The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) lashed out at the Mail & Guardian on Friday following the publishing of an article that uncovered structural breakdown and infighting within the organisation.
Responding to the report, the ANCYL said in a statement that it ”categorically rejects” the claims of an organisational crisis.
Speaking to the M&G Online on Friday, ANCYL spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said it was a ”figment of the imaginations” of those who wrote it. ”It is not true; it is manufactured,” he said, referring to a confidential internal report that was leaked to M&G journalists.
The M&G said the report painted a picture of leadership squabbles, political infighting and internal rebellion — and said that, according to insiders, 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 M&G,” it read.
The article said findings in the report raise major questions about who the league speaks for, and whether it can bring meaningful mandate to this year’s key ANC national conference in Polokwane.
”The report by Mail & Guardian is ridiculous at best and malicious at worse at [sic] it fails to understand the ANCYL in its totality and its character … we will not be de-focused and deterred by fabricated reports which are aimed at mobilising against the ANCYL, in particular its leadership,” Kodwa said in a statement released on Friday.
The article also quoted extracts from the report on the youth league’s ”provincial collapse”. Seven of the league’s provincial structures have been replaced by ”task teams” dispatched by the national leadership.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.
When asked which report had been leaked to the M&G, Kodwa said: ”We don’t even know which report it is that they were quoting from.”
He denied any structural breakdown within the ANCYL, saying structures are ”intact” and the youth league is on course to build a stronger organisation.
”The ANCYL leadership will give a detail [sic] account on the state of the organisation to its structures at an appropriate time and platform, according to its tradition and practice,” Kodwa said in the statement.
The league’s national leadership does not appear to be in a hurry to arrest the slide described in the report, according to the M&G 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.