Johannesburg -
The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) will approach “progressive” business people and “good corporate citizens” for funding to bail it out of its impending liquidation.
The league has, however, described the ruling by the Johannesburg High Court to provisionally liquidate it as a “silly” judgment that was politically motivated.
The ANCYL said the court had “erred” when it provisionally liquidated it for failing to settle its R17 million debt.
The debt was for the league’s 2008 national conference at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, where its expelled president, Julius Malema, was first elected.
Events management company Z2 Presentations was the applicant in the case.
The league’s national task team convener, Mzwandile Masina, said on Thursday that the liquidation judgment was “flawed”, “reckless” and that it was based on political motives.
“The ANCYL is of the view that this judgment is flawed on the basis that such a decision can only be applicable to a corporate body and not a voluntary political association,” Masina said at the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters.
In his ruling last month, Acting Judge Tony Mundell said the league would remain provisionally liquidated until January 27, when the final order is expected to be made.
The ruling effectively put the ANCYL’s affairs in the hands of the Master of the High Court.
It also meant that the league’s interim leadership was no longer in a position to take any decisions until January 27.
The final order would mean that the league ceases to exist as a legal entity.
Masina said the ruling was a calculated move intended to kill the ANCYL and stop it from campaigning for the ANC.
“This judgment, if not overturned, has far-reaching, dire implications of curtailing the future of democracy and voluntary associations in the country,” he said, adding that Judge Mundell had, in his ruling, moved into a “political space”.
He added that the judgment was an attempt to “liquidate” the ANCYL through “a political ploy that seeks to erase the names of freedom stalwarts of the likes of Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu.
“The fact is (the) ANCYL did acknowledge debt in 2008. We call upon progressive people to make a financial contribution towards this debt so we can save the ANCYL of Nelson Mandela.”
He added that the ANCYL’s former leaders, including presidents and treasurers, have been roped in to help get it out of its financial troubles.
Masina could not explain, when quizzed, how the judgment was politically motivated.
He blamed the league’s financial woes squarely on Malema and other expelled leaders.
In a thinly veiled attack on the leaders of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Masina said: “Dishonest former leaders who milked the organisation and left it dry have now created new self-enrichment schemes in the form of new political parties.
“Our responsibility as the NTT (national task team) is to clean the mess and ensure the organisation remains intact for future generations.”
He said the league would continue operating “as if no court ruling exists, until such time that there is a liquidator”.
The right-hand man of EFF founder Malema, former ANCYL spokesman Floyd Shivambu, said Masina’s claims were typical of people “appointed” by President Jacob Zuma.
He said Malema inherited the league’s current financial troubles from his predecessor, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula.
“The problem did not happen under our leadership. We found it there. It is just the desperation of people struggling to find resonance with the people on the ground.”
The Star