Share this
Mister Wong
Digg
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Googlize this
Blinklist
Facebook
Wikio
Hear this text
Print
E-mail
Tags
Rise of a cult of personality leaves organisation in disarray
Serious divisions over the future position of its controversial president Julius Malema are tearing apart the ANC Youth League (ANCYL). Clashes and manipulation of voting have marred several of the League’s recent provincial conferences as Malema and his supporters pull out all the stops to ensure his re-election next year at the ANCYL’s national elective conference. In addition, the organisation is heavily burdened by other troubles reflecting poor, even corrupt, leadership. The once proud organisation that produced giants among leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Anton Lembede and Walter Sisulu is in dire crisis.
A series of troubled recent provincial conferences – with a few more yet to take place – has left the organisation reeling. These conference are taking place to elect new provincial leaders in preparation for the League’s national conference to be held in North West next year.
For Malema to be assured of re-election at the national conference next yea,r it is critical that leaders who support him are elected in the provinces, particularly given the mounting problems he is facing in the senior ANC and elsewhere.
The recent setbacks faced by Malema include reports about his allegedly irregular business interests; his being silenced by an ANC disciplinary hearing; reports that his visit to Zimbabwe has not only angered the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), but has also divided Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF; reports from Botswana that President Ian Khama accuses Malema of meddling in the country’s domestic political affairs during a recent quiet visit, and should be disciplined; a campaign by the ANC Alliance’s left wing to unseat Malema after he began campaigning for the replacement of ANC secretary-general and South African Communist Party chairperson Gwede Mantashe; and Mantashe and others in the ANC wanting to discipline Malema after his latest pronouncements for the nationalisation of South Africa’s mines.
All these developments, plus the fact that Malema’s deputy Andile Lungisa has launched a campaign to challenge Malema for the leadership of the ANCYL, make his position highly insecure. In the process, Malema stands accused of employing every possible tactic to defeat his opponents in the provinces and next year at the national conference.
Among the charges levelled against Malema are that he manipulates the rules to ensure victory in the provincial leadership elections for those who support him, and that voting is rigged by his supporters. If that fails, his opponents say, his hatchet man Pule Mabe, the ANCYL’s national treasurer, is sent in to suspend the particular province’s provincial elective conference or dissolve provincial executive committees. This is indeed a fate that has befallen the ANCYL in the Eastern Cape and North West.
Among the other charges against Malema is that audits of ANCYL branches are being conducted at the ANC’s headquarters in Johannesburg where Malema and his lieutenants are installed, and that this is leading to anti-Malema branches not receiving voting accreditation for the provincial conferences.
On the other hand, Malema’s supporters are claiming that Lungisa’s supporters are deliberately disrupting provincial conferences to undermine the Malema faction and to make it look bad where Lungisa-supporting candidates have failed to be elected.
The following is a summary of what has taken place so far:
Limpopo
The ANCYL provincial conference here last month ended in chaos with the outgoing leadership walking out and later calling a separate meeting to elect new leaders. The leadership was later ousted and replaced by Malema and his supporters.
The ousted leadership are Malema's rivals here and are supporting current ANCYL deputy president Lungisa to be elected ANCYL president next year in place of Malema.
There could be a strong anti-Malema backlash in this province, but for now, Malema is holding on to this province through underhanded and perhaps even illegitimate means.
It remains to be seen whether the anti-Malema faction will be able to unseat the leadership imposed on the province by Malema. But at the first meeting of the Malema-imposed executive committee of the Limpopo ANCYL held this past weekend, a statement was issued saying that as was to be expected, it supported Malema for a second term as national president of the ANCYL.
Eastern Cape
The ANCYL's conference in the Eastern Cape was abandoned two weeks ago and declared suspended after it became impossible to proceed with elections for a new provincial leadership due to factional tensions, rowdiness and unruliness, a bomb scare and clashes between the Malema and Lungisa factions over credentials.
