Johannesburg - The inquiry into the SABC was a “soap opera” and the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) in eThekwini would call for policy amendments to allow Hlaudi Motsoeneng to be elected as an national executive committee (NEC) member.
ANCYL eThekwini regional secretary Thinta Cibane said this at a media conference in Durban on Friday, when the league called on the SABC and Motsoeneng to appeal this week’s Western Cape High Court judgment that found Motsoeneng’s appointment unlawful and irrational.
“If a person is promoted to a certain position and leaves their old position, when the promotion is set aside, how does that affect his previous position held before the promotion? We believe the court in this case was used to further narrow political interests of those rejected by the election.
“We call upon Mr Motsoe* eng and the SABC to appeal this judgment as it flies in the face of irrationality and borders on legal thuggery,” he said.
Asked if Motsoeneng qualified for a position in the NEC of the ANC because it was unlikely he had been a member for 10 years as stipulated by ANC policies, ANCYL eThekwini chairman Thembo Ntuli said the clause was in place to “hinder young people”.
“The ANC leadership must get younger.
“We want to amend the policy before the election of the new leadership, as we did when we amended the youth league constitution to allow for 40 members from 30.
“If the young people want him to be in the NEC, why must he be stopped?” he said.
Ntuli said the ANCYL would lobby for Motsoeneng tirelessly and without fear.
The Youth League also slammed opposition parties and Media Monitoring Africa, who told the inquiry that the ANC received too much coverage on SABC.
“Underpinned in this inquiry is the belief that the ANC enjoys too much coverage within the platforms of the SABC and as such those who make this possible must be discredited and painted with a brush of incompetence,” said Cibane.
The ANCYL had harsh words for Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize, with the former having raised his hand this week for nomination to succeed President Jacob Zuma as ANC president.
Mkhize is tipped to vie for the deputy presidency on Ramaphosa’s slate.
Ntuli had stern words for Mkhize and Ramaphosa: “There are no Zweli constituencies in KZN, there are members of the ANC ready to be canvassed by us.
“As the ANCYL, when we say we are going in this direction we will be ready to be engaged.
“On the issue of the president, it must never come to our attention any more to talk about this, we know other parties are eager.
“The person who will be the president is Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, nothing else, nothing more. Nobody is going to go with anyone going in the other direction in KZN If Zweli has a constituency, it is somewhere where he is at Luthuli House, not here,” he said.