LERATO MBIZA
The start of the 26th ANC Youth League Conference was delayed for more than 12 hours because of issues around branch audits and the media was told at the last minute that the first day of the conference was a closed session.
ANC NEC member deployed to assist the Youth League Mzwandile Masina announced that the conference will only start at 9PM. When it was clear that even that deadline won’t be met, then the start of the conference was moved to 10am on Saturday.
Friday was dominated by infighting, threats of court actions and much talk about bogus delegations and interference from senior ANC members.
Prior to the conference there was also drama when the convenor, Xola Nqola, was suspended by Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula after being accused of having been involved in organising one of the illegal regional conferences in the Eastern Cape.
ANCYL members are expected to elect new leaders at the Nasrec Conference eight years after they last held an elective conference.
The ANCYL was disbanded in 2019 following its failure to hold an elective conference after the end of Collen Maine’s tenure after he was elected president of the structure in 2015.
On Friday some youth league members from Limpopo’s Vhembe Region complained about being alienated from conference preparations by its regional secretary; they have since threatened legal action.
At this conference, National Youth Task Team (NYTT) member Colin Malatji is contesting for president with Phumzile Mgcina from KwaZulu-Natal as his deputy.
Mntuwoxolo Ngudle is contesting for the position of secretary-general, and Tsakani Xiviti for deputy secretary-general.
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