ANCYL dissolves its E Cape structure

Provincial leaders vow to fight back

THE ANC Youth League National Executive Committee (NEC) has disbanded its Eastern Cape provincial structure.

In a press briefing held yesterday, the league also announced that its Johannesburg region had also been disbanded.

Speaking to the Daily Dispatch after the presser, ANCYL spokesman Mlondi Mkhize said: “The NWC took a decision to strengthen its structures. The current [Eastern Cape] PEC is no longer a PEC. They are disbanded.”

This comes after the provincial ANC Youth League broke ranks with its mother body, and told league national working committee (NWC) members that there was no need for the ruling party to call an early conference but that Zuma had to go instead.

The provincial structure instead called for a consultative conference. At the time league spokesman Ayogezwa Lungisa confirmed that 90% of more than 600 branches in attendance supported that position.

The Daily Dispatch understands that the national body is at odds with its provincial counterparts on various national and social issues.

According to high ranking ANCYL sources, the decision to disband the Eastern Cape structure was discussed at length at their national NWC meeting, which referred the decision to last weekend’s NEC.

“The reason to disband the province lies in the different view that we have. It’s because we hold a different stance on a lot of issues, but there are two main issues,” a highly placed source said.

The source said that the first issue stemmed from when the provincial structure broke ranks with the NEC on the matter of the ANC going to an early conference.

Another source also close to the developments said that the national leaders should expect resistance from the province as they wouldn’t take such decisions “lying down”.

“They want to disband us because we disagreed with them on the issue of an early conference. What irked them the most was the call by our branches for President Zuma to step aside,” the PEC member said.

Contacted for comment, Lungisa wouldn’t be drawn to discuss the decision to disband the provincial leadership.

“I cannot comment on that, only the SG [Njabulo Nzuza] can comment. We will have a PEC meeting, its only after then that we can comment on a range of issues,” Lungisa said.