Johannesburg - Measures were in place to tackle ill-discipline within the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) as the organisation prepares for its elective conference next month, ANCYL task team coordinator Nathi Mthethwa said on Thursday. '
“The lack of discipline took the youth league to a higher level of ill-discipline...which is anarchy. There is a false notion on young people that to be revolutionary is to be vulgar, which is misleading,'' Mthethwa said at a media briefing in Johannesburg. '
“The ANCYL is undergoing political development to educate the youth, especially on what the ANCYL is in relation to the African National Congress.''
The league's provincial conferences have been marred by infighting, with the national elective conference having been postponed for the umpteenth time after it was scheduled to be held in June. Mthethwa added that the national elective conference had to be postponed because the branches had not completed their work ahead of the national conference.
''Not all structures had held their branch general meetings, hence we had to postpone the national conference. That process has now been completed and is closed....,” he said.
“We are preparing for the provincial general meetings which will look into the discussion documents and nominations for national leadership positions.”
The task team had to travel to provinces to meet with provincial and branch structures to quell disputes. The last provincial congress, that of KwaZulu-Natal, degenerated into chaos in June. Police fired rubber bullets to disperse rowdy members who felt aggrieved by the processes and disrupted the congress.
In Limpopo, a group of disgruntled members took its provincial leadership to court to have the outcome of the May congress nullified. The high court ordered that the conference be re-run. An appeal against the court decision was lodged, and the national task team travelled to Limpopo to appoint a provincial team.
''No court is going to tell us how to run our organisations. People must discuss disputes within the organisation...of course there is no total perfection, we are sometimes unable to resolve some issues, but we work on them,'' said national task team national convener Fikile Mbalula on Thursday. He added that media was obsession with the notion that the ANCYL was there only to respond to the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
''The EFF is a an emergence of an organisation that is not properly defined, as to why it exists and where it will end. Everything has actually been stolen from us...including the 'economic freedom in our life time,'' Mbalula said.
The EFF leadership, led by Julius Malema and his deputy Floyd Shivambu, were expelled from the ANCYL in 2012. The ANCYL national conference would be held in September in Johannesburg where new leadership would be elected. Mthethwa said the nominees for the top leadership posts would be announced next week.
ANA