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Johannesburg - The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) congress on Friday night adopted credentials with little contestation, national task team member Malusi Gigaba said.
“[The dispute resolution committee] listened to all the disputes from all the branches, all the provinces, entertained them and resolved them,” he told reporters on the side lines of the congress being held in Midrand, Johannesburg.
"So, as we were presenting the report to plenary, the provincial secretaries and chairpersons had all signed off to the credentials report and therefore the credentials report represented the collective."
It is understood several members from provinces, namely North West, Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Gauteng, were unhappy with the delegate selection process and believed some people had been excluded.
This followed allegations senior ANC leaders, known as the "premier league", were trying to impose ANCYL North West chairperson Collen Maine as president on the organisation.
Those who did not support Maine were allegedly excluded.
Maine has been nominated by the majority of the ANCYL provincial general councils.
Other presidential hopefuls were former league treasurer Pule Mabe, former deputy president Ronald Lamola and Tshwane regional chairperson Lesego Makhubela.
'Zebra approach'
On the exclusions, Gigaba said no delegate could be replaced at congress. However provinces had to ensure there was 50/50 gender parity, which he called the "zebra approach".
"In this instance we had ensure, through the zebra approach, that for every second delegate from that region is a female delegate to comply with the 50/50 approach," he said.
"It has caused a lot of consternation among our members, but fortunately we are complying with the constitutional requirement. Secondly there is absolutely no way from a point of political principle the ANCYL would allow a congress constituted only of men or of a disproportionate amount of male delegates to the exclusion of female delegates."
Gigaba said there were some objections during the adoption of credentials, but the majority were satisfied.
According to the credentials, the Eastern Cape had 325 voting delegates, Free State 177, Gauteng 364, KwaZulu-Natal 676, Limpopo 255, Mpumalanga 350, North West 255, Northern Cape 93 and Western Cape 100.
This was a total of 2 595 delegates representing the branches of the ANCYL
The numbers for the ANCYL provincial executive committees (PEC) were: Eastern Cape 22, Free State 23, Gauteng 25, KwaZulu-Natal 26, Limpopo 21, Mpumalanga 20, North West 25, Northern Cape 23 and Western Cape 23.
This was a total of 208 PEC members.
"All in all you have 2 083 voting delegates at present at the congress," Gigaba said.
Following the adoption of credentials, NTT co-ordinator Nathi Mthethwa would present the organisational and financial report which was a closed session.
Later on Friday night the congress, facilitated by the electoral commission, would finalise nominations for the league’s top five positions.
