Disbanded EC ANCYL to hear fate

National ANC top brass to rule

THE fate of the disbanded Eastern Cape ANC Youth League leadership structure is now in the hands of the party’s national top brass.

The disbanded provincial executive committee (PEC) finally met with the ANC’s national working committee (NWC), including president Jacob Zuma, his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa and secretary-general Gwede Mantashe this week.

The disgruntled members had travelled to Luthuli House in Johannesburg on Monday to plead for a reversal of the September disbandment. They were afforded an opportunity to plead their case in front of the NWC, and are now awaiting a decision from the mother body which could be delivered in the “next five days”, according to ANCYL provincial spokesman Ayongezwa Lungisa.

The PEC was suppose to have met the NWC two weeks ago, but the meeting was cancelled at the eleventh hour, when some members were already in Johannesburg.

This was because of the party’s NEC meeting sitting a day longer than scheduled.

This week’s meeting with the party’s top brass was confirmed yesterday by ANC national spokesman Zizi Kodwa, who said the NWC will communicate their decision with the league “as soon as they have made their determination on the matter”.

Kodwa said the NWC was yet to make a decision and he could not pre-empt it and say whether the disbandment would be reversed or not.

Lungisa yesterday said their meeting lasted for close on two hours and they were allowed to present their arguments against the ANCYL national executive committee’s decision to disband them.

The disbanded PEC, led by Nathi Nqoko as chairman and provincial secretary Butsha Lali, had been divided over the decision to appeal.

Lungisa had previously told Dispatch that one of the reasons given for their disbandment by the ANCYL NEC was that the league had failed to host various projects in honour of O R Tambo in October last year.

He said another reason was that they had failed to hold PEC meetings in recent months, reasons he said “were unjustified”.

Speaking to the Dispatch when the axing was effected, ANCYL national spokesman Mlonzi Mkhize said the provincial leadership was dissolved because the league wanted “to strengthen its structures”.

Some within the PEC did not support the move as they felt the league’s NEC had every right to disband their structure as PEC meetings hardly ever took place.

The axed structure is the fourth league executive in the province to be disbanded by the mother body since 2006. —