KZN ANC under pressure to appoint youth league member to provincial cabinet

The ANC Youth League in KwaZulu-Natal has demanded that provincial convenor Jeff Radebe fires one ANC MEC and appoint a youth league member instead, a move that could scupper the reconfigured ANC leadership’s efforts to renew the party ahead of local government elections next year.  

In a recent meeting of the provincial task team, which was attended by Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula and his deputy Nomvula Monkonyane, the provincial youth league chairperson Ntokozo Ngcobo was reported to have attacked the three ANC MECs accusing them of shutting out youth in their respective departments. In the provincial cabinet, the ANC is represented by Nomagugu Simelane-Mngadi as Health MEC, Sipho Hlomuka in Education and Siboniso Duma in Transport and Human Settlement.

Ngcobo confirmed that he indeed raised the league’s unhappiness about the performance of the three ANC MECs, whom he said lack strategies to champion youth programmes in their departments. Ngcobo said it is for that reason that the league felt that the ANC must remove one of them to be replaced with a youth league member.

“We want to account to the young people of our province and to do that we must be part of a cabinet where decisions are made so we call on the ANC provincial task team to recall one of the MECs to make way for our youth league member,” said Ngcobo.

He added that they will next move to the municipalities and will also ask the regional leadership to accommodate the youth in the troika positions, which is either the mayor, deputy or Speaker, emphasising that the youth league wants youth to be in a position of power to implement youth programmes.

ANC provincial spokesperson Fanle Sibisi said he would first reach out to the youth league chairperson to understand the context of their demands, before responding publicly.

The youth league’s hard-line position is expected to scupper Radebe’s efforts to unite and renew the ANC ahead of next year’s local government elections as its rival, the Umkhonto weSizwe Party continues to pose a serious threat, particularly in eThekwini. 

willem.phungula@inl.co.za