Western Cape ANC Youth League members say there is “no better president” than Julius Malema to fight the cause of the country’s youth.
Malema is set to be elected league president for a second term at its national conference in Midrand on Thursday.
He was to address 303 Western Cape league delegates at the University of the Western Cape yesterday, but did not turn up.
League members from the Southern Cape and Boland started arriving from noon for the provincial general council, a precursor to the national conference, and to hear Malema speak. But at 3.30pm, ANCYL provincial task team co-ordinator Senzeni Mphila said Malema was in the Northern Cape and would only be in Cape Town today.
Among the issues discussed were teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and unemployment.
Mphila said the league’s provincial conference and four regional conferences would be held after the national conference.
The league’s national leadership took over control of the Western Cape region after the provincial executive was disbanded last May because, among other things, it failed to hold a conference to elect a new leadership.
It has since been run by a provincial task team.
Asked which candidate for league president the Western Cape delegates would be supporting, Mphila said: “There is consensus. We will be supporting Julius. He is for the youth and is the only one capable of taking the youth movement forward in this country.”
Yesterday, city councillor and ANCYL branch member Andile Lilli said: “I am here to ensure that Julius is elected president on Thursday.
“The Western Cape is 100 percent behind him.”
But Malema may have a fight to keep his job at the league’s elective conference.
The on-again, off-again campaign by the league’s Gauteng leader, Lebogang Maile, is back on track after his supporters penned a damning critique this week of Malema’s performance since his election at a chaotic conference in Bloemfontein in 2008.
Violence erupted at a league regional general council meeting in Joburg this week and a private security company stepped in to restore order. Delegates were meeting to decide whether to nominate Malema or Maile for the national general council. Malema walked away with most votes.
Meanwhile, ANCYL delegates from this province and the Eastern Cape will travel to the Midrand congress today. They will be among the 5 500 voting delegates from ANCYL branches countrywide meeting alongside 1 000 non-voting delegates and guests.
But that’s about all the league is willing to disclose.
“We’ve taken a decision our logistical arrangements will not be discussed in the media,” ANCYL secretary general Vuyiswa Tulelo said yesterday.
The same hush-hush approach is being taken on security arrangements.
Last week it emerged that the police, intelligence agencies and the ANC military veterans would not be involved as Malema threw down the gauntlet on ill-discipline and anarchy. The military veterans have refused to step in to help as they have done at past provincial congresses of the league. – Additional reporting by Marianne Merten
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