ANCYL divisions deepen ahead of ruling party conference

The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) in KwaZulu-Natal has threatened action against its national mother body, which recently endorsed former Health minister Zweli Mkhize’s bid to be elected the next ANC president.

Both the ANCYL provincial leadership and the league’s national leadership are interim structures appointed to prepare the leagues for their respective elective conferences.

However, the KZN ANCYL has accused its national leadership structure of blocking the provincial youth wing from holding an elective conference so that it could have a duly-elected leadership.

Notwithstanding numerous calls we made to the NYTT [national youth task team] deployees for speedy processes leading to the provincial congress, it appears there is no willingness to take the ANCYL to its provincial congress,” KZN ANCYL spokesperson Sibonelo Nomvalo said.

The ANCYL national leadership, which in its recent meeting only discussed the issue of ANC candidates for the upcoming national conference scheduled for December, had in the past not been able to hold a meeting as a structure.

Previous ANCYL national leadership meetings collapsed due to some of the members of the leadership structure’s failure to attend.

Nomvalo said it was worrying that all members of the ANCYL national leadership structure saw it necessary to attend Monday’s meeting “just because the meeting was about the nomination of national conference candidates”.

The ANCYL in KZN was hoping that the NYTT will include the KZN provincial congress in their items of discussions in their recent NYTT meeting since it is now an urgent issue.
Little did we know that the NYTT will be overly consumed by the subject of who must lead the ANC. They forgot about critical organisation matters which are related to their appointment and requires their immediate intervention.

The ANCYL KZN leadership has given the league’s national leadership five days within which to attend to the provincial conference matter.

“Failing which we will explore any available alternatives that will take young people of KZN to their congresses.”

Previously considered a kingmaker in ANC conferences, the ANCYL has in recent years seen its influence diminish.

Led by now Transport minister Fikile Mbalula, the ANCYL during the build-up to the ANC 2007 ANC national conference played a significant role in the election of former president Jacob Zuma as party leader.

However, in 2012 when the relationship between Zuma and the ANCYL — which at the time was led by now EFF president Julius Malema — soured, the league became rudderless.

At the height of the fallout between the ANCYL top brass and Zuma, the league’s firebrand leaders, including Malema and EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu — who at the time was the ANCYL’s national spokesperson — were either suspended for lengthy periods or expelled.

While the current NYTT is the ANCYL’s official leadership structure, its political influence is constrained due to the fact that members of the leadership structure were appointed by the ANC national leadership as opposed to being elected by ANCYL branches.

While the majority of the NYTT during its Sunday meeting endorsed Mkhize, the nomination is threatening to divide the task team and some members of the structure, including its convenor, Nonceba Mhlauli.