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Judging by the chaotic scenes at the registration centre of delegates for the ANCYL national congress yesterday, the next three days might be rather chaotic.
With incidents of fighting, threats of court action, interference by senior officials and bogus delegates at the Nasrec Expo Centre in the south of Johannesburg, the spotlight will be on the mother body’s response to the allegations against senior officials.
While delegates were jostling and fighting officials and deployed ANC NEC members, the ANCYL’s national youth task team (NYTT) held its final preparatory meeting at Nasrec.
The meeting was characterised by drama as the convenor, Xola Nqola, was suspended after being accused of having been involved in organising one of the illegal regional conferences in the Eastern Cape.
City Press reported last week that Nqola could face disciplinary action from the governing party, as he is accused of dividing structures and pushing the Eastern Cape provincial structure to hold a conference without following processes ahead of the national elective conference scheduled for the weekend.
READ: Eastern Cape Youth League conference organisers face disciplinary action
At the registration centre, chairs allegedly flew when ANC NEC official Mduduzi Manana tried to intervene during registration.
Manana and ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula are some of the senior officials who have been accused of interfering in the youth structure's preparations.
They have been accused of trying to influence the leadership of the youth structure before the congress.
Briefing the media about the state of readiness, the ANCYL electoral committee, led by Thandi Tobias, said their focus was to ensure the smooth running of the congress.
The committee said it was certain that the congress was going to take place despite threats of court actions.
Several regions, including Vhembe, threatened to go to court after their grievances were not addressed. The region complained about verification processes and other logistics, which they claimed were raised before congress.
READ: It's a three-way contest for Youth League Presidency
The committee refused to respond to allegations mentioned by some branches, arguing that its mandate was to facilitate the congress.
Jomo Nyambi, the deputy convenor, said the committee was furnished with all necessary documents to ensure seamless processing of its work, including the constitution of the youth league, roadmap, guidelines and the side of verification reports.
He said after their appointment, they met with the elections agency and officially appointed observers representing the ANC Youth League.
“The agency further provided all nomination boxes, which were properly sealed for unsealing the presence of all the observers. The counting of nominations started immediately after the opening of the boxes, with the first phase being for the ANC Youth League official position in line with the guidelines,” he said.
Nyambi said for one to qualify for nomination in the top five structures, a candidate needed to be nominated and supported by 20% of the branches that passed the audit.
He said:
Nyambi revealed that the only candidates who reached the threshold and qualified to be on the ballot after opening the boxes were Collen Malatji, who was contesting for the position of president.
Malatji was nominated by 1 904 branches with KwaZulu-Natal with the highest number at 394 nominations.
Phumzile Mgcina also met the threshold for the position of deputy president.
Mgcina received 1 591 nominations with Eastern Cape being the biggest province to nominate her at 338. Mntuwoxolo Ngudle’s name also qualified for the secretary-general contest with 1 767 nominations.
Ngudle received more nominations in Limpopo where he got 386 nominations. In the position of deputy secretary general, Tsakani Shiviti qualified with 1 570 nominations with Eastern Cape being her biggest at 334 nominations.
READ: Cebolenkosi Khumalo - the leader the ANC Youth League needs
In the position of treasurer-general, Zwelo Masilela was nominated by 1 741 branches with the Eastern Cape nominating him with 343 branches.
City Press reported that these groups belonged to the same slate.
Nyambi said other names were nominated but failed to meet the threshold.
“This does not mean the list of people I mention won’t be contested,” he said.
Mbalula is expected to open the congress, while President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to close it on Sunday.
