W Cape ANCYL suspends its interim co-ordinator
THE Western Cape ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has suspended its interim provincial co-ordinator Asanda Luwaca after a drumbeat of complaints against her, including bypassing other leaders and giving carte blanche to her private secretary to officiate at branch meetings.
But Luwaca contends that she has not been suspended. The provincial youth league’s congress preparatory committee met on Thursday and agreed to suspend Luwaca, who was appointed in November last year by President Cyril Ramaphosa as the first woman chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency.
Luwaca’s “suspension” comes a few weeks ahead of the national youth league conference, before which all regional and provincial conferences must have concluded with thresholds met. On Saturday, Luwaca said: “I have not received any formal communique from the structure around my alleged suspension.”
Speaking to the Cape Argus, provincial ANCYL spokesperson Mesuli Kama said members and leaders used WhatsApp to communicate, but at some point she changed the group’s settings to a one-way communication.
“It was only she who could communicate in that group. As a result, the members were not able to interact and communicate. On Wednesday, there were a number of allegations of misconduct about her ... (including) the appointment of a private secretary.
“Her private secretary would go to branch meetings, officiate at the meetings and bypass leaders. That is creating divisions in the organisation,” Kama said.
“The working committee noted countless offences of the code of conduct, (of) which the provincial co-ordinator is in breach of and simply refuses to be corrected in a way that allows the organisation to function.”
He said Luwaca was “impeding the organisation”. Kama said other sections of the youth league’s code of conduct allegedly transgressed by Luwaca include her penning a letter to Karoo league members to list those who could contest without knowing the members and their standing, contradicting another list from the regional co-ordinator.
“That also creates divisions in the organisation. So there are a number of rules she has broken, which the disciplinary committee will be able to look at. She will be sent a charge sheet and get a fair hearing,” Kama said.
Luwaca’s suspension comes as the provincial youth league faces the mammoth task of holding a few regional conferences, its provincial conference and the national youth conference before it can send delegates to the party’s national conference in December.
Kama said the provincial youth league would visit all six regions “to assess, strengthen and complete” the tasks of renewing the organisation and delivering the remaining regional congresses, and ultimately, the provincial congress. He said the working committee had been delegated to hold discussions with the national ANCYL task team with a view to finalising all processes to guarantee a smooth and timely path to all of the congresses.