Chaos mars ANCYL poll

09 June 2015 - 12:36 By NATHI OLIFANT and BONGANI MTHETHWA

Despite the violence that marred this weekend's ANC Youth League's elective conference in KwaZulu-Natal, the league says it is all systems go for the national conference later this month. "We're on track for the congress. The auditing of members has been completed. ANCYL members are to nominate [people] for election at the congress," said ANC national task team coordinator Nathi Mthethwa.The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is, however, concerned that the party's youth league "has lost its way". Chaos and anarchy threaten to rip the league apart after the bitter and bloody elective conference.Party insiders fear the past weekend's ANCYL conference was a symptom of a deeper crisis in the party's fractious structures in the province.The conference, held in Port Shepstone, was divided between those who supported KwaZulu-Natal premier and current ANC provincial chairman Senzo Mchunu and secretary Sihle Zikalala.The outcome of the conference is the strongest indication about who might become the next ANC provincial chairman. All five newly elected ANCYL leaders were on Zikalala's slate.An ANC provincial executive committee member yesterday said: "The trouble in the organisation is the rapid deterioration of values that guide the party. There's no one who has the will or power to rebuild. It's everyone for himself."Earlier this year, an ANC eThekwini regional elective conference was declared null and void after irregularities in the voting process. But ANC insiders believe the eThekwini conference will not be easy to reconvene because there are national office bearers with huge ambitions who want a certain faction to win "by hook or by crook"...

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