Durban - Disgruntled members of the ANC Youth League who have been campaigning for the disbandment of the youth body’s national structure will on Tuesday officially know who will take over the structure, and prepare for its elective conference.
This comes after the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), which has just completed a crucial meeting from Friday last week until Monday, gave the go-ahead for the dissolution of the ANCYL NEC, led by Collen Maine.
The party’s national working committee had recommended the dissolution of the ANCYL structure to the NEC, following several pickets and petitions by league members who accused the body’s national leadership of being ineffective and of driving the young lions into political irrelevance since their election in 2015.
The current ANCYL’s mandate ended late last year, when its national leaders failed to hold its national elective conference, as required by the party’s constitution.
One of the campaign leaders, Ngoako Selamolela, said the grouping would await official communication and the announcement of the appointed national task team (NTT) before expressing their attitude.
“We do not want to pre-empt this, and all of us are getting information from individuals. So it is best we wait for the formal communication before we publicly express our view,” Selamolela said.
An NEC member told Independent Media that the ANCYL leadership had been disbanded, with ANC MP Thandi Mahambehlala being installed as the NTT’s convenor.
Several lists making the rounds among ANC and ANCYL members on social media included Maine and ANCYL secretary-general Njabulo Nzuza as among those included in the NTT.
None of the leading figures in the disbandment campaign were apparently included in the NTT.
The NEC’s crucial meeting also discussed the fate of its senior member Derek Hanekom, after he admitted he had met with the EFF to discuss a plot to oust former president Jacob Zuma.
Zuma’s backers within the NEC had pushed for Hanekom to be hauled into a disciplinary inquiry and face possible expulsion for the admission.
The move was, however, shot down by those sympathetic to Hanekom, a known backer of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Hanekom was among a number of ANC MPs who openly called for Zuma’s resignation as head of state, and who went as far as voting with the opposition in the 2017 motion of no confidence against Zuma - which he survived by 198 to 177.