The coordinator of the ANC Youth League national youth task team (NYTT), Joy Maimela, is at the centre of a court battle set for Tuesday on the validity of the body’s recent North West conference.
The coordinator of the ANC Youth League national youth task team (NYTT), Joy Maimela, is at the centre of a court battle set for Tuesday on the validity of the body’s recent North West conference.
The conference, held on 9 August, pronounced Maimela as its preferred candidate for the position of youth league secretary general.
But a court application brought by former regional and provincial youth league leaders accuses Maimela of using her position as the league’s task team coordinator to ensure that her “friends” were elected to the North West provincial executive committee to further her own ambitions.
The league members have petitioned the court on an urgent basis to have the election of the new provincial leadership set aside and interdict them from acting on behalf of the youth league.
The founding affidavit by Tumelo Maruping, filed on 22 August, alleges that Maimela’s fingerprints were on most of the wrongdoing. Maruping, a former member of the interim provincial committee (IPC) in the North West, and five others say they filed the application after exhausting all other internal means.
“She deliberately enabled wrongdoing, including but not limited to the violation of the youth league at the conference she presided on. She did so for ulterior motives which were to ensure that only a small group of her friends are allowed in elective conferences. That grouping would then pronounce her after the conference as their preferred candidate for the general secretary of the upcoming national conference,” Maruping said.
He said that in some instances Maimela was aware that legitimate delegates were stranded outside the conference venue. “To my surprise Maimela had one standard answer: ‘Let them appeal after the conference.’ This was highly unethical of a national leader.”
He said Maimela allowed the elective conference to proceed despite violence and chaos, which saw gunshots fired inside the venue and delegates having to run for their lives while some were injured.
Maruping said he was taken aback to learn that Maimela and a few other delegates remained behind after the chaos, alleging that it was then that she put together a list of people they liked and thus declared the new provincial executive committee of the youth league.
Maimela is also accused of allowing the conference to be held despite not meeting a quorum. Maruping said she ignored calls by some provincial and regional leaders to have the identity of some delegates verified.
“Such people are illegitimate and they were not elected by conference. There was no conference,” he argued.
Maimela and national youth task team organiser Tlangi Mogale received the endorsement of the North West during the conference. They were also endorsed by the Mpumalanga conference despite being 35 years old, close to the cut off age of 36 years for youth league members. The question of age has long dogged the league. For example its former leader, Collen Maine, was criticised as too old after he emerged as youth league president.
Mogale and Maimela are also linked to the Adiwele faction in Gauteng led by ANC Ekurhuleni chairperson Mzwandile Masina, national spokesperson Pule Mabe and Lebogang Maile who lost the race for provincial chair to Panyaza Lesufi. The three are former youth league leaders.
Maimela denied allegations that there were gunshots at the conference and insisted that the provincial structure met all the requirements to hold a conference. She said the national youth task team was in discussions with the applicants to exhaust internal processes.
Maruping also accused the newly elected North West youth league chairperson Wessels Morweng of leading the charge to hold the conference despite processes not being properly followed. He said that during the IPC meeting to prepare for the conference on 5 August, the leaders were divided on whether they should accept the outcomes from the Ngaka Modiri Molema region.
“The intention has always been that the branches which are in good standing will attend the regional conference to elect the regional executive the day after .The elected executive will lead their respective regions to the provincial elective conference to elect their provincial leaders,” Maruping said.
“Immediately after the provincial elective conference the provincial leadership will then lead and guide all processes and take the qualifying branches to the national elective conference. Thus at all levels the leadership spearheading and guiding the process into the next elective conference must be the leadership elected constitutionally and properly and in accordance with provisions of the league constitution.”
Maruping cited some delegates as claiming that some branch members’ identities were cloned in the process leading to the region’s election. He said the matter was brought to Maimela’s attention but she ignored it. He further argued that as per the agreement of the IPC, the regions were expected to go to their conferences first before the province could sit. But the Dr Kenneth Kaunda region had not yet held its conference during the August meeting.
Maruping said two of the four North West regions — Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Dr Ruth Mompati — did not attend the provincial conference at which Morweng was elected Morweng.
In his answering affidavit, Morweng said the applicants were disgruntled youth league members attempting to use the court for their own gain. He dismissed claims that the conference should not have sat, saying that all eligible branches had participated in what he insisted was a transparent process.
Morweng added that disputes in the Nganka Modiri Molema region had been resolved and that the six applicants were part of the process and made no objections during meetings. All branches and regions were formally invited to the provincial conference and the rules of the ANC were complied with.
“Surprisingly no single branch secretary or representative raised a dispute on not being informed of the then upcoming provincial congress, clearly demonstrating that the present application [comes from] a bunch of disgruntled members who failed to accept the outcome of democratically run processes,” he said.
“It is therefore worth noting that the province has held a successful elective conference.”
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