The ANC Youth League’s Western Cape weekend elective congress was thrown into disarray, and eventually called off yesterday as candidates supporting its beleaguered president Julius Malema looked set to lose.
Malema, who flew to Cape Town on Friday, did not make an appearance at the ANCYL congress.
The congress has now been pushed back to a possible date in March 2012.
The official reason given by the ANCYL senior leadership at the UWC venue was that fraud, specifically the establishment of “ghost branches”, had led to the collapse of the elective process.
An ANCYL national executive committee member, who spoke on condition she was not named, said the ANC leadership in the Western Cape was complicit in the establishment of the “ghost branches”.
“To join the youth league costs R10, and to form a branch requires 100 members,” she said.
“There’s no way that these branches were established without the financial assistance, or knowledge, of those in charge of the ANC,” she said.
But ANC provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile denied this, saying: “Problems of the Youth League have nothing to do with the ANC.”
He said the ANC wanted youth league members to unite, “but you can’t impose unity”.
“Given all the challenges in our province, we will encourage unity.”
Mjongile argued that the delegates whose credentials were now being disputed had earlier taken part in regional congresses and the ANCYL national congress of the youth league held in June at Gallagher Estate in Midrand and this issue should have been picked up then.
Trouble had been brewing since Friday when the expected 500 delegates did not arrive, and instead only 323 delegates could be counted – which was 10 short of the required quorum.
On Saturday the 10am start for the congress was delayed owing to the inability to form the quorum of 333, with an initial count showing only 303 delegates. This deficit was whittled down as the day progressed, first to 313, and then late on Saturday night to the eventual 323.
In opposing camps, and heading up the two slates were corporate lawyer Luvo Makasi and businessman Jonton Snyman.
Initially it was thought that both slates were in support of Malema, but as delegates gathered it became clear Makasi’s group was not fully behind the league’s embattled president Malema.
Efforts to strike a compromise proved futile and yesterday the congress was cancelled.
Malema faces a five-year suspension from the ANC, subject to an appeal, for bringing the party into disrepute.
Late on Saturday night ANC provincial chairman Marius Fransman tried to negotiate a compromise between the two ANCYL slates. - Cape Times