Durban - ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula has told the youth league to reclaim its autonomy and be a necessary irritation for the mother body.
This after opening the 26th elective conference of the ANC Youth League on Saturday.
The conference was finally opened after long delays caused by disputes over the registration of delegates.
Mbalula echoed the words of former party deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe by saying youth league "is a necessary irritation" and it should just do that.
In a long address, Mbalula admitted that the road to the elective conference, which is taking place at Nasrec p, south of Johannesburg, has been a bumpy one.
He said there were those calling for it to be postponed, but despite that, it eventually sat to elect new leadership.
According to Mbalula, the sitting of the conference is a chance for the league to elect their own leaders instead of being led by task teams appointed by the mother body.
“I have to tell you comrades that we have to nurture, (and) nudge in order to arrive where we are now and where we are it has been very difficult and we must observe this moment.
“As the ANC we want young people to reclaim their own youth league, we don’t want you to be ever convened by the ANC or to be disbanded because this notion of disbanding structures is politically problematic.
“It gives licence to anyone who wants to run the youth league to appoint the people of their choice.
“The youth must decide their own leadership in their own conferences,” Mbalula said, receiving a round of applause from delegates.
Before he addressed the young delegates, Mbalula had a tough time as some unruly delegates started singing “Wenzeni uZuma” song, a song that is sympathetic to former president Jacob Zuma.
Mbalula stressed that the youth league must embrace each other even when their opinions differ as people of South Africa look up to them.
If they fight each other to death, people will lose confidence in them and see them as people who are always at each other’s throats.
“Stop this thing of despising, swearing at each other and fighting to the grave because in the process of that you are going to lose very young, capable leaders of the ANCYL with a great future.
“Because if you cling to a faction, a faction just serves narrow interests, because if you let go of the faction, you know that in the open scrutiny, I may not survive,” Mbalula warned.
Mbalula who is also a former youth league leader admitted that they knew that the conference had “imperfections” but they convened it nonetheless.
He told delegates that they are facing a mountain to climb and they should be ready for that.
“The first battle is to make sure that we implement the renewal of the ANC, that’s very important.
“The ANC that can be respected by the people of South Africa, that respect first and foremost, that espouses renewal within its ranks and at the same time respected by people as the modern organisation that South Africans can follow.
“You can’t expect South Africans to follow an organisation where it differs, then it hurls insults to each other, leaders walk naked in conferences, leaders insult each other in a full view of the country,” he warned.
At some point, Mbalula said discipline in the ANC under his watch is paramount and he is going to enforce it even if it means he becomes unpopular.
Furthermore, he lamented that the governing party is judged only on load shedding and claiming that it has failed, ignoring other successes like handling the Covid-19 pandemic and growing the economy.
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