ANCYL ECape conference starts late

The ANC Youth League's Eastern Cape elective conference got off to a late start on Friday, said organiser Mashwabada Gcilishe.

Delegates had not registered by lunch-time because of security concerns, he said. "We were advised to create new [registration] tags by our security." Gcilishe said the tags were apparently being wrongfully circulated ahead of the conference.

The sixth provincial conference of the ANCYL in the Eastern Cape was initially postponed because of controversy surrounding the auditing of its branches.

This was reportedly followed by fears of membership fraud after the ANCYL national working committee sent a task team to verify its Eastern Cape brances.

The team was reportedly accused of disqualifying branches to ensure the provincial leadership would be aligned to ANCYL president Julius Malema. Malema himself faces an elective conference in 2011, with reports of growing frustration among members over his leadership.

A chaotic elective conference in Limpopo last month saw a Malema-aligned leadership ushered in. However, his opponents charged that this was done by force. Malema will reportedly go up against his deputy Andile Lungisa, of Port Elizabeth, in the next elective conference.

Nominations for the provincial leadership are due to take place on Friday and the names of the top five officials -- the chairperson, deputy chairperson, secretary, deputy secretary and treasurer -- are expected to be announced on Saturday.