A group of young people picketing outside the Lekwa municipality for jobs not to be advertised were not members of the ANCYL, a spokesman has said this week.
“We have completed our internal investigation and we can without being ambiguous confirm that the group were not branches nor members of the ANCYL,” Gert Sibande ANCYL spokesman Thulasizwe Thomo said on Wednesday morning.
This comes after a statement two weeks ago by the Young Communist League in the Lekwa sub-region criticising the ANCYL for a strike allegedly staged by the ANCYL in the sub-region to the Lekwa municipality demanding that municipal officials not advertise jobs.
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Thomo said even though they were wearing ANC T-shirts and were young people but a picket organised by the league would be approved by the office of James Nkosi, the regional secretary of the Gert Sibande youth league in the Mpumalanga province.
The unemployed group, marching to Lekwa mayor Linda Dlamini’s office, wanted the 27 municipal posts of meter maintenance and liaison officers not to be advertised to the public and a job requirement reduced from Grade 12 to Grade 10.
“The ANCYL in the region cannot oppose anything aimed at developing our people as we prioritise education and competency more than anything else and it is not our prerogative to set job requirements for any of the municipalities or departments in our region ,” said Thomo.
Thomo added it was “unfair” of the YCL to release the statement, “shooting randomly without concrete and tangible evidence”.
“We strongly urge the Young Communist League to in future guard against it as that is tantamount to pulling a publicity stunt,” said Thomo.
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Asked whether there were sour relations between themselves and the YCL in the region following the Lekwa statement and the YCL’s snubbing of an OR Tambo memorial lecture organised by the ANCYL in Ermelo a week ago, Thomo said relationships “as we view them in the region are healthy and alive”.
“When preparing for the OR Tambo lecture the office of the regional secretary extended invites to all Progressive Youth Alliance structures , maybe the YCL had other political commitments.
“But also we are in a process of convening a PYA summit in the region, were we plan to deal immensely with issues of unity and other political issues affecting young people in our region,” he said.
The YCL in the Gert Sibande region is led by Ayanda Mashaba as secretary, his deputy Njabulo Mathabela and Sindi Sibeko as the chairwoman and her deputy Enoch Mogale, young communist treasurer Nokuthula Nkosi while the ANCYL is led by Trevor Nkosi as the chairman, Mandla Nkosi as the deputy chairman, James Nkosi as the secretary, Thembi Khumalo as his deputy as well Khanyisile Shabalala as treasurer.
(edited by MLM)
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