Chaos mars bid to revitalise ANCYL

Pule Mabe. File picture: Dumisani Sibeko

Pule Mabe. File picture: Dumisani Sibeko

Published Sep 22, 2014

Share

Johannesburg - The rebuilding of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) is proving to be a serious hurdle for the ANC, following the party’s decision to disband its youth wing last year.

Disputes over the audit of branch membership, alleged meddling by the candidates contesting for the presidential position and lack of funding are just some of the problems hampering the reconstituting of the ANCYL.

These problems have largely been blamed for the postponement of the eagerly awaited national conference, which was scheduled between Wednesday and Friday.

The postponement appears to have been just as chaotic as the process to reconstitute the league itself. Some provinces were left guessing as to whether the conference would go ahead or not.

ANCYL national task team (NTT) spokesman, Bandile Masuku, was not forthcoming when asked for comment on Sunday.

“Let’s wait for the meeting of the ANC national executive committee (NEC) to finish. It (the postponement) is going to be part of the decisions,” Masuku said.

To date, four provinces - Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape - are still struggling to hold their respective provincial conferences. Internal wrangling between branches over leadership and disputes over audits of branch membership are among the problems that have delayed the conferences.

In Limpopo, four of the six regions - Waterberg, Mopani, Sekhukhune and Vhembe - are yet to hold their respective regional conferences.

“Twice, the regional conferences in Sekhukhune and Vhembe could not go through because of problems with (the) audit (of) branches,” said a Limpopo regional leader.

He alleged that some regional task team members and a candidate contesting the position of chairman were holding the approval of the branch audits to ransom.

“If the regional co-ordinator and convener have issues with the elected branch leadership, they launch parallel branches. The NTT leader (name withheld for legal reasons) will also refuse to sign the branch audits for any branch that does not support him.

“Now, the PTT and NTT have to resolve which branches are valid and which are not.”

Sources said that ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte was due to visit Limpopo on Monday in a bid to resolve the disputes.

In the Eastern Cape, four out of the seven regions have held their conferences.

“This problem has been paralysing most branches for too long that the ANC has had to interfere,” said one regional leader.

A PTT member attributed the branch audit problems to understaffing of the verification team.

In the Western Cape, only two out of six regions have had their provincial conference. PTT co-ordinator Mohammad Sayed attributed the delay to lack of funding by the ANC and ghost membership in many branches.

“At the beginning, there was a lot of ghost membership. We also had people (who) needed to travel far to recruit and launch branches, which required money we didn’t have,” Sayed said.

While all the 11 regions in KwaZulu-Natal are said to have held their respective congresses, problems around the branch audits have also delayed the provincial conferences. PTT convener Nontembeko Boyce said the audit of branches was “a highly technically process”.

Similar irregularities have marred the processes leading to the conferences in the five other provinces.

Former ANCYL treasurer Pule Mabe is contesting the ANCYL chairmanship position against the league’s former deputy president, Ronald Lamola, and NTT co-ordinator Magasela Mzobe.

The Star

Related Topics: