The Economic Freedom Fighters movement, would pose no threat to the ANC Youth League, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, said Sibusiso Ngwane, the league’s co-ordinator for KZN.
|||Durban - The emergence of Julius Malema’s new party, the Economic Freedom Fighters movement, would pose no threat to the ANC Youth League, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, said Sibusiso Ngwane, the league’s co-ordinator for KZN.
”We are not worried about any formation outside the ANC. What we should be worried about is what is happening inside the ANC.
“The formation of political parties out of disgruntlement is not happening for the first time. Others have failed because it is very difficult to sustain a political party formed out of disgruntlement,” Ngwane said.
He said the interim leadership of the league in KZN would embark on a massive recruitment programme as part of attempts to revive the structures that had been left in tatters by infighting.
At least four of the 11 regions have been disbanded, with many having been rocked by internal squabbles, but Ngwane, the newly appointed co-ordinator of the league’s Provincial Task Team (PTT), said the main task facing the leadership was uniting members behind one common goal.
Ngwane was last week appointed the co-ordinator of the new PTT, effectively replacing another task team which had been set up by Julius Malema in 2011.
While some critics believe the appointment of the new task team was part of the broader purge of Malema supporters within the league, Ngwane denied this.
He said the Youth League was not obsessed with Malema. “We are not anti-him and we can’t be about him.”
Ngwane said there had been many past leaders of the Youth League who had come and gone, some of whom were prepared to help revive the league.
He said the new leadership wanted to bring credibility back to the ANC Youth League.
“We find that structures become in tatters because there is lack of a common programme. Our focus will be making sure that the ANC secures victory in the elections. We are all in agreement on that.”
Ngwane said that while the league still had to hold regional and provincial elections, this would not be done at the expense of the elections programme, which would include a massive drive to get young people to vote.
“But where we feel that these two are doable simultaneously, then we will hold the congresses even before the 2014 elections.”
There would not be any wholesale disbandment of branches of the league, he said.
“Branches are the nerve centre of the ANC and its leagues. So disbandment is something that you do as the last resort. It is something that you do when you feel that the branch or its leadership is not able to execute its decision.”
bheki.mbanjwa@inl.co.za
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