PHUTI MOSOMANE
ANDILE Lungisa, the enfant terrible of South African politics, is back from the political wilderness.
His brand of radical politics evoke contradictory response, from stringent criticism to blind admiration from adherents to his political praxis.
Lungisa, a former ANC Youth League leader, was suspended from the ANC after he was convicted of assaulting a DA councillor with a water jug on the head during a council meeting in 2018.
His suspension was upheld by the ANC National Disciplinary Committee (NDC) just weeks before the party’s 55th National Conference in Nasrec, south of Johannesburg.
He made a stunning comeback when delegates at the National Conference demanded that he be allowed to stand for elections into the National Executive Committee (NEC).
He secured 1782 votes, becoming number 11 on the 80-member NEC.
On Saturday, Lungisa was invited by the current Youth League and was assigned a responsibility to introduce ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula as a keynote speaker at the Peter Mokaba Memorial Lecture held in Botshabelo, outside Bloemfontein in the Free State.
Although the conference referred his matter back to the new NEC, Lungisa told Inside Politics that he is busy mobilising for the ANC and not worried about his future.
In the days leading up to the ANC’s 111th birthday anniversary celebrations, Lungisa went all out to mobilise support for the January 8 rally along with other former ANC Youth League members such as Vuyiswa Tulelo, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, and Thandi Mahambehlala.
To some ANC members such as Nathi Sithole, “Andile Lungisa is the only person in the NEC who is a direct product of branches”.
Said another ANC member Renolo Serati: “In Lungisa we see ourselves. He comes from a special generation of youth league as Deputy President.”
On Sunday, Lungisa said that President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a bold plan which prioritised the economy, unemployment, poverty, inequality and the expropriation of land without compensation.
Lungisa said it was up to the party now to implement the decisions of the National Conference.
“It’s a good move by the NEC as led by the President [Ramaphosa] and we are happy. I have great hope in the ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula that implementation will be monitored,” he said.
Lungisa said former SACP leader Chris Hani was expelled after he wrote a memorandum in which he criticised ANC. Hani and six others were expelled by the ANC NEC in exile in 1969 but later reinstated by OR Tambo at Mogorogoro Conference.
“Whenever there are challenges, ANC leaders always go back to the historical archives to see how previous leaders resolved challenges,” he said.
Lungisa said he will now work with other former Youth League leaders to help rebuild the body.
“Long live to the organization of Walter Rubusana, John Langalibalele Dube, Reverend EJ Mqoboli, Thomas Maphikela, Mangena, Sekhukhune. Our struggle today is to resolve the long outstanding question of Land and the economy.”
INSIDE POLITICS
