In a show of unity, African National Youth League president Julius Malema’s arch-rival, Saki Mofokeng, on Friday night helped Gwede Mantashe kill off the last remaining efforts to challenge the authority of the newly elected league president.
In a move that stunned his supporters from the Western Cape and North West, Mofokeng proposed from the floor of the league’s Nasrec conference that members support a decision taken by the mother body’s leadership to endorse the top five youth leaders elected at the hotly contested Mangaung conference in April.
He spoke after ANC secretary general Mantashe had delivered a report detailing the ruling party’s stance on the matter.
Mofokeng is understood to have told delegates that it was in the best interest of the organisation to endorse the top five leaders — Malema, Andile Lungisa (deputy president), Pule Mabe (treasurer general), Vuyiswa Tulelo (secretary general) and Steven Ngobeni (deputy secretary general).
His actions appeared masterly orchestrated to support those of Mantashe, who did the real work when he tabled his report.
The show of unity was not entirely unexpected. The Mail & Guardian had already revealed in its previous special daily conference edition that dissenting provinces were seen to be moving away from opposing Malema’s authority. However, it was not clear how Mantashe’s report would be received by delegates.
Events at Mangaung — where unruly youth league members had made the front pages of newspapers — had negatively affected the ANC as a whole, Mantashe told delegates. The league, he said, only had relative autonomy. He said the media had viewed the chaotic youth conference as a continuation of last December’s ANC elective conference that took place in Limpopo, which was also disrupted by delegates at times.
The ANC, as the mother body, had to step in and do some “damage control and restore a semblance of order to the organisation”, he said.
Based on their observations, the ANC leadership decided not to “nullify” the youth league’s Mangaung congress, but rather to view it as an uncompleted event, Mantashe explained. Therefore, the ANC chose to recognise the decisions taken there. It was agreed that the Nasrec conference be convened to complete the remaining tasks of congress.
The ANC had also decided to recognise the youth league’s top five as duly elected. Though it respected the autonomy of the youth league, he explained, in this instance the party could not “sit and watch the ANC Youth League tearing itself apart”.
A “correct, painful political decision” to anoint the top five, he said, was reached after extensive consultations with provincial secretaries, who in turn consulted other members via provincial general councils.
Mantashe also countered criticism levelled at the ANC for publicly endorsing the top five youth leaders without first consulting its members by saying the organisation did this to counter negative publicity, which would have tarnished the image of the ruling party in the lead-up to the 2009 elections.
“And that objective was achieved,” he told delegates.
Mantashe dismissed “informal complaints” by certain provinces arguing that, procedurally, such complaints should have been tabled at congress – the highest decision-making body of any ANC structure. The ANC leadership was also persuaded by the fact that 90% of the delegates at Mangaung had voted.
Some delegates congratulated Mantashe for acknowledging the autonomy of the youth league.