Cape Town - The ANC Youth League has been threatened with a court order interdicting it from participating at the ANC’s December conference because some members of its national executive were allegedly over the age of 35.
Membership of the youth league is open to anyone between the ages of 14 and 35. The lawyers for Thabo Molamu and Olebile Makompo on Friday sent a letter to Luthuli House demanding that league president Collen Maine, who is “approximately 38 years old”, resign his position.
Dubbed "Oros" for his rotund figure, Maine was controversially elected as ANCYL president in 2015 despite being “34.9” years old, a few months from being disqualified to lead the league.
Molamu and Mokompo have given the ANCYL until Thursday to provide their lawyers with the ID numbers of all members of the league’s national executive.
They were quoting an ANCYL constitutional clause which states that a member who turns 35 will have their membership lapsed.
A court order will likely block the participation of the ANCYL at the ANC’s December conference. But ANCYL spokesperson Mlondi Mkhize said the only knowledge he had of the letter was postings on social media on Friday.
“We’ve got a history, there have been many leaders of the ANCYL who were elected at the age of 35 years. The (constitutional) clause allows elected leaders to finish their term of office,” said Mkhize.