Johannesburg - Calls are growing for the disbandment of the ANC Youth League national executive committee led by Collen Maine.
This comes as a group of Young Lions from KwaZulu-Natal, headed by Ntuthuko Makhombothi, joins several other provincial structures in Ekurhuleni, Eastern Cape and Limpopo in demanding that Maine vacate office.
Last month, Mzwandile Nkambule, a member of the ANCYL in Ekurhuleni, set the ball in motion by threatening to take the ANC to court if it did not disband the ANCYL national executive committee (NEC).
Makhombothi said among the reasons that they wanted the structure dismantled was that Maine, 39, and his secretary-general Njabulo Nzuza, 37, had to know that their constitutional mandate had expired in September 2018.
“The vast majority of the members of NEC are over the age of 35 and there are very few who are under 35; in fact, there is not even 10 of them who are under 35,” he said.
The ANCYL constitution also
maintains that the president of the Youth League, secretary-general
and treasurer general should be full-time at the ANCYL. Maine is a full-time MP while Nzunza has seen been appointed as the home affairs deputy minister.
Makhombothi said the structure had failed to ensure that young people rallied behind it and, by extension, vote for the ANC during the recent national
elections.
“Of those who did vote, a lot of them didn’t vote for the ANC. Now you can see that the ANCYL is not playing that critical role of being a voice of the ANC to young people.”
However, Thanduxolo Sabelo, the provincial secretary of the youth league in KwaZulu-Natal, who is also running for the ANCYL presidency, said those calling for the national structure’s leadership to be disbanded should be patient and wait for the ANC to make a decision on the structure.
“They must just wait for the processes of the ANC; the ANC will guide us on what is to happen to the youth league as we move forward,” Sabelo said.