An Eastern Cape minister has offered to pay for ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema to fly to Timbuktu until after the April elections.

The Mail & Guardian Online took to the streets in Jo'burg on Friday to find out what some of SA's youth think of ANCYL leader Julius Malema.

A network of youth leaders working inside the ANC are assisting the splinter group to set up its youth wing, which expects to launch soon.

The biggest challenge facing the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) today is how best to redefine what the role a traditionally militant youth organisation is supposed to be in a democratic South Africa. An inability to recalibrate its vision to current realities has made it susceptible to being used as a vehicle for personal aggrandisement.

The African National Congress (ANC) Youth League on Monday called for the immediate closure of Johannesburg's Noord Street taxi rank after a second woman was assaulted. Spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said the continued abuse and harassment of women by taxi operators at the rank undermined the dignity and freedom of women.

Members of the ANC Youth League can't claim they didn't anticipate the reaction they got when they announced their campaign to ban the selling of liquor on Sunday. Religious groups, particularly Christians who regard Sunday as the day of worship, have welcomed the campaign. Liquor traders and others inclined towards civil liberties have stopped short of accusing the Youth League of being drunk.

The ANC's national executive committee elected its 28-member national working committee (NWC) on Monday. Get the complete list of NWC members here, as well as the names of the eight ANC members who will form part of the ad hoc committee to draw up a report on the arms deal.

The African National Congress (ANC) will appoint an ad-hoc committee to draw up a "detailed factual report" on the arms deal, the party announced in Johannesburg on Tuesday. "We are not asking for the re-opening of the arms deal. We need to get a detailed formal report ... to take informed decisions," party secretary general Gwede Mantashe told journalists.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Tuesday denied that the decision to prosecute African National Congress president Jacob Zuma had been forced upon it by Zuma's opponents. "The decision has been made by the NPA and the NPA alone," said NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali in a statement.

When the African National Congress (ANC) presents its traditional "January 8" statement on its 96th birthday at a gathering in Pretoria next week, it will have to contend with the new charges its newly elected president faces -- and reported threats against the authority of his predecessor, President Thabo Mbeki.