Durban — ANC national youth task team (NYTT) convenor Mafika Mndebele has distanced himself from reports that he caused the collapse of the KZN ANC Youth League 10th elective conference held in Durban last week.
The conference allegedly collapsed because of misunderstandings that occurred between the event organisers.
Mndebele, responding to a statement by KZN Provincial Conference Preparatory Committee (PCPC) spokesperson - Sibonelo Nomvalo, said the statement exposed two fundamental weaknesses. Mndebele claimed that Nomvalo did not understand how the organisation he claims he is representing functions. The other is the failure of the PCPC to manage the affairs of the youth league. Mndebele denied that he had been suspended as the convenor and that he refused to oversee or supervise the registration process of the congress.
Mndebele said that the conference registration process began a few weeks back in the form of pre-registrations that were done at the ANC provincial office by all regions working with the province of the youth league – which is the normal practice at ANCYL and ANC conferences.
“Upon our arrival in KZN, we called a congress steering committee as deployees to take over issues relating to the congress – including to reinforce the fast-tracking of the registration process,” he said.
Mndebele said the steering committee gave the registration process guidance. The committee informed all regional secretaries of the youth league to be at the registration point.
“We reinforced that process with ANC- KZN PEC members who were deployed to congress by the ANC in the province as observers – all in the spirit of ensuring a smooth registration process,” Mndebele said.
He added that the ANC’s reinforcement of the registration process could never be viewed as taking over or interfering. He said they had been clear about the autonomy of the youth league.
On the matter of verification using branch general meeting (BGM) packages, the committee agreed to its use as a source document for verification when there is a dispute in a particular branch, and that the use of BGM packages would be used when there was a dispute.
“We used lists only as the instrument to call delegates inside for verification. The point was that if there were no disputes in a branch, delegates must be allowed inside the congress venue. This is where major problems arose from PCPC members,” said Mndebele.
“We indicated that all matters arising in each region or branch will be isolated and dealt with by the credentials committee and congress steering committee after registration, so that we can clearly identify areas that have problems with empirical evidence from the registration process, not from perceptions or accusations that have no material basis,” Mndebele said.
He added that the collapse of the meeting was due to deep- seated political and administrative issues.
Mndebele added that they chose to save young people’s lives when they learnt that there were security breaches in the venue, which could have led to catastrophic confrontations and probably the loss of lives.
“This speaks largely to the political weaknesses that we had long ago raised with the PCPC in its entirety. The people who deserve our sincere apologies for the inconveniences, are delegates and members of the youth league who took the time and spent their money to attend.”
Nomvalo could not be reached for comment.
Daily News