Johannesburg-The ANC Youth League in some provinces is pushing back against the candidate list for councillors, saying elders in the organization had deliberately excluded the youth.
The league’s Limpopo and Mpumalanga have cried foul on the composition of candidate lists for the upcoming local elections in November.
This comes after the party elections committee head, former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, also raised alarm bells over the process to select candidates, saying it had sidelined youth and women.
Of the five districts in Limpopo, only Mopani and Vhembe districts reached the 25% threshold for youth representatives.
The other three districts – Waterberg, Sekhukhune and Capricorn – only managed to reach 20% of the threshold.
“We are disappointed since the issue of having at least 25% of youth representation is a matter of ANC policy and not a favour.
“There is an issue of eldership, which is adamant in blocking young people from ascending to leadership positions,” said ANCYL provincial task team coordinator Tonny Rachoene on Friday.
Rachoene claimed that factionalism had led to young people not being considered for councils, which are often viewed as holding swing votes in the party’s highly contested elective conferences.
“The issue of deep-rooted factionalism practised by some regional and provincial leaders also contributed to the problem,” he added.
Rachoene was responding to objections from the league’s regional congress preparatory committee (RCPC) in Waterberg, which cried foul over the exclusion of young leaders.
“The ANCYL Waterberg RCPC is disappointed about the conduct of our leaders. There seems to be clandestine activities that target the removal of young comrades from the councillor lists,” said Waterberg ANCYL RCPC spokesperson Mpho Shai.
He said the ANCYL RCPC would stand by its demand that they have younger mayors, council speakers and members of the mayoral committees in five local municipalities and one district.
Rachoene said while the RCPC’s demands would be supported across the province, time was not on their side.
“The ANCYL has already taken the matter up with the ANC. Since the registration of candidates is closed, the focus is now on the election campaign. After elections, the ANC should prioritise young people as members of political management teams in municipalities that undermined youth representation,” Rachoene said.
ANC provincial secretary Soviet Lekganyane’s counter to Rachoene’s objections was that democracy was the cause of the failure to meet the threshold. He said Limpopo had 568 branches, which had all selected their own candidates.
“We have seen their statement where they [the ANCYL] are taking issue with leaders. The truth is there is 25% of an ANC quota, yet we have to consider that we asked our communities to select their own leaders.
“It would have been wrong for us to turn around and tell them to remove those they selected and replace them with our younger leaders. Democracy had the final word,” he said.
He acknowledged that there were material issues that were raised in an ANC electoral committee report delivered to the national executive council (NEC) by Kgalema Motlanthe.
“The report was adopted by the ANC NEC. It found many issues that need the attention of the ANC, which is what we have all agreed to do after the pending local government elections,” Lekganyane said.
The ANCYL’s accusations come a few weeks after a party elder painted a picture of a party beset by factionalism and manipulation of party-list processes.
In a statement, the league’s Mpumalanga chapter said this week that the final lists of council candidates did not have the 25% youth representation.
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