Johannesburg - In a dramatic twist, the ANC has disbanded its youth wing’s national task team (NTT) and reduced the ANCYL’s national elective conference to a policy conference.
The move came on the eve of the conference at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto campus on Tuesday morning.
The decision means there will no longer be any elections when thousands of delegates from across the country converge in Soweto for the ANCYL’s 25th national conference. Instead, delegates will knuckle down to the arduous task of rebuilding the league, starting with deliberations on policy issues.
Sources familiar with the developments told Independent Media on Monday night that the move was taken following a marathon meeting between the ANC national executive committee (NEC) and the NTT members that lasted until late into the night.
The meeting was also attended by some of the contenders for the top five leadership positions. This included the three presidential candidates, former treasurer-general Pule Mabe, NTT co-ordinator Magasela Mzobe and Ronald Lamola, who served as the league’s acting president following the expulsion of its erstwhile president Julius Malema in 2012.
The decision to call off the election could be seen as an indictment to the NTT, which was tasked with rebuilding the ANCYL following its disbandment last year.
In another surprise move, the ANC is said to have requested Mabe to step down from the league’s presidential race. But Mabe, who faces a pending court battle over allegations of defrauding the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), is said to have refused to withdraw his candidacy. Independent Media could not independently verify this and it was not immediately clear at the time of publication if Mabe had acceded to the mother body’s demands.
Mabe, who is the youngest NEC member, is among the party’s leaders whose conduct is being considered by the ANC’s integrity commission, which was established at its Mangaung elective conference in 2012.
Independent Media understands that Monday night’s decisions are to be revealed during the ANCYL’s urgent media briefing on Tuesday morning. It remains to be seen how delegates will respond to the ANC’s decision when they converge in Soweto on Tuesday morning.
There were fears that the conference could degenerate into the type of violence often seen in some of the regional conferences in some of the respective provinces. Much of the violence was sparked by disputes over branch membership audits, allegations of ghost members and vote-rigging. Such was the violence that most of the provinces were not able to hold their regional conferences, or provincial general councils (PGCs).
Monday night’s decision came a few hours after ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe urged the ANCYL delegates to desist from acts of violence and intimidation
“Our message is that young people must be able to engage without fighting. (They) must engage robustly and not fight,” said Mantashe on Monday.
He was speaking during a post-ANC national executive committee (NEC) meeting media briefing in Joburg.
Mantashe was less convincing when asked if the ANC was satisfied with the work of the ANCYL national task team to rebuild the league. He said: “They (ANCYL task team) have over 40 (regional conferences) of the 53 regions... That is good work from where I am seated. We have a national conference, but that is not the end of the rebuilding of the ANCYL.”
He said while the ANCYL must be a vibrant organisation, it must do so within the guidelines of the ANC.
“The league must mobilise young people and it must always generate ideas and push the ANC to the limit, in terms of discussions of the issues. (But that must be done) within the norms of an organisation that is normal,” he said.
Mantashe was asked about the reports that the ANC’s integrity commission had requested the league’s former treasurer-general Pule Mabe to withdraw from the presidential race. Mantashe was non-committal
“I choose not to discuss that in public because the integrity commission is dealing with many issues and it will be irresponsible for me to discuss that... So I don’t want to get into the details for the Mabe case and say this is what the ANC says,” Mantashe said.
Independent Political Bureau