Eastern Cape ANCYL provincial conference claims 'not true': Ndabeni

ANCYL Provincial Task Team convenor Mziwonke Ndabeni in the Eastern Cape has dismissed as "not true" swirling rumours by Youth League members that are gaining traction on social media that a provincial ANCYL conference is being held this weekend.

Some Youth League members in the province have even been campaigning for their preferred leaders claiming the 70% threshold needed for conference to sit has been met.

But Ndabeni said on Wednesday that preparations for a provincial conference were still at the auditing of branches stage and that the conference was being planned for next month.

This despite ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe having issued an instruction that no conferences be convened post-September 30 until the national elective conference in December.

Ndabeni said they would write to Luthuli House to explain why they could not sit by the end of this month as per Mantashe's instruction.

“What we cannot afford is to go to the national conference with a task team which by then would be a year old‚ therefore we are going to request head office to grant us special permission to sit next month and elect the new ANC Youth League provincial executive committee meeting‚” said Ndabeni.

“We therefore dismiss rumours that there is a provincial conference of the Youth League this weekend. Those rumours are perpetuated by mischievous people.”