With the ANC Youth League going into its early national conference in Limpopo between Sunday and Wednesday next week, the league in the Eastern Cape has thrown its weight behind its provincial secretary, Francisco Dyantyi, for the deputy president position.
The province will be sending one of the biggest delegations to the league’s four-day national conference set to sit at Limpopo’s Turfloop Campus in Mankweng, with 583 delegates, whose mandate will be to have Dyantyi elected as Collen Malatji’s deputy.
Gauteng-born Malatji will be going for his second term as the ANCYL president after he was elected at their 26th national congress in July 2023.
More than 4,000 delegates from across the country are expected to attend the league’s 27th national elective congress.
The Eastern Cape has confirmed that it now wants former student leader Dyantyi to take over the reins from the league’s outgoing deputy president, Phumzile Mgcina.
The league’s provincial chair, Vuyo Jali, on Tuesday confirmed that the province would be pinning its hopes on Dyantyi as a sole representative of the Eastern Cape in the ANCYL’s national executive committee’s top six.
This, Jali said, was because Dyantyi was “one of the best candidates we have in our space in the province, who is ready to take a seat at a national level”.
“The Eastern Cape is one of the biggest and respected provinces, with a vast history in the liberation struggle, hence we want representation in the next list of officials to steer the youth league forward.
“In him [Dyantyi], we have chosen a leader we believe is ready to represent the province and take up a seat in that space, as he is one of the best candidates we have in the bag, while age is also allowing him to now take up space on the national stage,” Jali said.
Those branches told me that the Eastern Cape is a province with rich political history and that there was a demise in terms of its national leadership footprint.
— Provincial secretary Francisco Dyantyi
Dyantyi had all the necessary credentials, “as he grew up in the ranks of the mass democratic movement, led the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) up to being its provincial secretary”.
“He also led the South African Students Congress (Sasco) with diligence while he was a student at Walter Sisulu University, going as far as being its provincial secretary, before he was elected the ANCYL’s provincial secretary.
“We have our trust in him, and we believe that, should he emerge, he will represent the province well, as he understands the ins and outs of the mass democratic movement,” Jali said.
Dyantyi on Tuesday confirmed his availability.
He said he had accepted the challenge after being persuaded by league branches to step up and throw his hat in the ring for the league’s second top position.
“Those branches told me that the Eastern Cape is a province with rich political history and that there was a demise in terms of its national leadership footprint.
“They told me that there was a need for the province to return to its dominance in terms of being represented in the national sphere, hence I accepted the challenge,” he said.
There are indications that next week’s conference could be uncontested, with most provinces said to be in consensus about the Malatji-led collective.
This will see Dyantyi deputising Malatjie, while the league’s outgoing first deputy secretary, Limpopo’s Tsakani Shiviti, could emerge as the secretary-general.
In that collective, KwaZulu-Natal’s Zama Khanyase and Northern Cape’s Venus Blennies are earmarked as the first and second deputy secretaries, respectively, while Mpumalanga’s Jacob Tau is earmarked as the treasurer-general.
In the previous top six, the province was represented by Mntuwoxolo Ngundle, who cannot return to the ANCYL as he has passed the cut-off age of 35.
Jali confirmed that this proposed collective might emerge uncontested, “as many provinces we have engaged, are in agreement with us about this collective”.
“We are most likely to have an uncontested congress, as all provinces are in support of this collective, even those not represented for the top six positions,” Jali said.
The conference’s theme would be “Economic freedom and social change now.”
A regional youth league leader in the Buffalo City Metro, who did not want to be named, said: “This theme is a call by all structures of the ANCYL to unchain the country’s economic patterns from the hands of the minority, in the interests of the majority.
“In its practical terms, we’re calling for the state to introduce export quotas to ensure that all mineral resources and other raw materials in the country benefit the people of SA.
“We further say that not more than 70% of our raw materials must be allowed to leave the country.
“In light of this, we are calling on the ANC to create a mechanism to manage leadership quotation.”
While it could not be independently verified, another league insider said discussions during the conference would include their ambitions to have Malatji replacing Fikile Mbalula as ANC secretary-general, and for Mbalula to replace Cyril Ramaphosa as party president at the party’s national conference in 2027.
Malatji could not be reached for comment. Jali, however, refused to comment on such rumoured ambitions, saying “lets just focus on next week’s conference for now”.
In November, the mother body, the ANC had to intervene and call a crisis meeting to manage tensions and infighting between Malatji and Ngudle, which resulted in both parties suspending each other.
Daily Dispatch
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