The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) 26th National Congress has a dark cloud of contested branch audit outcomes hanging over it and this culminated in a marathon meeting of the national youth task team (NYTT) that went on for more than 12 hours from Thursday night until the wee hours of Friday.
The meeting, where ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula was present and removed the NYTT convenor Xola Nqola, adjourned with an instruction to Zwelo Masilela who presented the audit report to revise it and come back with a new once on Friday.
Sunday World has seen the corrected report which brings into question the numbers the congress elections committee worked on to announce candidates that made it into the ballot from branch nominations.
On Thursday, the elections committee announced that the Collen Malatji slate had a clean sweep from branch nominations based on 2 972 branches that passed audit.
But the report that this scribe has seen reveals that 30 more branches were disqualified.
“The numbers you see are the corrections. When the elections committee announced the threshold being met, they based it on wrong numbers which nullifies that whole thing,” said a member of presidential hopeful Aphiwe Mkhangelwa campaign team..
“They have ruined the process but because this is the ANC, they will find a way to get around it.”
Those who attended the all-night long NYTT said it was neck and neck with some contesting the “bogus delegates” that made the cut while some that qualify were allegedly excluded.
“We told Zwelo to go back and bring us an audit report that makes sense. We are going to meet again today to look at the revised report because there seems to be a lot of bogus delegates here,” said an NYTT member who asked to remain faceless because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
“I can guarantee you now, the discussion on credentials is going to be a long and messy one that will split conference. If not managed well, conference may collapse at that very point.”
The audit report shows that the KwaZulu-Natal has the highest number of branches that made the cut at 582 followed closely behind by Eastern Cape with 538 while Western Cape is last with a mere 11 branches qualifying.
The Thursday night meeting is said to have been so heated that it saw Mbalula going toe-to-toe with Tlangi Mogale.
According to insiders, Mogale told Mbalula that he was “fighting for his boys to win at all cost”, an accusation the Luthuli House boss is said to have fiercely defended as false, in the process dropping a bombshell about who his preferred candidate was, but was not in the running.
As of midday on Friday, the registration of delegates was nowhere close to conclusion with some provinces only arriving at the time.
To read more political news and views, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa.
