Youth league forced to obey judge's orders

Gwede Mantashe, the secretary general of the ANC, has stopped its youth wing from defying an Eastern Cape High Court order.

He also summoned the warring factions to Johannesburg tomorrow.

Witnesses said ANC Youth League leaders were intending to hold an Eastern Cape elective provincial conference in Grahamstown on Friday despite the court's injunction reinforcing an earlier court decision.

Judge Nomatamsanqa Beshe had previously ordered that the league could hold its provincial conference only if it involved members of a dissolved provincial executive in the planning.

But the league's general secretary, Vuyiswa Tulelo, said at a press conference this week that the ANCYL would not allow the courts to run their affairs and that the conference would continue as planned this weekend.

The league's current provincial chairman, Mlibo Qoboshiane, then brought an urgent application to the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday, asking it to enforce Judge Beshe's earlier judgment.

Acting Judge Belinda Hartle reaffirmed the order at 8:30am on Friday, just as the conference was about to start, but the immediate response from members gathering was that they would defy the order and go ahead.

Delegates from Alfred Nzo, Amathole and Cacadu, who support the league's national president, Julius Malema, had already arrived in Grahamstown, while OR Tambo and Chris Hani delegates were reportedly still on their way.

The Daily Dispatch reported yesterday that the ANCYL provincial executive committee's attorney, Fabian Pretorius, immediately drew up an affidavit in which he requested the SA Police to step in and investigate the conduct of members acting in contempt of judges Beshe and Hartle's orders.

Mantashe then called Tulelo and instructed the league to abandon the meeting and summoned representatives of both sides to Johannesburg tomorrow to meet senior ANC leaders.

Mantashe's instructions to the youth league come in the wake of the structure's release of its discussion documents that would be tabled at its national general council to be held later this month.

In one of its documents, the youth league argues for its autonomy and contends that it was "never a junior congress" to the ANC. The youth league goes on to say that they do not want to be merely referred to as the ANC's preparatory school.

"Revolutions are by their very nature activities of young people, and marginalising young people merely into a preparatory arrangement within revolutionary movements stifles political and ideological development of such movements," the document reads.

Thando Mase, chairman of the league's OR Tambo region, told the Sunday Times: "Everyone who was there was committed to continue with the conference. Were it not for the SG's (Mantashe) intervention, branch delegates would have continued with the conference, irrespective of whatever.

"My argument is this: I am a member of the PEC (provincial executive committee) and I came to the conference only to be told that the very PEC I am a member of has applied for an interdict. Where and when was the PEC meeting which decided to go to court? These are the issues we have to deal with," said Mase.

The ANCYL resolved recently that any member who resorted to the courts to settle an internal dispute would be automatically dismissed from the movement - though this is not a constitutional provision.

"The ANC intervened and asked us to stop everything. They want all parties involved to meet on Monday, we will then take it from there," Tulelo said.

This comes despite Tulelo's determination earlier last week that the league was not obliged to take instructions from the ANC but could choose whether or not to take its advice.

Malema's supporters want Ayanda Matiti as the provincial chairman, while supporters of his deputy, Andile Lungisa, want Mawande Ndakisa.

Two other provincial conferences took place in the North West and Mpumalanga over the weekend.