ANC Youth League in crisis

26 January 2007
A confidential internal report has painted a grim picture of disarray in the African National Congress Youth League, with seven of its provincial structures collapsing or in deep crisis.

And insiders say the unwavering support of the league’s national leaders for Jacob Zuma is a significant factor in this decline.

The plight of the youth league is acknowledged in last year’s organisational report of its national working committee, which has been leaked to the Mail & Guardian.

The report paints a picture of leadership squabbles, political infighting and internal rebellion. Seven of the league’s provincial structures have been replaced by “task teams” dispatched by the national leadership. The only provinces to escape the imposition of task teams are the Northern Cape and Limpopo.

The findings of the report raise major questions about who the league speaks for, and whether it can bring a meaningful mandate to this year’s key ANC national conference in Polokwane.

With the ANC Women’s League, it has guaranteed representation and voting rights at the conference, and was recently elevated to the status of a province in the ANC constitution. This means the youth league could have a much higher number of delegates than the 50 that is traditionally sent to the conference.

Zizi Kodwa, the league’s national spokesperson, acknowledged that the organisation was facing problems, but denied that it was paralysed in some provinces. The situation differed from province to province. “From where we stand, the youth league is not weak in seven provinces,” Kodwa said.

The league’s national leadership does not appear to be in a hurry to arrest the slide described in the report.

Instead, the organisation has postponed its elective conference, scheduled for July, to March next year, saying that it has an interest in, and hopes to influence, the outcome of the ANC conference in December.

This hints at the national leadership’s vehement desire to install Zuma as ANC president. However, league sources say they are facing “increasing opposition” over their support for him.

The league’s national leaders face a rebellion in the Eastern Cape after disbanding the provincial executive committee (PEC) last December. Eastern Cape leaders claim they are being persecuted for successfully campaigning against Zuma loyalists at last year’s ANC provincial conference and supporting a conference resolution nominating Mbeki as the Eastern Cape’s candidate for the ANC presidency.

The report lends credence to this version of events, referring to “continued pronouncements of the ANCYL in the Eastern Cape on ANC leadership issues, which have reflected contrary views to the policy positions of the organisation.”

After the ANC provincial conference the ANCYL Eastern Cape provincial spokesperson, Nkosifikile Gqomo, went public, saying that the ANCYL in Eastern Cape “supports the third term for the current president [Thabo Mbeki]”.

There is also known to be strong resistance to the league’s national position on the ANC succession battle in Gauteng, North West and the Western Cape.

The 64-year-old league played a key role in the ANC’s shift away from passive resistance in the early 1950s under such leaders as Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, and has historically been an influential power-broker in the ANC.

Instead of its traditional allocation of 50 delegates it has been given the status of a separate province at this year’s ANC conference -- apparently meaning that the size of its delegation will reflect its organised membership. Kodwa claims the league has 800 000 paid-up members. This potentially gives its president, Fikile Mbalula, significant clout.

The right of youth league and women’s league to nominate candidates independently was withdrawn when the women’s league in KwaZulu-Natal named Winnie Madikizela-Mandela for the position of party deputy president on the eve of the 1997 conference in Mafikeng.

With the advent of South Africa’s democracy, under Peter Mokaba’s leadership, the “Young Turks” were a force to be reckoned with in the broad movement and played a key role in positioning Mbeki to fill Mandela’s shoes. In 1997, with Zuma’s support, it carried Mbeki to the party’s highest office, despite a challenge from Cyril Ramaphosa’s camp.

Its autonomous status in the ANC has allowed it to publicly endorse leadership candidates well in advance of elections and promote them, giving them an edge in a party that discourages open campaigning for top positions.

However, there are clear signs that its influence in the ANC is waning.

In Mafikeng in 1997, it failed to secure the ANC deputy presidency for its candidate, Mathews Phosa, after the league was told by party elders that the post would go to Zuma.

At the same conference, the league -- then aligned with Mbeki -- also failed to have Steve Tshwete elected as party chairperson, a job which went to Mosiuoa Lekota.

The league has also been weakened by its attempted forays into business and links with such figures as murdered mining boss Brett Kebble. Political commentator William Mervin Gumede, writing in Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC, says: “ANC Youth League members, once among the major power-brokers, are now too focused on making a fast buck to swing the election, but the yuppie politicians could be useful as noisy campaign troops.”

The ongoing leadership dogfight in the league, with some provinces opposed to giving the leadership to Zuma, means the league might not vote as a homogeneous block and that may decrease its influence at the conference and dilute support for its preferred candidate, Zuma.
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