Rubusana ANCYL elects new leadership

Regional secretary Antonio Carels denies imposing candidates on league

The ANC Youth League in the Dr WB Rubusana region has elected a new leadership after months of uncertainty caused by two structures claiming to be in charge.

Loyiso Mkubelo was elected as the league’s new regional chair over the weekend.

Mkubelo’s election took place after the provincial ANCYL task team decided to disband both parallel structures, elected hours apart in June, when Ondela Sokomani and Pedro Mzileni emerged as chairs.

Neither was elected at Saturday’s elective conference, which was marred by several glitches.

It was supposed to start at 10am, but proceedings did not begin until about 5.30pm.

Just 30 minutes later, the venue — the Robbie de Lange Hall in Greenfields — was hit by load-shedding.

Delegates had to use cellphones as a source of light as proceedings continued in the dark.

Neither Mzileni nor Sokomani attended the gathering.

Sokomani, in the lead-up to the conference, refused to accept that the provincial task team had disbanded the parallel structures.

Mzileni accepted the decision to disband his regional leadership, but insiders said divisions in his faction had left him out in the cold.

He is not even an additional member of the regional executive committee.

An insider who was part of the conference said the new leadership had been imposed on the youth league by a “divisive” ANC regional secretary, Antonio Carels.

However, on Sunday Carels denied being involved in picking leaders of the league, saying he even arrived late at the conference.

“The leadership was imposed,” the insider claimed.

“A senior leader in the region went with a list of the people he wanted at the top, despite what we, as zones, wanted. We had our preferred candidates.”

The insider said the faction aligned to Mzileni was now divided and some members did not support the election of Mkubelo, “but we had no choice”.

Another insider said leading up to the conference, long deliberations and negotiations had taken place between members of the Sokomani and Mzileni factions to come up with a united leadership.

Another insider accused Carels of “dividing the core that had always backed him to remain in the secretariat position”, adding: “He dictates terms and told those who headed delegations that they had no choice but to elect those cadres he wanted.

“He is divisive and is killing the organisation,” she said.

The only position that was contested was that of regional treasurer. Sinoxolo Fama and Asanda Adams contested for the post and Fama emerged victorious.

Salizo Kotobe was elected deputy chair, Khonayo Tilongo regional secretary and Lusapho Coto his deputy.

The region announced that it would support Bongani Mani, the co-ordinator of the ANCYL provincial task team, to become chair of the province at the league’s upcoming provincial elective conference.

Speaking to the Dispatch on Sunday, Mkubelo said he would work towards unifying branches in the region.

“The task is simple — it is to mobilise young people and advocate for their primary interests and prioritise them.

“The task is to revive the ANCYL in this region, to revive branches to become active and influential in the mother body politics,” Mkubelo said.

He said he would push for the realisation of youth representation in the ANC’S decisionmaking structures.

Mkubelo also vowed to deal with the issues that negatively affected both young people and women.

“We have declared war on gender-based violence and crime. We need young people to play a pivotal role in shaping those issues,” he said.

Mzileni could not be reached for comment on Sunday about the outcomes of the conference.

Sokomani said: “I don’t know anything about any conference. As far as I know, I am still the chair.”

“Pedro also does not know anything about any conference.

“So we will not be forming part of any of these theatrics that are devoid of politics and the so-called leadership collective that was stillborn.”