The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) in KwaZulu-Natal, the ruling party’s largest province, goes into this weekend’s national conference with no provincial leadership and without having adopted positions on a number of key issues up for discussion.
The provincial task team running the ANCYL in the province has also failed to convene general council meetings in all 11 regions, meaning that the province has been unable to agree on candidates for the league’s top leadership.
Infighting between factions in the ANCYL KwaZulu-Natal provincial task team — appointed in 2021 — and a lack of resources have hampered the process of holding a provincial conference, which has been called off three times.
Earlier this year, the ANC national leadership decided that those provinces which had not held their conferences, including KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape, would have to do so after the national conference was held.
Infighting between two factions led by convener Sanele Mbambo and coordinator Mafika Mndebele derailed the provincial conference in 2022.
On a second occasion, in December 2022, the conference was postponed indefinitely after delegates from the two factions began throwing chairs at each other.
Mndebele was suspended by the faction led by Mbambo over the debacle but he was reinstated by the ANCYL national task team in February.
In March, there was a third attempt to hold the conference, but this also failed, this time because the new national task team appointed to oversee the process had changed the programme.
In June Sizophila Mkhize, a member of the national task team who had indicated her intention to run as ANCYL president, withdrew from the contest, delivering another setback to the province’s hope of having one of its leaders elected to the top seven.
KwaZulu-Natal provincial task team spokesperson Sibonelo Nomvalo said the team was waiting for the go-ahead from the national task team for delegates from the province to attend the national conference. The number of KwaZulu-Natal delegates was still not clear as this was being ratified by the national task team, which was also auditing branch membership figures as part of the conference process.
“If the national team is ready, we will also be ready,” Nomvalo said. “The branches are still being audited to determine those which will be going to the conference.”
Nomvalo said none of the 11 regions had held general council meetings due to “financial distress” and a lack of resources, while the province had not held a provincial general council meeting at which mandates for delegates would normally be discussed.
“We do not have specific candidates. There are names which are being raised in different corners by comrades but there is no consolidated, formal position that has been endorsed by structures. It’s just comrades who are engaging each other on leadership preferences, not a provincial position,” he said.
Likewise, no positions had been taken on constitutional amendments or any other proposed resolutions to be presented to the conference.
“We are hoping that we will still be able to have a bite on those discussions during the national conference,” Nomvalo said.
Nomvalo said that the length of time the task team had been in existence had undermined its authority, while some of its members were now already over 35, which had made it more difficult to achieve its aim of holding a provincial conference.
“This situation is very undesirable,” Nomvalo said. “You can’t continue to command authority because the fact that you are an appointee, and not elected, will be there, one way or another.”
