The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) may be have been defeated at the ANC’s national general council (NGC), but the loss was far from permanent, a political analyst said on Friday.
ANC national general council special report
‘I really think it’s a defeat for the youth league,” said Wits University-based political analyst, Susan Booysen.
‘However, I do not think it is permanent.
‘We have not seen the end of Julius Malema.”
President Jacob Zuma’s dressing down of the young lions at the start of the conference was a sign of things to come, as key policy positions put forward by the league came under fire.
Its bid for a “generational mix” — the platform for its support of its former president Fikile Mbalula to replace current secretary general Gwede Mantashe in 2012 — in the ANC’s top leadership was shot down.
The league’s desire to see the disciplinary action taken earlier this year against league president Julius Malema nullified also came to naught as the matter was not raised in the plenary session, said party head of policy Jeff Radebe.
However, he did not know whether it was brought up in the commissions. The Herald Online reported that the delegates had rejected the proposal.
The league’s ardent push for nationalisation of the mines, which dominated the “flavoursome” discussions in the economic transformation committee, was watered down with a resolution tasking the ANC leadership to probe its viability.
Zuma, at the close of the conference, again lectured on discipline and urged ANC members to be tolerant of the views of others.
‘Members of the ANC should use the art of persuasion to win people over,” he said.
‘We must seek to influence and be influenced.”
Zuma said the “manner” in which new ideas were evaluated was important.
‘Robust debate must continue, but has to occur within the appropriate structures and forums, so that the necessary decorum can be maintained in the organisation.”
There was no need to “disrupt meetings”.
‘That kind of behavior undermines unity and constitutes ill-discipline,” he said to applause from delegates.
It was reported that the five-day policy review commission discussions on the ANCYL-supported nationalisation of the mines were characterised by heckling, booing and shouting by the predominantly league delegates.
This was also a feature at many ANCYL provincial conferences.
An interesting trend emerged in the recent period, Booysen observed, where the ANCYL became almost an additional prong in the tri-partite alliance between the ANC, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party.
‘A week ago, we still saw this ‘four-partite alliance’, today it is different,” she said, speaking on the final day of the NGC in Durban.
‘ANC delegates really acted against the youth league phenomenon. The youth league, however, is not seeing itself as the demure, converted youth. They are going to fight back,” she said.
‘It will be very interesting to watch them in the next few weeks.”
The NGC concluded on Friday. – Sapa