Aim of ANC meeting not to disband ANCYL – Gwede

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe. Picture: Leon Sadiki/City Press

The ANC’s top leadership is set to meet with the leadership of its youth wing on Monday to iron out the differences between the league and its mother body.

It was widely speculated before last month’s ANC Mangaung elective conference that the ANC Youth League would be dissolved because of its hostile stance towards President Jacob Zuma.

It subsequently backed former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe’s failed bid to lead the party in Mangaung.

However, the elective conference resolved that the party should meet with the leaders of the league to address the thorny relationship between the two, and the fact that the league has not had a permanent president since Julius Malema was axed last year.

Speaking this afternoon about the outcomes of Friday’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting, ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe said the objective of Monday’s meeting was not to disband the league.

“We don’t have the objective being to disband the ANC Youth League. The objective is to have a youth league that plays its role in society that complements the work of the ANC, that helps the ANC reach out to young people.

“Disbanding will be a decision informed by whether we are making progress in making it function,” he said.

The meeting will focus on the league’s adherence to the ANC constitution and the general functioning of the league, he said.

The NEC meeting also singled out Limpopo and the North West as provinces that needed special attention.

Mantashe said a process had already been started to stabilise the two provinces.

He said 90% of North West municipalities had failed to submit financial reports to the Auditor General, which reflects the disorganisation in the province.

Half of Limpopo’s provincial government was still under administration.

“That has led to a number of tensions between the national (government) and the province. We must deal with that issue now. Nobody will accuse us of wanting to deal with it on the basis of spectacles of the Mangaung conference,” Mantashe said.

The Free State, whose provincial leadership was found to be unlawful by the Constitutional Court, is expected to hold its elective conference before the end of March.