Johannesburg - Disgruntled ANC Youth League members have on Tuesday marched on the ANC's Luthuli House headquarters calling for the immediate disbandment of the ANCYL national structure, which has been in place since 2015.
The discontented members from different provinces including Limpopo, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga said the governing party's youth body was almost nonexistent under its current leadership which they accused of being old and incompetent.
They danced, burnt impepho and called on the former presidents of the ANCYL to help save the once influential organisation.
Speaking on behalf of the Limpopo ANCYL, Ngoako Selamolela said ANCYL president Collen Maine and his collective were occupying the organisation's offices illegally as their term had ended last year.
"We have no constitutional structure in place. The ANC NEC must just do the right thing of putting a task team in office because, because the office of the youth league are vacant as per the constitution," Selamolela said.
Video: Siviwe Feketha/Politics Hub.
A former president for the ANC-aligned South African Student Congress (Sasco), Selamolela said the ANCYL's crisis under Maine was so deep that the youth body was being run by task teams throughout the country, with several provinces having not had elective conferences for years.
He said the current national office bearers of the ANCYL had used the organisation to facilitate positions for themselves in the state instead of advancing youth interests.
Video: Siviwe Feketha/Politics Hub.
Maine and his deputy and Desmond Moela are currently a members of the National Assembly.
ANCYL secretary general Njabulo Nzuza has been appointed Deputy Minister for Home Affairs after the elections while deputy secretary general Thandi Moraka was appointed MEC for sports in Limpopo.
The protesting group said they would not leave the precinct of Luthuli House if ANC secretary general Ace Magashule did not come out to accept their memorandum.