The KwaZulu-Natal ANC Youth League yesterday expressed disappointment in former league president Fikile Mbalula after he publicly expressed his disapproval of Ace Magashule’s endorsement for the position of ANC secretary-general.
Mbalula had tweeted that Magashule was a “definite no” as Gwede Mantashe’s successor, saying the Free State premier would “finish what is remaining of our movement, he will kill it”.
Last week, the ANC Youth League unveiled a list of its preferred candidates to take over the top ANC leadership positions at the party's elective conference in December.
This included Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma for president, David Mabuza for deputy president, Nathi Mthethwa as national chairperson, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane as treasurer-general and Jessie Duarte as deputy secretary-general.
The league said it wanted Mbalula to be the first ever second deputy secretary-general - a position which does not exist.
The KZN ANCYL chairperson Kwazi Mshengu said the league was disappointed that Mbalula, a former leader of the youth league, had expressed his views on a public platform like Twitter.
“We are speaking about someone here who has the phone numbers of the youth league leadership - from the president and even the majority of us - he has our numbers.
“If he had particular views on the matter he should have called us and let us engage rather than engaging us on social media,” said Mshengu.
He said the national executive committee of the youth league had agreed at its last meeting that an engagement with former leaders on the matter was necessary.
“Having said that, we respect his views and we think that we will get a proper platform to engage him on his views and we believe eventually we will find each other,” Mshengu said.
He also rubbished claims that the league’s list of preferred leaders had been dictated to it by the so-called premier league, saying it was a product of internal discussions.
“We think it is just something that is used to dirty what we have come up with as our preferred leadership.”
Mshengu said the league was still open to persuasion and was also expecting people with different views to engage them.
Mandla Shange, spokesperson for the ANCYL in KZN, said all members of the party had the right to participate in discussions about leadership and that was why the ANCYL had proposed Magashule’s name.