A league of his own
Shoe-horned into the ANC Youth League’s top job by political kingmakers, Collen Maine oversaw the decline of what was once a vibrant ANC asset
● Collen Maine’s introduction as Julius Malema’s obvious replacement to head the ANC Youth League three years ago left the South African public underwhelmed.
In an article in this newspaper he was labelled Mr “34.9” after we grilled him about his advanced years because he was approaching the cut-off age for qualifying to belong to the league. Others nicknamed him Oros — a reference to the overweight mascot on the label of the orange-squash bottle.
I had met him for the first time in a hotel lobby in Lynnwood, Pretoria, a few weeks before he was elected youth league president. Later, he was so unimpressed with my “34.9” article that he stopped taking my calls. I endured cold handshakes whenever our paths crossed.
So it was not surprising that it took more than two months for him to agree to an exit interview.
He finally returns my calls on Tuesday this week. After a few minutes of my selling this slot as the most sought-after by political personalities, he grudgingly agrees to meet at his Luthuli House office on Thursday morning.
As per our agreement, I call him just before my team and I cross Pixley ka Isaka Seme Street to the building in downtown Johannesburg. Maine has forgotten about our meeting.
“I’m in Pretoria. Come to my house, the one you call a Gupta house,” he says.
Fantastic!
Not the shorts
After an hour’s drive, we find upmarket Woodhill Estate. We inform the security guard that we are here to see Mr Maine. We are not asked for a house number — our host is well known in this neck of the woods.
Maine’s neighbourhood is a millionaire’s enclave. The company car, a VW Polo, exposes us as visitors or perhaps service providers who have been called in to fix a broken appliance.
We park in the driveway next to three other cars, one of them a BMW SUV. We walk through the threedoor garage. There’s another Beemer parked inside.
A polite woman shows us the way. A gentleman escorts us to a dining room. As we wait for Maine, we question our career choice.
Then we hear footsteps, and someone breathing heavily, and Maine walks in, wearing a pink golf shirt and grey shorts. He is shocked to find me with two colleagues, photographer Thapelo Morebudi and videographer Xanderleigh Dookey.
“I thought it was a 10-minute interview,” he says, before asking Morebudi not to take photos of him in shorts. Morebudi obliges. Maine tells us he has just had an eye operation, which is why he couldn’t make the drive to Johannesburg. All is forgiven.
Before we begin, another man walks in with a tray with juice bottles, water and glasses. Great host.
Maine was an MEC of local government and housing under Supra Mahumapelo when he was elected ANC Youth League president in September 2015. This was despite predictions that he would not be able to revive the league, which was in a state of paralysis after the expulsion of Malema and the subsequent disbandment of its national executive committee (NEC).
Mahumapelo, Ace Magashule and David Mabuza were leaders of the “premier league” lobby group that consolidated its power by installing like-minded leaders in ANC structures. And because Maine belonged to this dominant faction, he emerged victorious, defeating youth leaders with public profiles, such as Ronald Lamola and Pule Mabe.
‘A game of the bishops’
During our first interview, at the City Lodge in Lynnwood three years ago, Maine denied the involvement of the premier league and Mahumapelo in his campaign.
Back in 2015, he described Mahumapelo as his mentor.
On Thursday, however, he admitted that the lobby group played a major role in his ascendancy.
“There was the premier league, which was a problem. There were comrades who met, the socalled premier league, and said North West will have these positions [leadership posts in youth league structures] on the basis of discussions of those comrades … He [Mahumapelo] had a hand in that context.
“The hand was not supposed to go beyond the election of the NEC. The NEC was supposed to be allowed to operate freely without taking sides. [But] if you look at the ANC conference [at Nasrec in December], the youth league took a posture [on who should be ANC president] not different from the premier league.”
Maine says he and other leaders tried to fend off the influence of the premier league, but did not succeed.
His views about Mahumapelo have changed completely,
He says the two of them had a major falling out when Mahumapelo attempted to act as his handler, dictating what must happen within the ANC Youth League. He says a number of youth league leaders took instructions from “old” ANC leaders, and that threatened to weaken his executive committee.
