The ANC Youth League in the Western Cape is forging ahead with plans for a provincial congress to elect new leadership regardless of a looming court battle that seeks to invalidate the legitimacy of its organisers.
The provincial executive committee announced January 19 to 21 as dates set aside for a provincial congress following the completion of three out of five regional congresses over the past three weeks, with another one scheduled to take place this weekend.
The league's provincial secretary, Andile Mbali said: “After having held three successful regional congresses, namely Southern Cape Central Karoo and Cape Metro (Dullah Omar) where branches elected regional executive committees and crafted regional political programmes, the ANC Youth League Western Cape PEC can confidently hold our provincial congress in the Boland."
Mbali continued: ” Our readiness for the provincial congress comes after quite a challenging road, which included the 2016 local government election campaign. For some time the Youth League at a regional level was dormant organisationally. This affected the morale of branches to the extent that many branches were not even being launched."
But all this may not come to pass if seven disgruntled ANC Youth League members have their way in court this week.
Having lost their first attempts at interdicting regional congresses, the group will hope to convince a Western Cape High Court judge to not only nullify the conferences that have taken place, but to declare the leadership that has been organising them as illegitimate.
In their motion to the court, PEC member Lovuyo Mpofu maintains that the term of his and his colleagues came to an end in February this year and that every decision they took since then is invalid.
The group petitioned the court to interdict the PEC from convening the provincial congress in January citing alleged irregularities in all regional conferences.
“The term of office and the three-months after that lapsed and the PEC did not convene the congress,” reads their application to the court.
“It is also a tradition and practice of the organisation that if the PEC does not convene the congress at the end of the three month grace period, the NEC disbands the PEC and forms a[provincial task team that will convene the congress. This too did not happen."