The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) national elective conference in Polokwane this week concluded with the unopposed re-election of Collen Malatji as president with suggestions that this will reinforce secretary-general Fikile Mbalula’s ambitions of becoming party president.
The newly elected Top Five leadership alongside Malatji includes Francisco Dyantyi (31), who moves from provincial secretary to deputy president. Tsakani Shiviti (34), the ANC chairperson of Parliament’s portfolio committee on science, technology and innovation, was elected secretary-general.
Zamakhanyase Khanyase (31) was elected first deputy secretary-general, having served as national spokesperson in the previous administration. Jacob Tau will now serve as treasurer-general, and Venus Blennies-Magage (30), the MEC for finance, economic development and tourism in the Northern Cape, was elected second deputy secretary-general.
Malatji was re-elected uncontested for a second term in the early hours of Tuesday morning at the league’s 27th national congress, held at the University of Limpopo under the banner of “Economic Freedom and Social Change: Now, Not Later.”
reported that EFF leader Julius Malema warned last week that Mbalula is on course to become the party’s next president unless there is a serious intervention to stop him, and that the party’s deputy president, Paul Mashatile, was still “trying to catch up”.
Speaking during a media briefing in Johannesburg, malema said that without decisive action, Mbalula is going to be the party’s next president.
“I warned you that there’s Mbalula. If they allow him to do what he’s doing, he’s going to lead them,” Malema said.
He added that if the ANC’s succession battle were a marathon, “Mbalula is ahead, Paul (Mashatile) is trying to catch up, and I don’t know how he will get there”
The lack of challenge for the top position, and against his entire slate of preferred leaders, has ignited debate over the ANCYL’s political autonomy and its function within the mother body.
Political analyst Sandile Swana said that the clean sweep was far from ‘a spontaneous democratic exercise’.
“Clearly the re-election of Collen Malatji means that the ANC itself has orchestrated this outcome that they have had Malatji’s slate unopposed,” Swana said.
“So it was agreed ahead of time that these ones would be elected unopposed… that is not a natural outcome. It is always orchestrated… It signifies the fact that the dominant faction in the ANC wants a domesticated youth league.”
Swana’s comments highlight a long-standing concern that the ANCYL has been stripped of its historic independence, a change he traces back to the expulsion of former president Malema and his supporters.
“The youth league has not had its independence since the expulsion of Malema,” he added. “That is the situation.”
The conference, which took place from December 14, was held earlier than scheduled.
In August, the ANCYL national general congress in the Northern Cape resolved that the national executive committee (NEC) should convene an early conference, as many members were approaching or had exceeded the age limit of 35.
Despite the widespread perception of a pre-determined outcome, reports indicated that Malatji and his slate were expected to make a clean sweep precisely because no one had formally challenged him for the presidency.
However, prior to the conference, Malatji had publicly stated his commitment to internal democracy.
Reportedly he said that the ANCYL “believes in democratic practices and that he is willing to be challenged even from the floor.”
Swana, however, remains unconvinced that the current ANCYL leadership under Malatji has demonstrated the necessary political clout or ideological clarity.
“Malatji has not been able to profile ideological clarity and a disciplined progressive program that is consistent and measurable in its progress,” Swana argued.
“The impact of the Youth league is subdued and hard to detect what exactly changes in the ANC. The emergence of people like Malatji as leaders is an indication that the youth league has lost its power for a long time,” he concluded.
The conference was also addressed by ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, who called on the young people of the ANCYL to aggressively mobilise the country’s youth behind the ANC in next year’s local government elections.
Ramaphosa praised the youth for their “enduring spirit and immense contribution” to some of the declarations made at the party’s recent National General Council (NGC).
