ANCYL going to be a structure ‘that’s just there, but doesn’t have bite’

The ANC Youth League’s (ANCYL) Aphiwe Mkhangelwa’s supporters have called into question the electoral committee process after he failed to meet the threshold for branch nominations.

On Thursday, the electoral committee made the startling announcement that Collen Malatji had been nominated unopposed for the position of president. This further fuelled fires in what is likely to be a contentious ANCYL process.

ANC leaders accused of interfering

Some disgruntled ANCYL members have accused ANC leaders of interfering with the congress before it even sits.

On Thursday, secretary-general Fikile Mbalula fired ANCYL task team convenor Xola Nqola for presiding over the Eastern Cape youth league conference despite a clear directive that it should not sit.

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Nqola then wrote a letter to the party’s top brass, alleging political manipulation, interference and total disregard of processes by Mbalula and other ANC national executive committee members in the run-up to the 26th youth league national conference.

One of those expected to stand for the presidency, Aphiwe Mkhangelwa from the Chris Hani region in the Eastern Cape, said it was shocking how the ANC leadership was resolving the problems faced by the youth league.

Mkhangelwa said if things continued in this manner, the preferred slate would emerge from the conference.

“I have been nominated by 34 branches according to the elections where I am leading 114 branches which are not divided and you can’t make sense of that,” he said.

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“You have an audit process that took place and one final audit that was released without corrections and that alone handicaps branches to participate.“

I am the regional chair in the Chris Hani region, we have 114 branches and, in the audit, they only passed 53 branches.

“The reason the others did not pass is because they are saying they are less than 100 members, but all our branch files say they are more than 100.”

People ‘become demoralised’

He said a congress which was supposed to be constituted of over 4 200 branches could not be constituted by only close to 2 000 branches.

“When you do such things, people become demoralised because they know we are out of the race, not because we did not have capacity but because we were not favoured by a certain group that is in charge of the machinery that must deliver us,” he said.

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“We are saying the ANC leadership should give us space to go through the processes we have to go through to have a successful congress.

“They must only be interested in young people participating in fair processes of the youth league and that’s what we are asking of them.”

He said despite being disadvantaged before the start of the congress, he would not approach the courts.

ANCYL vs Malema

The youth league has been seen as an irrelevant structure of the ANC following the departure of ANCYL president and now Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema. Mkhangelwa, however, defended the ANCYL, saying Malema was who he was because of it.

“The youth league was never the youth league because of Julius. We are who we are today because of the youth league,” he said.

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Zwelo Masilela, who is standing for treasurer, dismissed claims that some had been disadvantaged before the conference even started. Masilela said all were given a fair opportunity to contest for the congress.

“Anybody who feels there is no fair opportunity, I think there are mechanisms in the organisation to process such complaints but as far as we are concerned, all of us have been given a fair opportunity,” he said.

“We all campaign and if people were unable to garner the necessary support, they create an impression that somebody is behind their inability to get support from young people.”

Political analyst Dr Jan Venter said the youth league has been through a traumatic process.

“The current youth league is scared of radicalism. It’s just going to be a structure that’s there but doesn’t have bite,” he said.

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He said the youth league was now tainted and was not going to be a revolutionary body anytime soon. Venter added that if the outcome of the conference was in favour of the faction in charge of the ANC, there would not be questions.

“The youth league is fractionally aligned,” he said.

Voting is supposed to continue tomorrow.