ANCYL to elect new leadership

The ANC Youth League said it would elect a new leadership at its conference in Polokwane on Saturday.

SABC radio news reports provincial chairman Frans Moswane warned that action would be taken against ill disciplined members.

He was referring to some league members holding a parallel conference in Seshego.

Involved in that conference were members from various branches who accused the organisation's leadership of not listening to their concerns.

Moswane told the broadcaster there was only one legitimate conference taking place in the province, which was in Polokwane.

Members from that conference were expected to meet with ousted youth league leader Julius Malema at an undisclosed location in Polokwane, SABC said.

Boy Mamabolo, the Seshego conference organiser, said it planned on electing a new "preferred" leadership.

The Seshego conference was being held less than a kilometre away from Malema's home.

On Friday, some league members were kept out of the Polokwane conference registration, which was guarded by police and traffic officers.

Malema was expelled from the African National Congress in November last year for sowing divisions within the party and for bringing it into disrepute.

He was found to have done so by unfavourably comparing the leadership style of President Jacob Zuma to his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, and for remarks about regime change in Botswana.

Despite the expulsion Malema remained the youth wing's leader until all options to overturn his sentence were exhausted.

He was gagged earlier this month when the ANC's national disciplinary committee suspended him from the party after he called Zuma a dictator.

The conditions of the suspension prohibited him from exercising any duty as an ANC member, president of the ANCYL or member of the Limpopo provincial executive committee.