ANCWL, NYTT put on toes as Mashatile dissolves expired ANC structures

The ANC’s self-cleansing drive is unstoppable as even the untouchables are now on the receiving end of a serious renewal move by eliminating deadwood and the unwanted.

After last week’s move to disband the party’s Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga provincial structures, whose terms of office had expired, every structure of the party was put on its toes. This includes the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) and the national youth task team (NYTT).

Following its meeting last week, the ANC national working committee reminded the ANCWL and the NYTT that their terms had expired. The ANCWL last held an elective conference in 2015, when Bathabile Dlamini was elected president.

Dlamini recently said the league had not held new elections because of the pandemic. She said the Ramaphosa faction wanted to disband the league. Ironically, the NYTT was appointed on 8 April last year solely to organise an elective conference to elect a new ANC Youth League national executive committee.

But it failed to deliver on that promise despite the enthusiasm shown by its female-dominated leaders about the task. If ANC acting secretary-general Jessie Duarte treated the structures with kid gloves, party treasurer-general Paul Mashatile, who took over as acting secretary-general after Duarte got ill, was not about to continue the pampering.

Since Mashatile took over as boss at Luthuli House, he has been dissolving expired structures and replacing them with interim ones. An ANC source said Mashatile had no option but to recommend the disbanding of both the ANCWL and the NYTT.

“These structures are like they don’t exist. The women’s league is just a name and the NYTT died in the cot. So this has made his task very easy,” the source said.

Last week, Mashatile disbanded the ANC provincial structures of the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga as they had long exceeded their four-year terms of office. He replaced them with interim provincial committees (IPCs).

The Eastern Cape provincial executive committee (PEC) was elected in late 2017 and the Mpumalanga PEC in 2015. This made them vulnerable to leadership challenges from their opponents.

Oscar Mabuyane will be challenged at the next provincial conference by Babalo Madikizela and Jacob Zuma ally Mlibo Qoboshiyane. In Mpumalanga, Mandla Ndlovu could face Peter Nyoni and premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane in the party elections.

Nyoni has threatened to take the appointment of the Ndlovu-led IPC to court, claiming there was no consultation.

– ericn@citizen.co.za