Theoretically, the ANCYL is without a provincial leadership here, as no new leaders were elected. And when announcing the abandonment of the conference, provincial ANCYL treasurer-general Mabe said that the provincial leadership was dissolved. However, others are contesting that, saying that in the absence of a proper conference and elections, the current leadership remains in office.
The election of a new leadership was supposed to proceed again this past weekend, but at the time of writing, there was no clarity about the latest situation.
KwaZulu-Natal
In the days preceding the ANCYL KwaZulu-Natal provincial congress which took place a week ago, attempts were made to mask serious divisions between the Malema and Lungisa factions and to portray unity and neutrality.
Earlier, provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo, who stood for re-election, made a statement indicating that the provincial youth leadership supported Malema for re-election at next year’s ANCYL national elective conference.
However, the ANCYL provincial chairperson Mxolisi Kaunda quickly shot that down, saying that people lobbying for positions should not use the names of national leaders, as it was divisive.
He added that the ANCYL KwaZulu-Natal did not support individuals, but the leadership – which was an indication that he sought to maintain a neutral position. But it is known that the ANCYL here, like in all other provinces, is highly divided between the Malema and Lungisa factions.
In the end, Mtolo's Malema-supported faction took all five top posts, effectively securing this province's endorsement of Malema for re-election next year.
But Mtolo’s winning margin was very slight, and again there were abundant charges of irregularities and vote rigging.
North West
This is another highly divided province of the ANCYL which has now been chosen by the Malema-led national executive of the national ANCYL to host the League’s national general council from 12 to 18 July. The national leadership has now used that fact as a reason for suspending the executive committee of ANCYL North West.
Some, however, are suggesting that the suspension has far more to do with strengthening the Malema faction’s control over the province ahead of this important conference, while those who were suspended openly say it was done as a reprisal for their refusal to support Malema.
Gauteng
This province’s elective conference continues to be delayed by disputed audits of branch membership, a problem that also played a role in disruptions in several other provinces.
In this province, the recent election contest for the provincial leadership of the senior ANC between ANC provincial leader Paul Mashatile and his challenger, Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane, is also playing a role.
Malema’s favoured candidate for ANCYL provincial chairperson, Thabo Kupa, supported Mashatile, as did Malema himself, while Kupa’s challenger Lebogang Maile supported Mashatile.
It is now being said that Malema’s backing of the highly unpopular Mokonyana – who some allege is treading on too many toes with her actions against political-business corruption and patronage – is costing him support.
Western Cape
Like the senior ANC in this province, serious divisions and power struggles have rendered the ANCYL here dysfunctional. The provincial conference that was due to take place here some time ago has been postponed due to the breakdown in organisation.
While the national ANCYL leadership indicated that it would force the Western Cape ANCYL to hold a conference by the end of May, this has not happened. Instead, some members of the ANCYL here embarked on an undisciplined orgy of destruction by destroying toilets that were supplied by Cape Town’s Democratic Alliance government to township residents.
More trouble
Meanwhile, other problems faced by the ANCYL include the closure of the organisation’s investment company Lembede Investment Holdings, a company ironically named after the ANCYL’s founding president.
The company, which allegedly was linked to the activities of the slain mining crook Brett Kebble, has been unable to pay its debts.
Despite this, the directors of the company have just recently awarded themselves a handsome self-enrichment deal, according to City Press. Particularly Ali Boshielo, a chief operating officer of Lembede and close ally of Malema, stood to gain massively.
And the ANCYL may be heading for another serious clash with the senior ANC after the League was reportedly preparing to challenge the ANC to withdraw its disciplinary ruling against Malema at the ANC’s national working committee hearing.
Never before has the ANCYL been so divided and its organisation in such disarray.
And never before has it succumbed to the rise of a cult of personality as in the case of Malema. The question is: How long can the senior ANC still afford to tolerate this state of affairs?