“Comrades would proudly say this is a game of the bishops, referring to their handlers in the ANC. Part of the problems in the province where I come from, why we have sour relations with Supra, is when I refused [to let] him dictate to the youth league who must become the chairperson after I left … he had a preferred candidate for chairperson and secretary.”
Part of … why we have sour relations with Supra is I refused [to let] him dictate to the league who must become chairperson after I left
Maine says Mahumapelo wanted to be heroworshipped for appointing him MEC of local government.
Thandi Modise was a better premier, he says. Not that he was ever instructed to carry out an illegal instruction under Mahumapelo.
“My best time was when I was MEC of social development under Thandi Modise. When comrade Thandi Modise had an issue with you, she told you to your face. She did not speak about you behind your back.”
Maine’s NEC failed dismally to spearhead the interests of young people. Under his leadership the EFF filled the void and became trendsetters.
When the ANC was under siege from opposition parties and lost key metros in 2016, Maine’s youth league was missing in action.
Behind the scenes
The youth league has over the years breathed life into the ANC whenever the party was going through a difficult time.
When the ANC was losing relevance in the 1940s, playing second fiddle to the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union, young leaders of the ANC formed the ANC Youth League and revived the ANC’s vibrancy.
In the 1970s, the struggle received a shot in the arm after the 1976 student uprising.
It was also the youth who kept the fires burning in the 1980s, under the banner of the United Democratic Front.
In the 1990s, the youth league of Peter Mokaba argued strongly for Thabo Mbeki to succeed Nelson Mandela.
The league also played kingmaker in Polokwane when Fikile Mbalula’s NEC successfully campaigned for Jacob Zuma.
Malema’s youth league wielded massive influence as it brought the issues of land and nationalisation back to the national agenda.
But you would be forgiven for thinking that ANC youth have been without leaders for the past three years.
Maine admits to not having performed to the league’s full potential, but blames the distraction of divisions within the ANC.
“It was during the most difficult time in the ANC. The ANC itself was divided right in the middle with the president of the ANC, Jacob Zuma, being at the centre of controversy in the country, and there were people in the ANC and in society who thought that president Jacob Zuma must exit, but the youth league came to a different conclusion.
“We thought that it was a direct attack on the ANC to attack JZ as head of the organisation. We thought that after they were finished with Zuma they will come for the ANC. During that time a lot of revelations … state capture investigation … that began to raise our eyebrows because we were not aware of those issues until such time that they were revealed in the public.
“That’s why when Jacob Zuma was recalled … on that dramatic evening, I was already at the SABC studios late in the evening appealing for his conscience to allow him to leave.”
He dismisses suggestions that his NEC was the worst performing one since the dawn of democracy in SA, claiming the Zuma announcement of free education for students from poor households as an achievement for his executive.
Maine claims the youth league worked tirelessly in the background, offering support to protesting students while lobbying ANC leaders to agree to the students’ demands.
Then why did Maine not join students when they marched to demand free education?
“You remember that Mmusi Maimane was chased away from one of the institutions because students were saying we don’t want leaders of political parties … we thought it would embarrass the league to have its president chased away.”
‘I can afford the bond’
Maine lists as another of his achievements the league’s push for a 40% youth deployment in public office, although they were allocated only 20%.
The National Youth Development Agency now has offices across SA — something else he claims never would have happened without the league’s push.
He also claims that the youth league built a house for a child-headed household somewhere in Ekurhuleni, but can’t remember where. He says such a project was one of many that were not covered in the media even though the league’s spokesperson, Mlondolozi Mkhize, assured them the media had been invited. “Maybe it’s because we did not have good relations with the media.”
Maine is reluctant to talk about his interactions with the Guptas after he was introduced to the family by Mahumapelo.
He tells us he is writing a book to be released in February next year.
I push harder. Did the Guptas help him buy his R5.4m house?
“I’m paying this house myself. I met the people at the bank [Bank of India] through that family.”
He refuses to say who in the family took him to the Bank of India.
He insists that media reports suggesting that he could not afford the R5.5m bond were incorrect.
“I can afford the bond.”
Maine says he is willing to testify should the commission investigating allegations of state capture call him to testify. But he will not volunteer to appear.