Mkhangelwa its  preferred candidate. 

According to the regional leaders, ANCYL Vhembe’s secretary has refused to release the conference packages. 

“Therefore, we are writing this letter again because we have noted that the process of auditing has assumed and no one has attempted to resolve our issues as yet and as a result this might jeopardise our chances to participate in the upcoming conference,” the letter said. 

It added that the region would not “hesitate to contact the court of laws” if the letter was ignored. 

Vhembe chairperson Tumelo Siliga told the M&G the majority of branches in the region had been deliberately excluded. Siliga said attempts to contact Mbalula had failed, necessitating the legal letter. 

“There is too much intervention from the elders. To have Mdu Manana even be recognised and be given a platform in a task team meeting already tells you something is not normal,” he said.

“Some of us have been in the congress movement for long enough to know that we run our own affairs but right now the ANC and certain comrades are too involved.” 

Siliga said it was suspected that bogus delegates would represent the region at the elective conference. 

“They just take people and say, ‘You are going to be a delegate this weekend.’ No proper audits were done; it’s only just a thuggery of the ANCYL processes.”

He said the outcome of the conference, which is meant to draw 127 delegates from Vhembe, would not be legitimate. 

Western Cape ANCYL convenor Beulah Hewu, whose province has experienced its own challenges, said audit processes had also not been concluded there. 

“We hear that they are registering delegates. But, before this process, the structure that is holding a congress must have been furnished with an audit report,” Hewu said.

“Who are these delegates that are being registered, because the task team has not been furnished with an audit report? The ANCYL must first deal with that process properly. 

“If we are going to speak about this congress, the elders are interfering. We are sitting here currently because of the elders interfering.” 

Sedibeng regional leader Jabu Maitse said about 75 delegates from the region could not participate in the conference, due to the unfair verification process. 

Maitse had written to Luthuli House informing the party that parallel structures had taken over the process. 

“I think we are excluded because of the fact that we might not be seen supporting any candidate. 

“Ours is about the rebuilding and renewal of the organisation. We want to make sure the ANCYL is what it was popularly known as and not the ANCYL that will fight the battles of the elders in the ANC,” Maitse said. 

Newly elected Eastern Cape ANCYL secretary Bongani Mani wrote to Mbalula on Thursday, calling on him to refrain from interfering in the league’s processes. 

“The ANC secretary general’s excessive intrusion into the affairs of the ANCYL provincial executive committee (PEC) without engaging the relevant structures is unwarranted and without merit,” Mani wrote.

“Accordingly, the ANCYL PEC requests the ANC secretary general to exercise a measure of deference and not encroach on the ANCYL [task team’s] performance of its functions. 

“Therefore, the ANC secretary general is advised to allow the [youth league task team] to deal with matters pertaining to the Eastern Cape provincial congress, should [it] wish to do so. 

“The ANCYL PEC records that there has been no decision nullifying the provincial Congress. Accordingly, the newly elected ANCYL PEC remains legitimate,” Mani added.