The race for ANC Youth League (ANCYL) presidency has been blown wide open after the frontrunner for the post, Nonceba Mhlauli told Sunday World that she will not avail herself when the structure convenes its national congress in June.
Mhlauli, who is currently the ANCYL national task team convenor and has been touted to take over as president. She believes it would make no political sense for her to contest.
It is especially true after her election as a member of the parent body’s national executive committee (NEC) and national working committee (NWC).
According to her, running for the much sought-after position to lead young people within the governing party was more sensible before her election to the mother body’s two powerful structures in the form of the NEC and NWC.
However, as things stand, she said, seeking the ANCYL presidency would be tantamount to hogging political power.
“I was running because I was nominated overwhelmingly by the way. I was definitely intending to accept the nomination because various structures would have nominated me to lead the young lions,” said Mhlauli.
“The question that we are faced with right now is whether it makes political sense for me and as NEC and NWC member of the ANC to continue to contest for president of the youth league. And my view is that it would not make political sense.
“Nothing precludes me from running. I am a member of the youth league in good standing. I’m 32 years old and turning 33 next year, so I would have almost a full term in office. I could stand but I do not think that it is a sensible and wise thing to do to stand for the position of ANC Youth League president or any other official position.”
Mhlauli, who was among the key campaigners for ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa’s second term last year, is now faced with the mammoth task of taking the ANCYL to its first congress in more than five years.
When her task team took over in 2021, they found an ANCYL that had been liquidated for failing to meet its financial obligations.
They have since managed to get the liquidation rescinded and paid the creditors that were owed, but the league’s financial situation remains dire.
This is despite the need to raise about R20-million to finance the national congress. However, Mhlauli said they had lined up several fundraising events in the next three months and were banking on the assistance of the mother body, which is equally struggling financially.
The ANCYL financial woes that led to their liquidation were compounded by their failure to pay legal costs for DA’s Helen Zille, who had won a defamation case against its erstwhile leaders Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu, who called her a “racist”.
Mhlauli said she remained upbeat that they had turned the corner and the national congress will sit in June.
“We came into office with the original time frame of six months, which was unreasonable because all of the terms of office of structures at the provincial, regional, and branch [level] had lapsed,” she said.
“The biggest hurdle we had to deal with first was that we had no money because we had been liquidated, and our bank accounts were frozen. We managed to get the liquidation order rescinded. We relaunched our branches, and convened regional and provincial conferences.”
With Mhlauli having withdrawn from the race, it remains to be seen who will emerge as a front-runner among those that have indicated interest before and whether or not new contenders will seize the opportunity.
The list of those whose names have been bandied about for the ANCYL presidency includes ANC MP Collen Malatji, as well as national task team member Tlangi Mogale, and ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive committee (PEC) member Sizophila Mkhize.
Mogale is, however, at risk of being disqualified by age since she turns 35 in May. This is a month before the national congress of the structure whose age limit rules state that only those under the age of 35 can contest for any position.
Some have called for the ANC NEC member and deputy chairperson of the party’s economic transformation committee, Zuko Godlimpi, to run for ANCYL president.
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