In a surprising turn of events a delegation from Eastern Cape has decided to abandon its registration process at the ANC Youth League national congress citing manipulation and factionalism.
The decision comes as a blow to the youth league, which has been working tirelessly to organise the national conference.
Anelisa Songqumasa, an Eastern Cape delegate, expressed concerns about the fairness and transparency of the registration procedure.
Speaking to Sunday World, Songqumasa claimed that manipulation has been taking place since the process started, even before the audits took place. He emphasized that this manipulation was as a result of faulty audits that had taken place earlier.
“It seems that there is no fairness and a clear bias towards certain factions,” Songqumasa stated. “The issue here is that the registration process has been hijacked by factional interests.”
These allegations have raised doubts about the integrity of the registration process, undermining the legitimacy of the conference.
The Eastern Cape along KwaZulu-Natal have been blamed for the delays in registration.
Presidential hopeful Collen Malatji addressed the delays earlier on Friday and clarified that audits were not a problem. However, he acknowledged that Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal had not conducted pre-audits on time, which led to a significant backlog.
Malatji also admitted that the youth league was not adequately organized for such a large-scale event, but he emphasized that they were learning from the experience.
“What has delayed us is that the big provinces such as the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal did not do pre-audits, now we had to do everything at once in one day … Eastern Cape and KZN are big provinces, dealing with preregistration is a lot of work and that process can take you a lot of hours, now that has delayed us,” he said.
“We were not too organized and it is a learning experience, we have not had a conference of the youth league in a very long time and we are doing it in three months, we have done a lot [of work putting it together].”
The latest developments by Eastern Cape to cancel the registration process brings attention to the underlying problems within the youth league.
The decision raises concerns about internal divisions and factionalism, emphasizing the importance of transparency and fairness in delegate selection and overall conference organization.
Assumptions circulating suggest that Malatji, the sole candidate for presidency, has already secured victory, leading to suspicions that the conference’s outcome has been predetermined.
Furthermore, some speculate that Eastern Cape’s inability to register is a deliberate tactic to hinder other potential delegates from meeting the 25% threshold if they were to emerge from the conference floor.
The youth league must now address these challenges head-on to restore confidence in its ability to represent the youth and move forward with a more inclusive and accountable approach.
The abandoned registration process serves as a wake-up call for the youth league to address underlying issues and ensure that future events are conducted with integrity and transparency.
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