ANC to cast beady eye on youth league

THE ANC Youth League enters the new year on tenterhooks, with the ANC’s newly elected national executive committee poised to launch a probe into the conduct of its leadership.

The new NEC, which meets in Durban on Friday for the first time since its members were elected at the Mangaung conference last month, has been given a mandate to look into the league’s leadership, assess its performance and decide on a way forward.

At Mangaung, Mpumalanga called on the ruling party to disband the league’s national executive, which sparked a robust debate in one of the closed plenary sessions. Although the call was not endorsed, the future of the league’s current leadership hangs in the balance.

The ANC’s NEC may appoint a special task team to deal with the youth league.

The league is weighing its options on how to go about filling the vacancies left by the expulsion from the ANC of its former president, Julius Malema, and the suspensions of its former spokesman, Floyd Shivambu, and secretary, Sindiso Magaqa.

Former National Youth Development Agency chairman and league NEC member Andile Lungisa said he did not expect the ANC to take a decision on the league soon.