Media and NGOs blamed for crisis brewing in ANC

TROUBLES facing the ANC were a result of outside influences trying to destabilise the party, ANC Youth League convener Mzwandile Masina said yesterday. “We have been talking about the counter-revolution that is assisted by a range of players in society, including media and international NGOs. And you can see how almost arrogant the opposition has become in dealing with the ANC,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the ANCYL consultative conference in Soweto.

“If you look at what’s happening in Parliament you get a sense that indeed there are those who are hell bent on wanting to ensure that the democracy which took place on May 7 is not recognised.”

Masina said this was what President Jacob Zuma meant when he said the ANC was in trouble. “We are basically being held ransom by those who did not get the majority of the votes.”

In his opening address to ANCYL on Wednesday, Zuma said the party had been shaken and was in trouble. “We admit that the organisation is in trouble,” he told delegates. “I can guarantee you that if everything goes wrong in the ANC, everything will go wrong in this country.”

The league was holding a consultative conference this week during which delegates would discuss policy and rebuilding the organisation.

The ANC disbanded the league’s national executive committee last year and replaced it with a national task team (NTT).

The conference was supposed to be an elective one, but the NTT on Tuesday announced that voting for new leaders would no longer take place.

Leadership would be elected at a second conference early next year. Some delegates were upset that they would not be able to vote, with a group from Gauteng booing the decision and some ANC leaders. They calmed down before Zuma arrived. – Sapa