New ANCYL leadership seeks revival
and |Published
South Africa – Johannesburg – ANCYL – 03 July 2023. Zwelo Masilela (TG), Phumzile Mgcina(DP) Collen Malatji ( President) Mntuwoxolo Ngudle (SG) Tsakani Shiviti (DSG) Olga Seate ( 2nd DSG) are the top 6 of the ANC youth league leadership. This comes after they had congress this past weekend in Nasrec. | Timothy Bernard African News Agency (ANA)
Johannesburg - The newly elected leadership of the ANC Youth League is on a mission to revive and renew the ruling party’s youth structure after years of being in disarray.
The new leaders of the League were unveiled at the conclusion of the 26th ANCYL national elective conference at Nasrec Expo Centre on Sunday.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri introduced the top officials at a briefing at Luthuli House on Monday.
This was the Youth League’s first elective conference in eight years.
Collen Malatji was elected as the league's president; Phumzile Mgcina is his deputy; Muntuwoxolo Ngudle emerged as secretary general with Tsakani Shiviti as first deputy secretary general, and Zwelo Masilela as treasurer general.
Malatji said he was excited to be given the opportunity to lead an independent Youth League.
"We got our autonomy back... We went into the 26th national elective conference to reclaim it. The majority of young people remain unemployed, are still the faces of crime, and are highly excluded from the affairs of their own country. The only way to realise this is for us to re-industrualise the economy of this country. We can only achieve this through a functional Youth League," he said.
He said the youth leadership would work hard to transform the country's economy.
"We hosted a successful conference. We had high-level discussions; at the centre of our discussions was the restructuring of the economy, as the leadership is able to address this fundamental issue. The Peter Mokaba generation has led us to this freedom," he said.
Malatji said he appreciated the work of young people and journalists who were overworked and underpaid. He said the issue of underpaid journalists was close to his heart, and the Youth League would fight for journalists to be afforded dignity.
"Don’t be scared to lobby us on many other issues. We are here to speak on your behalf because the work you do is important. That is why we support the issues of the journalists as the youth league," he said.
Malatji said the League would work towards ensuring that the youth are well represented in parliament.
"We won’t accept anything under 50% representation of young people in Parliament. Everything that has to do with the power of this country and young people should be part of that agenda."
The league’s second deputy secretary, Tsakani Shiviti, said they would deploy young people across the country to rebuild the youth structure.
"As young people, we are the ones who should protect the ANC. It is true that the ANC is an organisation that is guided by its policies. We are not going to tolerate ill-discipline if people who are going to go against the constitution (and) are not representing the ANCYL.
“We can’t have people who are not guided. We need disciplined young people who are dedicated in order to save this country. Young people are the future of this country, and we need young people who are disciplined," Shiviti said.
Political analyst Professor Dirk Kortze said: "I think this is going to be one of the main tests for the future of the ANCYL: to what extent they’re able to find a niche for themselves in the ANC again because, to a large extent, they’ve lost that; the leadership that was appointed and elected in 2015 couldn’t find that niche.
“They became so involved in the factional politics of the ANC that they couldn’t really establish themselves, and I think this is going to be one of the key issues as to whether the ANCYL will be able to separate themselves from the organisational politics of the mother body of the ANC."
President Cyril Ramaphosa congratulated the newly elected leadership.
"I commend you for ensuring this congress spends time on the hard work of discussing and agreeing on policies aimed at the economic emancipation of young people as well as contributing to the overall unity and renewal of the ANC," Ramaphosa said.
The Star