More than 3 000 delegates will elect new Youth League leaders on Monday night.
The first day of the opening of the ANC Youth League elective conference in Polokwane has been marred by chaos and confusion.
A number of delegates have expressed frustration and the poor administration that has seen some delegates struggling to register.
The Citizen understands that this process began on Saturday and continued until the early hours of Monday morning.
The conference was expected to be in session around 11am but this could not happen because delegates were still at the Peter Mokaba stadium trying to get registered.
The Citizen spoke to some of them at the venue.
“There are hiccups with the registration. We have been here since Sunday around 10pm. It is over 12 hours that we have been here so we are hoping that these hiccups can get sorted,” said Siyabulela Mbophale from Ekurhuleni.
Another delegate, Katlego Mphahlele also complained about the registration process.
“I feel like they are frustrating us because this is happening because of internal issues but we are hoping that everything goes well because we want to chose our leadership,” he said.
Cosas spokesperson Bongani Mpongose told The Citizen that the delays were caused by the late arrival of some delegates who come from distant provinces.
“We have been waiting for all provinces to arrive since we have been travelling from different parts of the country so that is what held up the process,” he said.
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ANCYL leaders deny problems at the conference
Despite the problems outside, the outgoing leaders of the ANCYL insist that everything is going smoothly.
“From where I am all our delegates have concluded registration. All that they are doing is picking up their tags according to their branches sub regions and regions,” said ANCYL secretary general Mntuwoxolo Ngudle.
“There are provinces like Northern Cape with regions like Namaqua where it is more than 1000km just to get to Kimberley to come to Polokwane. They would have been delayed because of the travelling.
“In the Eastern Cape there are regions like the Nelson Mandela Bay region, they had delays in terms of travelling but all of those regions have concluded. They are now just picking up their tags
“We will start on time and all registration is smooth running,” he added.
The outgoing president of the ANCYL, Collen Malatji, affirmed that the elective conference was well organised.
“I know that the media is very disappointed that in the past we had youth league conferences where people were removing their pants. There are people here that have never been elected in a peaceful conference. Some of them are from Seshego.
“Throughout our term we have never had any incident in any conference of the youth league. If there was chaos here there would be many media houses wanting to know about the chaos but because there are peace and unity, the youth league is closing ranks and a lot of people that want to see the ANC disappear are very disappointed,” he said.
Uncontested presidency
Malatji is currently the only person who has raised his hand for the position of ANCYL president. He is so far uncontested.
He told The Citizen that despite his nomination by branches there could be other candidates who raise their hands on the conference floor.
But The Citizen understands that many branches have come to the conference with a view that there must be consensus on the issue of leadership. Several delegates that The Citizen spoke to said they want Malatji re-elected.
“We are not in conference yet there is a process in the guidelines of the nomination of branches what has been announced is what branches have nominated. We are a youth league that operates in branches and there are over 3 000 audited branches for this conference and these are branches that fully participated as per the guidelines of our constitution,” one said.
“There is still another process where delegates can raise people from the floor, you can be raised from the floor. The constitution of the youth league allows that.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to give a speech at the conference this afternoon.
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