History of debt bogged down ANCYL

Johannesburg - The ANC National Youth Task Team (NYTT) has described how the ­liquidation of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has hampered the organisation’s functionality.

On Monday, the NYTT briefed the media on the outcomes of its meeting over the weekend where it adopted a roadmap to the ANCYL congress, which is scheduled for March 2020.

NYTT co-ordinator Sibongile Besani said the liquidation of the ANCYL, which entailed the freezing of its accounts and forced the task team to drop “ANCYL” when referring to itself, had harmed the organisation’s operational effectiveness.

“The impact is quite massive because once you are liquidated it becomes very difficult for youth league structures to exist, and we do not want to be seen to be undermining the decision of the court on the question of litigation,” Besani said.

The NYTT was recently appointed by the ANC’s national executive committee, following calls by ANCYL members for the national structure under then-president Collen Maine to be disbanded, as it was accused of dysfunctionality and serving beyond its mandate.

Besani explained that the ANC had intervened and paid off debts of millions which the cash-strapped ANCYL had for years owed to service providers, and which had led to its liquidation.

The NYTT, however, refused to reveal the exact amount the ANC had paid, nor the identities of the service providers.

“The source of liquidation is debts. And we would like to confine our answer to that. We don’t want to go into its history. We want to move to the future,” Besani said.

The liquidation came after events management company Z2 Presentations applied for the ANCYL to be liquidated for a R15million debt it acquired in its 2008 national conference in Bloemfontein, where its former leader - now EFF president - Julius Malema was elected.

Besani, meanwhile, pointed out that the NYTT would be unable to take the ANCYL to its conference without the financial backing of the party, as its accounts were empty and frozen due to the provisional liquidation, the order of which will become final on January 27.

“The ANC will take responsibility for ensuring that the ANCYL convenes its congress. Whether at a political or financial level, even if the youth league does not have money, the ANC, as the mother body, has to take that responsibility.”

The NYTT has been accused of comprising of old people, mostly males, who did not understand the needs of young people and legitimate members of the league.

Besani said the NYTT had now co-opted young females to make the task team more representative.

Political Bureau