The ANC Youth League announced the disbanding of provincial executive committees (PEC) for Limpopo, Free State, North West and the Northern Cape, following an assessment by its national working task team. The four provinces join KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape.
The Eastern Cape and Gauteng will be assessed over the next seven days. However, within Gauteng, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Sedibeng and West Rand regions have already been disbanded.
Mzwandile Masina, convener for the task team, said the league has a rather disturbing history in the way it has been dealing. "There is a culture of gatekeeping, divisions, patronage, membership manipulation and institutionalised factionalism that has deeply entrenched itself."
The task team called the youth league a shadow of its former self and a "fading" organisation. Masina insisted that there is no need for the league to be closed down as it was ready to accept support from the ANC and other stakeholders.
As part of the reasons given for the disbanding, Masina added that the PECs and regional executive committees have been in office for far beyond the required period as determined by the constitution. "We have been given reasons for the current state of the organisation whose merits and demerits we have carefully considered. It has become a norm for members to undermine organisational procedures and constitutional injunctions with impunity," he added.
No deadline has been set for the election of new leadership, but Masina said KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga will have a chance to elect new leadership by the end of this year. The KwaZulu-Natal region will be audited and further investigation will be conducted within the next four weeks in preparation for congress.
With regards to the Gauteng and Tshwane branches, there will be further engagements to ascertain the real state of the organisation where a detailed report will be processed.
The ANC is taking responsibility for the liquidation case against the ANC Youth League, the task team said. "Our worry is that if this continues it has the potential to force us to wind down political activities we have been working on," Masina said.
"We are working with the ANC to amicably resolve the matter satisfying all the parties involved." The NTT felt there was no legal basis for the liquidation application.
The youth league has been accused of failing to pay Z2 Presentations CC, trading as University Events Management (UEM), nearly R15-million for its national congress in the Free State in 2008, when its since expelled leader Julius Malema was elected.
As part of youth month, the league will take up the issue of youth development in partnership with the National Youth Development Agency in hopes of driving the "economic freedom in this lifetime" campaign. There is a very strong intent to win back the Western Cape as well as facilitate debates about the land issue in South Africa. – Additional reporting by Sapa