Cape Town - The City of Cape Town will not be distracted from delivering sanitation services by "thugs" within the ANCYL, mayor Patricia de Lille said on Wednesday.
"The ANCYL are a lot of thugs. They've got no credibility whatsoever. Who do they represent? Even the ANC mother body has distanced themselves from the ANCYL. You can't take them seriously," she told reporters in Cape Town.
She said the latest generation of ANC Youth League members were not around during the struggle for freedom, yet wanted to stop the city from engaging with communities.
"I am not bothered by the ANCYL. We will continue to do our meetings and continue to engage the communities."
A group of people disrupted a public meeting in Kosovo, Philippi on Tuesday night, resulting in De Lille having to abandon her speech.
Her spokesman Solly Malatsi said at the time that a man dressed in ANCYL attire started shouting and causing a disturbance just as De Lille was about to address the meeting.
"This is clearly part of their ongoing ungovernability campaign," he said.
The meeting formed part of the city's "Know your community, know your contractor campaign", which aimed to help bring contractors to account for sanitation and solid waste services in the area.
De Lille said she had six more meetings scheduled until the end of July.
ANCYL regional secretary Mfuzo Zenzile denied that it was involved.
"If any individuals have broken any laws, they must be brought to book. If their behaviour is in conflict with the ANCYL position, we will also bring those to the disciplinary committee," he said.
Zenzile said De Lille's comment about thugs was unwarranted.
"The ANCYL has been there for many years, even before her. It's generations which keep on revolving. It was founded in 1944 and comrades before us and after us know the values."
The ANCYL was also accused of throwing human waste at cars and a bus on which Western Cape premier Helen Zille and others had travelled to a green economy event on Tuesday afternoon.
Western Cape police said two men had been arrested for public violence in connection with the incident.
National Prosecuting Authority provincial spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said Bongile Zanazo, 23, appeared in the Khayelitsha Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.
He was granted R500 bail and his case was postponed until July 5 for further investigation.
Ntabazalila said charges were dropped against the second man, because there was no evidence linking him to the crime.
The ANCYL also denied involvement in this, and the dumping of human waste on the steps of the Western Cape legislature by two men on Monday.
At the time, ANC councillor and ANCYL member Loyiso Nkohla, and former ANC councillor and banned league member Andile Lili told The Cape Argus it was a "warning" of things to come.
"We will return with thousands of these bucket toilets next week and empty them around the legislature building," Lili was quoted as saying.
"We were ready to be arrested, and will die for this."
Zenzile said on Wednesday that the ANCYL was still investigating the involvement of these individuals, and had heard that they may also have been involved in the throwing of faeces at Zille's bus.
Regional ANC chairman Xolani Sotashe condemned the "attacks" and demonstrations. He also distanced the ANC, ANCYL and any connected party from them.
"The act of pouring faeces on the steps of Parliament denigrates the institution of Parliament itself as a democratic institution of the people, and whilst we agree that the treatment, by the Democratic Alliance government, of the people living in townships is appalling, we distance ourselves from these acts of vandalism.
"This is clearly a community action in response to the ongoing portable toilet protests, and not an ANC plot as claimed by media publications and the DA," he said. - Sapa