Election of new ANC youth league leadership 'orchestrated' - political analyst

THE re-election of Collen Malatji as ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president is not a natural outcome.

That is the view of at least one political analyst following the election of the Top Five at the league's 27th national congress, held at the University of Limpopo.

Elected alongside Malatji is 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. However, political analyst Sandile Swana said this signifies the fact that the dominant faction in the ANC wants a domesticated youth league.

“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.

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 Julius Malema and his supporters.

“The youth league has not had its independence since the expulsion of Malema,” he added.  

Swana said 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.

Addressing the conference on Monday, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa called on the young people of the ANCYL to aggressively mobilise the country's youth behind the party 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).

"We must accelerate our own organisational renewal, but for it to be sustained, it must go hand in hand with national rejuvenation and renewal of the country. Firstly, the renewal of the ANC must be anchored by an effective developmental plan for growth, prosperity, and social equity. That must be underpinned by action that needs to be taken to reindustrialise our economy for mass employment creation, and to transform the racialised and genderised patterns of ownership of the resources of our country," he said.

As a rallying call for the youth league to show what it is made of, Ramaphosa said: "It is you who must mobilise young people in their millions next year. You must ensure that they come behind the National African Congress".

Cape Times