The Gauteng conference of the ANC Youth League looks set to be another coup for Julius Malema — it is likely to endorse him for two more terms as league president.
Current secretary Thabo Kupa, who is running for chairperson of the provincial youth league, told the Mail & Guardian that a resolution for “Malema to serve for the next two terms” would be discussed and adopted. “Malema is still young; he can lead us in the next two terms,” he said.
Kupa is a vocal Malema supporter, while his rival for the position of Gauteng chair, ANC provincial legislature member Lebogang Maile, is said to be “neutral” on the question of national leadership.
Neither faction supports Malema’s opponent for the national post, Andile Lungisa.
With about 600 delegates in attendance, the conference is due to take place at the Birchwood Hotel in Ekurhuleni on Saturday.
It is set to deliver Malema’s third endorsement for the presidency in 2011, when the league has its elective conference. The Mpumalanga and Free State regions have passed similar resolutions.
Buying votes?
Meanwhile, accusations about the use of money and patronage have plagued the conference, with the Kupa and Maile factions accusing each other of “buying votes” by offering conference delegates money, cellphone airtime and jobs.
In its national general council discussion documents the ANC specifically dealt with the practice of using financial inducement to buy votes at provincial conferences.
A Pretoria businessman, who is a known ANC and ANCYL funder in the region but asked not to be named, admitted this week that business people poured money into political leadership campaigns in order to secure contracts in the future.
The businessman, who is backing Kupa, said the business community had contributed “a lot of cash” to the recent Tshwane ANC leadership campaign and that businesses were now taking sides in the ANCYL’s Gauteng leadership tussle.
“You take money from your business if it comes to a push,” he said. “It depends on how you run your business — if you are a professional, you do it in a way that you will be able to account for it.”
The businessman said that the interest in the ANCYL leadership race lay in the belief that backing the winning faction, currently seen as the Malema/Kupa group, would get businessmen “in their good books” for the ANC’s succession battle, to be decided at its 2012 conference.
Bigger tenders
“It will ultimately set you up for bigger tenders once the 2012 battle is won,” he said.
A Maile supporter, who also asked not to be named, told the M&G of youth leaders using “money bags” stuffed with cash and handed it out to coordinators of groups of delegates. “The coordinator would see this as his reward for getting the delegates to vote a certain way,” the supporter said.
A Kupa supporter said Maile had the support of Paul Mashatile, the ANC provincial chairperson and deputy arts minister.
Mashatile will give the keynote address at the conference.
Maile’s lobbyists contend that Maile’s group ensured Mashatile’s triumph over Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane for the leadership of the Gauteng ANC, while insisting that they steered clear of the “politics of patronage”.
Said one: “All we do is give [delegates] food. That’s the least we can do. The other group has the premier on their side, so they have government tenders to hand out.”
More than cash
But a Tshwane regional leader aligned to Kupa said more was at issue than mere cash. “I don’t see money playing too much of a role compared to the previous election. The promise of positions is now being used more often,” he said.
An ANC official close to the lobbying said that the use of financial inducements in an effort to secure Maile’s election intensified this week.
“On Wednesday, delegates were given R5000 each. Others have been promised lucrative positions,” said the official.
“They are still doing the same as they did with the youth commission. Positions in the Provincial Youth Development Agency (PYDA) need to be filled — that is how they are looking to reward their supporters.”
Maile is the former chairperson of the National Youth Commission, the PYDA’s predecessor.
The candidate for the provincial secretary position on Maile’s list is Ayanda Gasa from Ekurhuleni. Because of ongoing horse-trading, Kupa’s list has not yet been finalised.
Third list
The league’s former West Rand regional chairperson, Simon Molefe, is also standing for the position of provincial chairperson, creating a third list.
At the time of writing, Molefe’s group was still talking to other camps in an attempt to find compromises and merge lists.
Kupa fell out of favour with the majority of ANCYL leaders in Gauteng after he announced in the media that the youth league was backing Mokonyane for the position of ANC provincial chairperson, against Mashatile. The league’s structures had not publicly committed themselves at the time Kupa made the announcement and the decision was reversed after a provincial general council.
Kupa insisted his group “does not have money [to buy votes]”, while Maile said accusations about patronage and vote-buying were an attempt by his detractors to discredit him.
“Our campaign is not based on rumours,” Maile said. “Our organisation is bleeding and people are being mischievous.”
Meanwhile, the ANC in Gauteng was asked last week to step in to help fund the conference and assist with logistics. Several provincial leaders will attend and supervise the conference.
Maile said the ANC had told its provincial leaders to keep an eye on youth league conferences to ensure that the upheavals that had marred such occasions in the past were not repeated.