ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Collen Malatji still blames senior members of the co-governing party in Gauteng for the massive losses it suffered following the May 29 national and provincial elections.
The ANC’s head of elections in Gauteng is finance and economic development MEC Lebogang Maile.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula recently reprimanded the two not to engage in public spats.
“Others have falsely accused the ANCYL of lacking militancy and radicalism, particularly because we recently criticised members of the executive council appointed by premier (Panyaza) Lesufi in Gauteng, by arguing that they do not deserve reappointment to the Cabinet due to their poor performance in government and their failure to deliver satisfactory electoral results, with the ANC in Gauteng dropping drastically from 50.19% to 34.76% in the space of five years,” Malatji wrote last month (August) in the party’s weekly newsletter ANC Today.
He added that the notion that the ANCYL’s tasks are to mobilise the youth to support the ANC and serves merely as inventory for preparatory school for its members who may one day lead the ANC is misleading.
According to Malatji, whenever there are issues that impact the youth directly or indirectly, the ANCYL must respond.
”In the current context; the ANC has faced electoral decline since the 2016 local government elections, followed by further declines in the provincial and national elections. It is the responsibility of the ANCYL, which will inherit the ANC, to hold accountable those who led these elections and failed to achieve the expected results,” he stated.
Malatji made the example that in 2021 local government elections, the ANC in Gauteng received an aggregated vote outcome of 36.6%.
”This should have been a warning to our leadership that the ANC might face a drastic electoral decline in 2024, but instead, those in charge of running elections continued with business as usual, hence the ANC received 34.76%. Therefore, the ANCYL must critically assess the strategies and tactics of those who led the election campaigns,” he said.
In addition, Malatji said the current ANCYL does not exist merely to mobilise youth for the ANC or serve as a preparatory school for future ANC members and leaders.
He warned that the ANCYL cannot simply shout about service delivery issues while conservative elements deployed within the state fail to take accountability for their poor performance.
“Our radicalism and militancy should not be viewed through a narrow lens that isolates the ANCYL’s existence to the threat of the ANC losing loyal voters or failing to achieve radical transformation. It is our responsibility to critically assess and hold accountable those who are failing the ANC by not meeting expectations in the state and outside of the state,” he said.
Malatji explained that those deployed in the state must comprehend that campaigning for the ANC does not start with door to door, the mass campaign by door to door and filling up stadiums should be the ultimate celebration of the victory of the ANC as the campaign starts by those deployed in the state by fixing our infrastructure, providing water, affordable electricity and addressing the spatial design of the apartheid.
He said ANC deployees must demystify the notion that townships should serve as their own economies through a township economy instead of integrating the township economy to the mainstream economy.
Additionally, Malatji said the ANC knew that the loyalty votes were dependent on the service offered by the state.
”Currently, 60% of the population is youth and to think that some of our deployees in the state continue to preside over the society which is characterised by high costs of living, poverty, inequality and high level of unemployment with almost all our municipalities being at dysfunctional state, but expect 60% of the youth to support our ANC then we would be captive of our disillusion,” Malatji added.
He said the ANC’s existence was threatened by persisting and emerging challenges which its philosophy failed to comprehensively give account to, such as the climate crisis and state capture, among others.
In July, the ANC in Gauteng accused Malatji of behaving like a “hired gun” and that his public statements were “unwarranted attacks”.