President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday called ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula to stop ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leaders from stealing the limelight from him in the midst of a global mega event taking place in the country.
This as Mbalula had summoned the ANC kindergarten over their factional wars about whether or not to proceed with the special congress next month.
The meeting happened as headlines over the suspension of ANCYL president Collen Malatji by his secretary-general, Mntuwoxolo Ngudle, hogged the headlines.
Sunday World can reveal that Ramaphosa did not like this and on Friday morning phoned Mbalula who was to meet the ANCYL national executive committee.
“The SG (Mbalula) said president Ramaphosa was concerned that ANC members were preoccupied with the youth league’s discord instead of focusing on the G20 Summit,” said a well-placed source who was at the meeting.
Another person who attended the same meeting confirmed, “Yes, the SG relayed the president’s message saying the Ramza was asking what’s going on; he’s seeing the youth league all over the news, causing chaos and trending for the wrong reasons when we are hosting international visitors and called for a truce and sanity to be restored.”
When Mbalula managed to have the warring parties drinking from the same cup, young lions’ money man Zwelo Masilela is said to have proposed a press conference as a show of unity on Saturday, which Mbalula sternly shot down, saying only the G20 must be on the news.
Ramaphosa and Mbalula’s rebuke comes as factional battles within the league continue to dominate the news cycle, prompting frustration within the party’s top leadership.
This led to Mbalula summoning the league to the ANC headquarters to urge them to sort out the issues between the league’s Malatji and Ngudle, on whose side is also treasurer-general Zwelo Masilela.
The fallout between the ANCYL trio has been described as the “great downfall” for the ANC parent body’s head of organizing, Mdu Manana, who has apparently lost control of his boys.
Malatji, Ngudle and Masilela have not been on speaking terms for weeks, and their war escalated in the wee hours of Friday morning when Ngudle suspended Malatji.
“Comrade Mdu has lost control of the youth league, which he thought he had a tight grip on through controlling Collen and Zwelo, but he realized later that the train had left the station. Collen has pulled the rug out from under comrade Mdu; he is done.”
Those close to the fire say the pulling away from Manana by Malatji has forced Masilela, a known close ally of Manana, to align with Ngudle.
Ngudle and Masilela, who both agreed about the early congress proposal going into the NGC in September, apparently did not know that it was meant to process them out of the league NEC using their age.
Worse still, their fellow youth league national executive committee members say the duo agreed with the early conference idea in its formative stage because they were hopeful they would be secured elsewhere.
That was until both failed to make the ANC parent body’s regional executive committee in Ehlanzeni and OR Tambo. They had also only agreed on principle, not knowing that Malatji would outsmart them and set it for next month, as it is now billed for 14-17 in Polokwane.
Our informants in the higher echelons of the league say the panic to stop the early conference is out of the realization that it could be game over for both Masilela and Ngudle, alongside their eldership handlers Manane and Stella Ndabeni – both of whom have Top Seven ambition for 2027.
Manana is believed to have been eyeing the secretary-general post in 2027, while Ndabeni is said to have fancied herself as deputy president, mainly through the backing of Ngudle and Masilela as provincial secretaries of their home provinces and whatever proxies they would have left in the league.
“Ngudle and Zwelo had thought they would secure themselves and further their influence by influencing who gets into the national office during the early congress; that is why they agreed with Collen initially, but he is running his own thing,” said a NEC member.
“But Collen has instead agreed with his deputy Phumzile (Mgcina, the deputy president) to elevate Tsakani (Tshiviti, the deputy SG) to become secretary-general, and Ngudle and Zwelo are vehemently opposed to that.”
Consequently, Masilela has written to Ngudle, arguing that the youth league has not reached a threshold of 3 700 branches to convene a conference, as he knows the qualifying branches to be standing at 2 600. And this, he says, he knows as the finance boss through membership payment, which currently amounts to R2.6-million instead of R3.7-million.
“This shortfall indicates that, at present, we have not met the required 70% membership payment threshold necessary for the convening of the national congress. Consequently, this situation necessitates an urgent sitting of the NEC to deliberate on the matter, assess the implications and agree on a practical and constitutionally compliant way forward before the commencement of the annual general meeting,” reads Masilela’s letter to Ngudle.
The drama escalated on Thursday night when the youth league’s national executive committee attempted to hold a virtual meeting. Opponents of Malatji were allegedly locked out of the online gathering.
In retaliation, they convened their own meeting where they took a decision to suspend the president.
But in a classic tit-for-tat, the Malatji group in their own meeting had simultaneously passed a vote of no confidence against the secretary-general, Ngudle, according to insiders.
This left the league with two suspended top officials and parallel NECs claiming legitimacy.
But Mbalula ended the whole madness on Friday after summoning the Youth League NEC and telling Malatji, Ngudle and Masilela to put the weapons down and smoke the peace pipe.
