By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit:Tracy Lark.
Collen Malatji has been elected as the new African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) President unopposed on Saturday night.
This ends an eight-year period where the youth wing of the governing party has been without an elected leadership due to infighting and disbandment of the structure’s leadership.
The electoral committee revealed the names of the candidates who have successfully made it onto the ballot through branch nominations with Malatji for the big one, Phumzile Mgcina for deputy president, Mntuwoxolo Ngudle for secretary-general, Tsakani Shiviti for deputy secretary, and Zwelo Masilela for treasurer.
All of them individually received the nod from more than 1 500 branches each.
The opposing faction, led by Eastern Cape’s Aphiwe Mkhangelwa, failed to make the cut even with the low threshold of 20%, which meant one needed a mere 600 branch nominations.
According to the electoral committee, a total of 3 318 branches were audited with 2 972 of them being verified. The committee emphasized that the auditing process was meticulous and commenced on June 27.
Phumzile Mgcina was also elected unopposed for the position of deputy president.
Mntuwoxolo Ngudle was elected as the secretary-general unopposed.
Tsakane Shivitu was elected as the first secretary general unopposed.
The position of second deputy secretary general went to Olga Seate, also unopposed.
Zwelo Masilela was elected treasurer general after Thuthukile Zuma did not meet the threshold.
The conference moved quickly to adopt the credentials, a topic which had been predicted to raise some debate.
There were concerns raised by regions and branches about a membership audit ahead of the conference.
Last-minute leadership meetings were held on Friday into Saturday morning as some members of the temporary leadership structures raised these concerns.
The ANC sent in a high-level national executive committee delegation of over 10 members to the conference to help quash fights about conference outlines.
Delivering the political overview at the long awaited ANCYL conference on Saturday, the league’s national youth task team deputy convenor, Fasiha Hassan, said “If the ANCYL is to survive the next phase of its existence, it must assert its autonomy. While we exist within the framework of the ANC and broader mass democratic movement, our standing as an organisation has been compromised by leaders who are attached at the hip to elders. We must break from this habit and determine our own path as young people.”
While she acknowledged that the country’s economic downturn was also due to global political and economic conditions, she said this could not be used as a cop out to absolve leadership from taking responsibility for opening the economy for young people.
“We must be more aggressive in utilising our political power to create reforms that will supply jobs and opportunities for young people. We need to address corruption in the State and the private sector that robs us as young people of these opportunities.
“We must continue to hold those who steal from us accountable. The era of digitisation is upon us, and the opportunity for young South Africans to be active participants in a growing digitised economy must not be missed. The skills gap that exists must be addressed urgently so that we are able to take full benefit from this,” she said.
On Sunday, the league is expected to deal with commissions dealing with policy considerations and conference will be closed by President Cyril Ramaphosa.