Blow for Mabe as ANCYL delegates gather

Pule Mabe. File picture: Dumisani Sibeko

Pule Mabe. File picture: Dumisani Sibeko

Published Nov 25, 2014

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Johannesburg - Pule Mabe’s political ambition to become the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader is all but over.

This is after the ANC’s decision on Monday night to reduce its youth wing’s national elective conference, which was due to start on Tuesday morning, to a consultative conference to discuss policy.

In a dramatic twist that came on the eve of the ANCYL’s national conference, the ANC also disbanded the national task team (NTT) that was established to rebuild the floundering organisation. The move means that delegates converging at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto campus on Tuesday morning will knuckle down to the arduous task of rebuilding the league themselves.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe would neither confirm nor deny that the conference had been reduced to a consultative conference.

“I don’t confirm things that are said by sources,” he said on Tuesday morning.

Sources familiar with Monday night’s developments told Independent Media that the decision was taken following a marathon meeting between the ANC national executive committee (NEC) and the NTT members.

“At this meeting, they (NTT members) were informed that they are disbanded. A six-member NEC team will, together with ANCYL provincial executive committee (PEC) members, form a team to reconstitute the ANCYL,” said one source. An elective conference would be held in about six months.

The decision is a blow for Mabe, as he will be over the prescribed ANCYL membership under-35 age limit by the time the conference is held. Mabe turns 35 in February.

Independent Media understands that the ANC requested Mabe to step down from contesting the league’s presidential race because the party’s Integrity Committee had recommended that he stand down. This is because of his pending court case for allegations of defrauding the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa).

Mabe apparently refused to accede to this request, on the grounds that he is yet to be officially nominated and has not been asked to step down as a Member of Parliament.

Mabe was contesting for the presidential position along with NTT co-ordinator Magasela Mzobe and Ronald Lamola, who deputised for the league’s erstwhile president Julius Malema before Malema was expelled in 2012.

It remains to be seen how delegates will respond to the ANC’s decision when they converge in Soweto on Tuesday morning.

There had been fears that the ANCYL conference could degenerate into the type of violence seen in some of the regional conferences in some of the provinces. Much of the violence was sparked by disputes over branch membership audits, allegations of “ghost membership” 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 the ANC appealed to 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, 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... We will 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.”

Political Bureau

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