Durban - The ANC Youth League claims that its Twitter account was hacked this morning using a Huawei phone in Cape Town, following bizarre tweets posted on the account seemingly endorsing a call for the disbandment of the ANC's youth body from within.
The tweets, which read “Only I have a password - Oros can’t log me out. DISBAND NOW!!” and “We are protecting people from themselves - by our principled call to disband the ANCYL”, were deleted as quickly as they had been posted.
Moments later another tweet was posted on the account stating that: “The official @ANCYLhq account has been hacked. Please ignore all the posts posted today. We are working with authorities to resolve the matter. Regards @ANCYLhq Communications.”
Mlondi Mkhize, ANCYL spokesperson, says that although they were working with relevant authorities to establish who had hacked their account they had found that a Huawei phone in Cape Town had been used to post the tweets.
Mkhize refuted suggestions that the tweets were from a rogue element from within the ANC Youth League given growing calls in recent weeks by some members of the ANCYL from various parts of the country, including KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Limpopo calling for the structure to be disbanded.
The official @ANCYLhq account has been hacked. Please ignore all the posts posted today. We are working with authorities to resolve the matter.
Regards @ANCYLhq Communications #ANCYLhqOfficial @njabulobheka @MlondiMkhize @MYANC @sifisomtsweni @NdumisoMokako @TdxSabelo
— ANCYL (@ANCYLhq) June 12, 2019
“Rogue elements would not find expression on our Twitter account because our Twitter account is managed by two people, one of them is a seasoned communicator and one of them is from a communicators organisation and they are someone that we don’t doubt.
“When this incident happened both comrades concerned called me asking whether I had tweeted anything because I equally have access to tweet from the account and I told them no.
“We decided to do some form of an investigation and what we are able to tell for now is that the tweet was done with a Huawei phone and it was done in Cape Town,” Mkhize says.
He says that those calling for the disbandment of the Youth League were not official structures of the league but just individual members.
“For an organisation as sizeable as ours there can’t and there will not always be a convergent of views and under these conditions then you do see, here and there, people doing whatever they feel like.
“People are calling for the disbandment of the Youth League, they are making this against the two letters that have been addressed to the secretary general that have been circulated on social media seeking clarity and promising to go to court if the NEC were to continue,” says Mkhize.
He adds that by the time those members calling for the disbandment marched to Luthuli House, the ANC had already prepared for this eventuality.
“In the current day and age the ANC, including all its leagues, is on a different political trajectory than before,” Mkhize says.
His says that former Youth League president Fikile Mbalula alongside his secretary general Sihle Zikalala had delivered the 2008 ANCYL conference after their term of office had been due by a year or two and that this was permissible because the organisation was living under certain political realities at the time.
“The ANC in the past three to four years has been flooded with court cases like nobody’s business and I am sure the ANC would have thought of this that whether some wins or lose there’s a probability that some might go to court and challenge the authority and therefore the correctness of the congress through the NEC that we are part of.
“So those are things that different corners or those who use logic would have realised that the ANC is in an awkward position,” says Mkhize.
He adds that those calling for the disbandment were not even involved in activities in their branches but they now had “the energy to go toyi toyi” because they regarded themselves as national leaders with a national appeal and appetite.