The chair of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), Sifiso Mtsweni, has emerged as one of the frontrunners for the presidency of the ANC Youth League after another contender, Reggie Nkabinde, was dumped by his supporters.
Those who initially supported Nkabinde in three provinces (Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo) this week indicated that lobby groups from both factions had been in talks that "go beyond factionalism to find the best suitable candidate that can best take the ANCYL forward".
Insiders said Mtsweni had been identified as the preferred candidate to breathe new life into a youth league that had become moribund under the stewardship of outgoing president Collen Maine.
Mtsweni is expected to lock horns with the influential KwaZulu-Natal youth league secretary, Thanduxolo Sabelo, for the top league position.
The chair of the youth league in the Western Cape, Muhammad Khalid Sayed, said that Mtsweni was now its candidate for the presidency. The province had initially backed Mtsweni to stand as deputy president under Nkabinde.
"As the provincial chairperson of the Western Cape, I have always been of the view that Tso [Mtsweni] should have stood as a president," Sayed said.
His views had been disregarded by the structures in the Western Cape at the time, but now that things had changed, he felt the ground was fertile for his views to "emerge".
Sayed said he had heard from a number of youth formations, even ones outside the ANC, that Mtsweni was the ideal candidate for the top job, especially because of his work at the NYDA.
Mtsweni confirmed that he had been approached to contest the position of president.
He said those who had approached him were from both the Nkabinde and Sabelo factions.
"What is quite interesting is that comrades from both groupings, not just those who were supporting Reggie, approached me," Mtsweni said.
"It is people who felt and argued that we can bring the necessary unity to the organisation, take the ANCYL forward. That is a discussion that sparked interest outside the two," he said.
An insider said Mtsweni's campaign cut across the two factions that supported President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's ANC presidential campaigns in 2017.
"I am of the view that if we take Tso as president, and Thanduxolo as secretary, we can have an uncontested conference," said the insider...