×

We've got news for you.

Register on SowetanLIVE at no cost to receive newsletters, read exclusive articles & more.
Register now

'ANC youth league needs a new leader'

BUOYANT: Former ANCYL leader Julius Malema
BUOYANT: Former ANCYL leader Julius Malema

The ANC needs a calibre of young people who have high moral standards and “not ill-disciplined youngsters who speak while their elders were speaking”

ANC Youth League’s national treasurer Pule Mabe has called for the league’s 2011 national elective conference that re- elected Julius Malema into office to be reconvened.

 Mabe, who used to be expelled Malema’s close confidant but had since broken ranks, said the outcome of last year’s ANCYL conference was not credible and was based on cult following.

Speaking in Queenstown over the weekend while accompanying SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande for the 27th commemoration of the Queenstown Massacre, Mabe said ANC members must desist from supporting individuals as that was destroying the credibility of the ANC.

Meanwhile, Nzimande told the packed Mzukisi Skweyiya Hall in Queenstown’s Mlungisi Township that one of the things that “will kill the ANC” was its failure to report back on their operations to their branches.

Taking a thinly veiled swipe on the embattled Malema, Mabe said the ANC needed a calibre of young people who had high moral standards and “not ill-disciplined youngsters who speak while their elders were speaking”.

Mabe said members should stay away from supporting “so and so in the organisation”, saying instead, they should focus towards forging unity for the benefit of the embattled organisation.

 “We, members of the real youth league feels that another national elective conference should be reconvened as we say last year’s conference was not credible and was about people supporting so and so.

“We must stay away from such acts of supporting so and so within our movement as that leads to cult following and is to the detriment of our beloved ANC.

“Instead we should preach unity within the organisation instead of reducing the ANC into a chappies little league,” Mabe, who was suspended as the league’s treasury earlier this year, said.

Both Mabe and Nzimande retaliated their calls for ANC president Jacob Zuma to be re-elected during the much anticipated ANC national elective conference to be held in Bloemfontein from December 16.

“We must restore the discipline and unity of the ANC and we can do that by re-electing president Zuma in Mangaung.

 “Those who are seeking change are right, but they should know that the only change we need is the change in people’s material conditions and not change in leadership.

“The next five years should be declared the Zuma’s moment,” Mabe said.

Nzimande, who was representing the ANC national executive in the commemoration, said people who wanted change of leadership were those who had no best interest of the country and the poor at heart.

“Why are people saying Zuma must not be re-elected? What has he done for them to decided as such? Those who say there is no leadership should judge us by what we said we were going to do and not through a mad criteria like it is now,” Nzimande said.

The two political heavyweights were guests in Mlungisi Township which this weekend was commemorating the 1985 killing of 11 of their community members.

The Mlungisi community mobilised in 1985 to oppose the community councils then initiated by former President PW Botha.

The locals were particularly angry over household evictions and the derelict Mlungisi infrastructure. A consumer boycott was launched on August 12, leading to negotiations with the white business community. On November 17 1985, during a report-back on the negotiations at Nonzwakazi Methodist church, police surrounded the church, lobbed teargas inside and allegedly fired through the windows, killing 11 people.

The commemoration was preceded by a wreath laying ceremony at a monument erected in memory of those who were killed.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.