By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The newly-elected ANC Youth League president, Collen Malatji has taken a swipe at the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema.
Malatji was speaking to media at Luthuli House on Monday, after the youth league’s congress in Nasrec at the weekend.
He was elected unopposed after Aphiwe Mkhangelwa declined nomination from the floor at the ANCYL’s 26th elective congress.
Malatji said Malema, who served as ANCYL president between 2008 and 2012, was fired due to ill-discipline as he “violated the constitution of the party” during his reign.
Malema was fired for economic freedom? That’s not true, that’s a lie that must be clarified. He was fired for ill-discipline. He was fired for contravening the constitution of the ANC and the youth league.
“He wanted to create a youth league to be a cult organisation that belongs to him like theEFF. In the EFF, no matter how educated you are, you can’t even speak. Educated doctors who you see they run around with water everywhere,” Malatji said.
Malatji added that in the ANC, members are allowed to share their views.
Everyone who believes in a cult, we expel them in the ANC. When they try to form their own organisation, we move away from them.
Malatji said Malema is popular on Twitter and garners a lot of support.
“If there was a Twitter vote, according to Twitter, Julius would be president of the country today.”
Malatji also told reporters that the structure’s focus ahead of the 2024 elections will be solutions to unemployment.
“If the youth league does not address the high levels of unemployment in this country and doesn’t address all the issues that were raised by this country, it is clear that the ANC will lose hegemony. The only strategy of the elections is to address those issues.
“People can no longer listen to anything else that does not speak to them. And we have a voice to raise to the ANC to say it can’t be that over 70% of unemployed people in this country are young people, and we expect that they will.”
“We are going to fight for the restructuring of our own economy. We are part of the renewal of the movement,” he maintained.
He said the ANCYL would address the problems facing young people in order for the country to be fully functional, economically and socially.
This past weekend’s elective conference was the ANCYL’s first since 2015, meaning the governing party has been without a legitimate youth league structure for the past eight years.
At the weekend, nearly 3000 ANCYL delegates descended to Nasrec to elect their top six leaders.
Additional NEC members were announced on Monday afternoon, with former deputy ANCYL task team convenor Fasiha Hassan topping the list.