The African National Congress Youth League has reiterated that the organisation has capable young people who are ready to be in leadership positions.
ANCYL branches across the country have been embarking on marches to ANC head offices – calling on older generations to step down from positions of power in the league.
ANCYL convenor, Kolobe Mamabolo, says the youth league’s members are required to be between the ages of 14 and 35.
“We are saying that we have young people who are capable and had they appointed young people we would now be talking about some of the developmental issues that are affecting young people in the country. We are saying to the ANC, appoint young people, doesn’t matter who. If we had young people in the task teams – with us living in the world of the internet – we wouldn’t have traditional branch general meetings because only young people understand these things.”
Calls for revival of ANCYL
In 2019 Secretary-General Ace Magashule called for a speedy revival of the party’s youth wing. Magashule said the mother body needs a militant youth wing to drive Radical Economic Transformation.
He was addressing an ANC Youth League mini rally in Hammanskraal, Pretoria north.
ANC youth structures in Tshwane are on a campaign to rebuild the dormant ANC Youth League. A rare mini-rally was organised and addressed by the mother body’s Secretary-General Ace Magashule.
In a wide-ranging speech Magashule said the ANC Youth League can regain relevance if properly reformed. He says the ANC needs its youth wing and that the youth league must elect its own leaders.
Magashule said there are no permanent party leaders.
“Even myself, as Secretary General, I have no ambition to stay. A young leader must take over.”
ANC youth structures in Tshwane agree that the ANC cannot continue to exist without an effective youth wing.
Unemployment and lack of opportunities are concerning to youth leaders.
“Young people in Tshwane are suffering because we are taking policy decisions that are market sensitive,” says ANC Tshwane Youth League Lesego Makhubela.
The National ANC Youth League structures were dissolved earlier in 2019.
In the video below from March this year, the ANC’s Youth Task Team said party leaders should stop meddling in ANCYL affairs
