The contest for the presidency of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) is now becoming a four horse race, and the league might have its first female president if the current discussions among its members are anything to go by.
Sunday World can reveal that ANC MP Collen Malatji, who is considered a frontrunner for the league presidency, will be facing a challenge from Tlangi Mogale, a female ANCYL leader from Tshwane region, and another candidate from the recently created structure called ANCYL Crisis Committee led by Katlego Mamabolo, Nonceba Mhlauli and Luzuko Bashman.
Current ANCYL national task team spokesperson Sizophila Mkhize is al- so believed to be in the running for the league’s top post, allegedly on the support of Radical Economic Transformation (RET) aligned to former president Jacob Zuma and his allies.
The task team has announced that it will be taking the youth league to conference in January, in what is expected to be a highly charged gathering, with ANC RET and CR17 factions looking to influence outcomes to strengthen their power bases ahead of the ANC national general council and national conference next year.
Details emerging from key provinces such as Limpopo, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal indicate that Malatji, known to be a CR17 candidate, is being wooed over by the Zuma aligned faction and has had several meetings with Duduzane Zuma, who at some point had interest to lead the league but was no longer eligible due to age.
ANCYL members said that Malatji, despite being the favourite to lead the league, was slowly losing support due to confusion about his allegiances on the main politics of the ANC.
Malatji, who confirmed that he was still in the race, said he was aware about the claims that were peddled against him that he was now aligned to a faction connected to former president Zuma.
“They are spreading fake information about me because they know that I’m the only candidate left who has proper credentials,” he said.
Malatji said he was being targeted because he was not a candidate of old people, but that of young people.
Touted as the likely first female president of the youth league, Mogale’s name has gained traction in provinces such as Limpopo and North West though some members believe that her age might be a problem because she was already nearing 35.
