Johannesburg – The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) on Thursday called for the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party to go to an early uncontested conference in a bid to have a frank dialogue about the party’s fortunes and rediscover its glory again.
“It is our view that the ANC must go to an early conference,” ANCYL secretary-general, Njabulo Nzuza said.
“The ANC Youth League believes that all the current NEC members must come to an early conference to account. The early conference must not be contested and there is a need to introduce young leaders to the officials and the overall leadership contingent of the ANC.”
The ANC is scheduled to hold an elective conference in December next year where new leadership would be elected.
The call for an early conference comes as the ruling party’s support haemorrhaged heavily in the recent local government elections, with the party losing control of key metros in the country, including the Nelson Mandela Bay.
The ANCYL reiterated the mother body’s stance of “collective responsibility” on the outcome of the elections, but said the situation could have been avoided if ANC had delivered on its promised and resolved policy positions in issues such as free higher education and the scraping of e-tolls.
The ANCYL said the election results were a sign of the discontent the people felt about the ANC, saying the organisation needed to transform and change the way it handled issues for it to live long.
“As the ANC Youth League, we can not absolve ourselves from contributing to the discontent our people have about the ANC and they have shown it by not appearing on the voting stations when the ANC needed them the most,” Nzuza said.
“The results are also as a result of incapacity of the ANC to adapt and change our organisational design to respond to the needs of society in a speedily manner.”
The ANCYL also blamed the manipulation of candidate lists processes among some of its members, saying they would be investigated and expelled if found guilty.
“The ANC Youth League notes that there were a number of incidences of manipulating processes, this created disunity in the organisation,” Nzuza said.
“The culprits who manipulated processes must be dealt [with] thoroughly, especially in Gauteng. They must be expelled, they do not respect the organisation, they misled the organisation, they are selfish. This overhaul must start from the bottom right to the highest office dealing with the lists.”
The ANCYL said it was time that those who were corrupt to suffer the consequences, saying the organisation must deal with the people who tainted the its image those found guilty of corruption expelled.
“The ANC can not be defined as corrupt because of people who are self serving and end up tainting the ANC and its integrity,” Nzuza said.
“There are people who taint the name of the organisation busy drinking champagne and expensive whisky whilst they taint the name of our glorious movement.”
African News Agency