The fallout between the ANC and the ANC Youth League has raised fears in the league that there are plans to dissolve it. And the Mail & Guardian has learnt of talk in the party about reducing the league to a “youth desk” that would be directly accountable to the mother body.
But the member of the national executive committee (NEC) who raised this possibility, Angie Motshekga, told the M&G she merely suggested the creation of a youth desk that would co-exist with the league.
Even so, four sources — two NEC members of the ANC, a former youth league NEC member and a government official with close links to the league — confirmed that they had heard of a plan to dissolve the league. However, they said it would remain a proposal until adopted by the NEC and taken to the next policy conference.
Motshekga, who is president of the ANC Women’s League, is said to have suggested in at least two NEC meetings that the league be dissolved.
She insisted that she had proposed the creation of a youth desk which would enable the party to tackle youth challenges instead of depending on the ANC Youth League to drive things. Her proposal had been misconstrued, she said.
“I’ve realised that people misunderstood what I said. I never suggested that the ANC Youth League should be abolished. There is no way I can do that.
“I might as well say the women’s league should be dissolved, if that’s the case. The ANC Youth League is still relevant to the ANC today, like it was in previous years.”
The women’s league was planning a young women’s desk to enable it to deal with the challenges facing young women in the country, Motshekga said.
But M&G sources claimed informal lobbying started on the sidelines at last weekend’s NEC meeting to raise support for the youth league’s dissolution, particularly if it carried out its threat to protest against the decision to discipline its leaders.
Mobilising support
The youth league and those sympathising with it are mobilising support for the league’s leaders prior to the disciplinary hearings. They are trying to prevent possible suspension or expulsion.
There are also reported plans to bus in supporters to Luthuli House to protest against the decision to institute disciplinary action against youth league leaders.
But any such action would be a mistake, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said during a press briefing this week.
“We are hoping that nobody will be adventurous and [would] want to disrupt that process. But if people want to be adventurous, we’ll confront that adventure at that point,” Mantashe said.
Malema and other league leaders have in the past alluded to alleged plans to do away with the outspoken and radical league. Some in the ANC wanted the league to be a “desk”, said Malema at the June congress that re-elected him.
He told delegates about failed plans to send him into “exile” after he was convicted last year of bringing the party into disrepute.
“We want proper leadership, we want to be taught proper politics, not destroying the future of young people. You [some senior ANC leaders] subscribe to a policy of ‘kill them young and destroy their future’,” he told congress delegates.
Youth league insiders called the proposal to abolish the league an “old historical issue” that was defeated at the league’s re-launch congress in the former KwaNdebele in 1991 and several times after that.
“This issue was a well-fought battle when Jackie Selebi was leading the youth league. People like Peter Mokaba fought it off,” the government source said.
The ANC denied there had been any talk of dissolving the league. National spokesperson and NEC member Jackson Mthembu said the matter was “never raised, not in this meeting or any other meeting”.
Getting rid of the youth league would be “unconstitutional”, Mthembu said. “The ANC Youth League is a constitutional structure. It exists because the ANC said there should be a youth league. How do you mobilise the youth and prepare them to lead when there’s no preparatory school?”
Mthembu said that, although the ANC might be encountering problems with its youth league it would be nonsensical to think of dissolving the structure. “There will always be problems in families [but] that doesn’t mean you discard a family member.”
Taking ‘this boy’ to task spells danger, Holomisa warns
ANC president Jacob Zuma is taking a gamble by making youth league president Julius Malema face a disciplinary hearing while the 2012 leadership succession battle is shaking the ruling party, according to former ANC member Bantu Holomisa.
Now leader of the opposition party he founded, the United Democratic Movement, Holomisa was the last popular member of the ANC to be hauled before a disciplinary committee. That was in 1996 and it led to his expulsion.
Speaking to the M&G this week, Holomisa said Zuma “doesn’t have the same stature as Madiba [Nelson Mandela], so he’s gambling, especially if there are people who’ve been using this boy not only for fighting their battles but also for many other things”.
Mandela was president of the ANC when Holomisa was expelled for saying during his testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that a fellow ANC Cabinet minister, Stella Sigcau, had received “a R50 000 bribe” when she was a minister in the former Transkei Cabinet.
Holomisa told the M&G that Mandela tried to persuade him to apologise to avoid a disciplinary case (DC). “Madiba tried his level best to convince me to apologise so that he could strengthen his hand in convincing the NEC [national executive committee] to stop DC action.
“I said: ‘Daddy, sorry, not on this one.’ If Madiba had said no, nothing would have happened, but he kept quiet and the DC went ahead.”
But Zuma could not issue an instruction without being challenged, because of the divisions within the ANC, Holomisa said. The party had not had “these hostile factions” at the time of his disciplinary hearing.
“[Now it’s] different because Malema is already campaigning to say we want Kgalema [Motlanthe, ANC deputy president]. They are divided because he’s got the support of other members of the NEC,” Holomisa said.
He described how his disciplinary hearing was handled. “During the hearing there were people who, based on principle, asked: ‘On what basis are we disciplining Holomisa? Because he didn’t accuse anyone of anything — he just spoke about what we already know.'”
The top six officials and the national working committee had already agreed that Holomisa should be disciplined and opposing views were not considered, he said.
Then deputy minister of environmental affairs, Holomisa was given the opportunity to defend himself but refused to do so “because Kader Asmal [who later recused himself from the hearing] had already said I should be expelled. Thabo Mbeki also said I would be expelled, even before I appeared before a disciplinary committee. What’s the point of appearing [when] a decision has already been made?” He was then invited to make a presentation to the NEC, but again refused.
Holomisa said the same senior leaders now dragging Malema to a disciplinary hearing “used this boy to fight for them. And now when he says ‘but this is not what we fought for’, they take offence”.
Holomisa said he found the disciplinary action against Malema suspicious because other ANC allies got away with statements about neighbouring countries as controversial as the youth league’s on Botswana. “Why didn’t they discipline Cosatu when it blockaded Swaziland? Cosatu went further to say ‘we’ll blockade Zimbabwe’.”