Chairs were still empty by late afternoon on Sunday at the Greyville Racecourse Conference Centre in Durban where the ANC Youth League was meant to hold its elective conference. Picture: Willem Phungula
The ANC Youth League elective conference in KwaZulu-Natal could be postponed again without electing a new leadership due to unresolved problems.
The conference was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday in Durban but by around 5pm on Sunday it had not started. On Saturday the leadership dealt with registration until the early hours of Sunday morning. According to the programme, the league’s coordinating team shared with the media, the conference was supposed to start at 8am on Sunday, however, the leadership spent the whole day in a meeting still trying to resolve delegates’ credentials, according to a delegate from the south coast of the province.
The delegate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one of the causes of the delay was the issue of some of the delegates from the Tolomane Mnyauza region (formerly known as Ugu) on the South Coast of the province whose names were not on the list of delegates.
“We had a problem with the list of delegates from the south coast as some of the comrades did not appear on the list, however, we have sorted that out now,” said the delegate.
It is not clear whether the league will still be able to elect the new leadership. In a statement, the league posted around 3pm on Sunday, it announced that the conference would start at 3.30pm, however around 4pm the hall was still empty and delegates were still loitering around Greyville Racecourse, waiting to be called. In the statement, the league said the conference will be opened by the league’s national secretary-general Mntuwoxolo Ngudle. The conference was supposed meant to have closedon Sunday.
Kwanda Zungu, a provincial task team spokesperson said he was still locked in the meeting and could not comment.
The league has been without the leadership in recent years after several postponements due to unresolved issues. The last elected leadership was led by former Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu as the provincial chairperson and Thanduxolo Sabelo as the provincial secretary in 2022. The last attempt to hold the conference was in July 2023 but this was cancelled at the last minute by the national leadership which directed that all conferences must be halted and the focus instead was placed on last year’s general elections.
Willem.phungula@inl.co.za