Some ANC Youth Leagues members have called for the upcoming Gauteng provincial congress to be halted, accusing the leadership of manipulating processes to benefit their preferred candidates. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Some ANC Youth Leagues members have called for the upcoming Gauteng provincial congress to be halted, accusing the leadership of manipulating processes to benefit their preferred candidates.
Provincial convenor Amukelani Mashele and national working committee (NWC) member Ntombi Magwaza have been accused of abusing the process in a bid to install Samukelisiwe Madonsela as the provincial deputy secretary.
According to sources, Mandonsela’s installation in the provincial top five would help Mashele’s campaign. He plans to contest the post of deputy secretary for the ANC Johannesburg regional conference next year.
Branch meetings have also been disrupted by members throwing stones at each other, with shots being fired on more than one instance.
Sources in the youth league said the young lions were being used to disrupt branch meetings, including one held at Meadowlands in Soweto last Saturday at which one member was allegedly held hostage.
Mashele, Mandonsela and Magwaza have also been accused of launching their own branches to create parallel structures.
One source said that after the launch of a branch in Rockville Soweto, Madonsela launched a parallel structure because she had not been nominated.
“They launch these branches in the boot. They open their own branches and in some of the branches, they have two branch executive committees, which creates a parallel structure.”
The source said this has brought serious debate about the integrity of the congress and the renewal process in the youth league.
At this point the most likely slate to emerge from the provincial conference is Ntsako Kevin Mogobe as chairperson, Kamogelo Gasietsiwe as deputy chairperson, Mpume Sangweni as secretary, Madonsela as deputy secretary and Onwabile Lubhelwana as treasurer.
While the branches from the five Gauteng youth league regions were finding consensus on the other names, there was none over Madonsela, who did not have the backing of the Johannesburg region, where she came from.
The source said the manipulation aimed to use the youth league’s voting rights at the ANC provincial conference in 2025 to influence the outcome.
“We are going to a conference of the ANC in 2025 and the youth league has a certain percentage of voting rights in the conference so they will use those numbers to benefit them,’ the source said.
Another source said the legitimacy of the conference was in question because of problems at the instigation of members of the provincial task team.
The manipulation was causing chaos in the organisation — and violence at the branch general meetings, the source said.
“It is difficult to know which structure will be recognised and it’s causing disunity among young people,” the source said.
The source said it was difficult to report issues because they had to submit their grievances to the same people they were complaining about. “Obviously it will be rendered useless.”
The source said they would try to get the youth league national leadership to intervene and if this did not help they would “seek guidance from the ANC”.
Mashele denied the allegations that he was running parallel structures or tampering with the process in favour of Mandosela or any other candidate.
He said those who think their favourites would not emerge in the conference were “doing everything” to ensure that it doesn’t take place.
“If you want to collapse a congress, you go for the head,” Mashele. “There’s nothing untoward. We are expecting it but we are dealing with it organisationally.
“I report each and everything that happens in the province to the national executive committee through the office of the secretary-general. If there were issues that we were doing in these processes, they would have called me into order.”
Mashele confirmed that there had been incidents of violence branch meetings in Diepsloot and in the inner city, where two armed men had seized the meeting package and the register from officials sent to run it.
“In Diepsloot, it’s about their local issues. The contesting for the 2026 councillor nomination where ANC feel that if they have the ANC youth league in their pocket, they will be able to control who becomes a councillor,” Mashele said.
“It’s only a few incidents out of a total of about 480 branches we have launched, but we are dealing with this because we don’t take kindly to this. In most cases it’s about their local issues.”
Mashele said the calls to postpone the congress would not stop it from taking place as scheduled.
Youth league president Collen Malatji said branches could raise disputes about the process and that the conference would not sit until these had been resolved.
Malatji said the league was “running a very tight ship” so that they did not have delegates going to court to challenge the outcome.
“Not everyone will be satisfied with BGMs [branch general meetings] because we are a very democratic organisation, but we have been encouraging unity everywhere.
“It’s very difficult because some structures have gone over 14 years without going to an elective conference. The last conference in Gauteng was in 2014. It’s going to be a difficult ride but we want to succeed because our plan is that by the end of February next year, we will have all our structures.”
He said violence was being caused by “old people who wanted to put their fingers in things of the youth league”.
“We know they will not go down without a fight. They are going to look for people to disrupt conferences and others will attempt to fund interdicts. We know how they operate when they feel sidelined because they believe this youth league will contest them in the future. We know they want to be permanent leaders.
“Those who are disrupting are bought alcohol by these old people I’m talking about to create instability and a situation which seems like the processes are collapsing. It’s an old trick of old people and we are going to discipline anyone found being ill-disciplined.
He said the allegations against Magwaza were not true because she does not have any powers to launch any structure.
Magwaza also denied the allegations saying she was deployed in the Eastern Cape.
“I’m not really involved in the day-to-day of Gauteng,” she said, insisting that she would never support any act of violence.”
Madonsela added: “People can’t make such accusations without evidence. How is Amu causing the violence, because he is the provincial coordinator and he doesn’t enter the issue of greater Johannesburg?
“Comrade Ntombi is an NWC member, where does she enter? She is not even deployed in Gauteng. Comrades must be honest.”
Asked whether she was standing as provincial deputy secretary, Madonsela said she would contest if nominated.
“The position is vacant and we are all allowed to contest it, I can not now say I’m taking this thing. Delegates and members of the ANCYL are the ones that will choose a candidate that they want.”