He said the RGC will have the powers to “correct all wrongs” and will be headed by him.
ANCYL national leader Collen Maine has told scores of Nkangala branches that picketed outside party headquarters in Johannesburg that next week Saturday the Nkangala region will convene an RGC.
Maine said the date of the regional general council is 24 November 2018 and will be held at the Khulisile Palace.
He said he will lead the team that will be presiding over the RGC, working with the provincial leadership.
“Comrades,” Maine told the scores of branch leaders who have been picketing outside Luthuli House waiting to talk to him for most of the day.
“Next week Saturday there will be an RGC in Nkangala,” said the President to thunderous applause outside Luthuli House Friday evening.
The branch chairs and secretaries from Steve Tshwete, JS Moroka and Thembisile Hani had taken their anger to Maine after the Nkangala REC snubbed their BGMs weeks ago.
The BGMs were important because they allow branches to nominate favoured candidates ahead of congress.
The branches want Ndumiso Mokako as the secretary general against the position of the Nkangala REC that wants Pholoso Mbatsane for the secretary general position.
They also want Trevor Nkosi to be provincial chairman and the REC wants their secretary Thabang Mathebula to contest this position on 7 December 2018 when a provincial congress is held.
Collen Maine and ANC secretary Ace Magashule came to listen to the cries of the branches.
Maine said the RGC will have powers “to make corrections in the leadership of the ANCYL in that region”.
“As NEC we are aware of all your problems. You must continue to defy anybody who wants to intervene in the business of the ANCYL,” he said to applause.
He came with ANC national secretary Ace Magashule and league NEC member Dakota Lekgoete.
The branches arrived at around 11 in the morning but the leaders were only able to attend to them at 4 in the evening.
Maine urged the disgruntled Nkangala branch members to continue to guard processes of the ANCYL and “even if it means staying unemployed”.
“Don’t sell your soul to the highest bidder,” he said to them.
The branch members said they were happy with the response they got from Luthuli House and they will be “for actions”.
“He said when the RGC takes place we must take decision as branches and we will do just that. We are happy and we will wait for actions because talk is cheap,” one of the branches members who drove all the way to Luthuli House Friday morning said.
They say the province has done nothing to help them.
ANCYL branches from three sub-regions in the Nkangala region of Mpumalanga aligned to contender Ndumiso Mokako took their anger to party headquarters in Gauteng.
They want national office to disband the Nkangala ANCYL regional executive committee for “not doing the work it was elected for”.
They say REC deployees have been snubbing their BGMs for weeks now, allegedly because they favour candidates different from those preferred by the REC.
Those picketing outside Luthuli House are the chairs and secretaries from 20 Thembisile Hani branches as well as 27 from JS Moroka and 5 from Steve Tshwete.
Regional spokesman Banele ‘Masheleni’ Nkosi has said that the reason the REC didn’t come to their BGMs was because these branches never sent an invite to the REC but instead to the PEC.
One of the picketers, William Mokwele, a secretary from ward 18 in JS Moroka, said other branches that the REC attended were not given the printed attendant register by the REC deployee and this was done “deliberately” in order to “deny them” at a later stage.
“When they don’t give you the printed attendant register from the region to sign next to your name as a branch member and only give you a piece of paper to write on with a pen you will fail the audit,” Mokwele said.
He said they would picket the whole day outside Luthuli until national leader Collen Maine or secretary Njabulo Nzuza comes to attend them.
Just after mid-day on Friday, the NEC sent one of their members to go hear the branches but the branches refused to be addressed by this NEC member, saying they will picket till Maine or Nzuza attend to them and they give him “the petition”.
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“We are living in a very divided region. The chairperson [Bobo Mtshweni] has his own REC members on his side and the secretary [Thabang Mathebula] has his own. A very divided region and we never elected them to be divided but to service us as branches,” Mokwele said on the sideline of the picket.
The Mpumalanga province is preparing a provincial congress set for 7 December 2018. The national one is set for 16 December 2018.
The branches are divided between those who want Mokako and those who want Pholoso Mbatsane for the position of national secretary.
The Mokako group wants Trevor Nkosi to be the provincial chair while the Mbatsane group wants Thabang Mathebula as the chair.
This week the Nkangala REC said those those who choose to operate “outside the parameters” of ANCYL will be dealt with.
“They will face very serious consequences,” regional spokesman Masheleni Nkosi said.
They say a disagreement broke out over the branch not reaching a quorum.
An ANCYL branch tussle at Bohlabela’s ward 29 has now been reported to the cops.
The assault case was opened against branch chairman Ntiyiso Makaringe, the child of Bushbuckridge municipal chief whip Million Makaringe.
The matter was opened Friday morning this week at the Mhala police station in Bushbuckridge.
The wrestling began when former league regional acting secretary Nhlamulo Mayindi questioned whether the branch could go ahead with a BGM after it was found that only 32 members in a branch that was supposed to have a minimum of 95 members attending in order to reach a quorum.
Mayindi claimed that when Makaringe opened the meeting he told members that inside the Manukusi High School class there were 102 of them and that the meeting reached a quorum.
Nhlamulo Mayindi’s cellphone was smashed against the floor when he tried to take a video of meeting, accused of not being a “videographer”.
“I raised my hand and I was given the opportunity to speak,” Mayindi said when he spoke to the 013NEWS reporter after opening the case Friday morning.
“Then I said No, but chair let’s do a head count and we discovered that there was only 32 of us and not the 102 the chairperson claimed when he opened the meeting,” he said.
The 32 branch members who attended the meeting.
The regions and branches are divided in the Mpumalanga province ahead of a provincial congress 7 December 2018 between supporters of Trevor Nkosi and Thabang Mathebula for the position of chair.
The Nkosi group wants Ndumiso Mokako as secretary general when a national congress is held on 16 December 2018 while the Mathebula group pushes current provincial secretary Pholoso Mbatsane for the secretary general position.
Nhlamulo Mayindi who was allegedly manhandled by branch leader Ntiyiso Makaringe.
“They then smashed my phone against the floor. When I tried to take it, he took it first and threw it out through the window,” he said.
“I wanted to take the video so that when I make a dispute to the upper structure I would have the evidence of how they are convening BGMs in order to put the people they want by force,” he said.
Mayindi leads a faction that is opposed to Mbatsane becoming the secretary – instead they want Bheki Sithole to be the secretary, Nkosi the chair, Mokako the SG and Thanduxolo Sabelo the President.
“They accused me of not being a videographer. Then broke my phone. I have laid charges of malicious damage to my property and assault,” he said.
The police in Mhala confirmed Friday mid-day that case number 77/11/2018 was opened by an “ANCYL person” and that he told them “a suspect broke his phone and assaulted him”.
Regional secretary Maurice Khoza said Mayindi was supposed to report the matter to the REC and had he done that they were going to know.
“As the REC we don’t promote physical resolutions,” Khoza.
“We condemn it only if there was an incident of that kind. He must report it to the regional secretary’s office so that we attend to it straight away,” he said.
He said it was a lie that ward 29 didn’t follow organisational rules when conducting the BGM and electing delegates.
Mayindi on the other hand says the reason he didn’t report the matter to the REC is because he doesn’t recognise them as they are an “imposed structure” and were elected in a meeting that was conducted “unfairly”, bringing in “bogus delegates” in May 2018 and in deputy president Desmond Moela and ANC spokeswoman Sasekani Manzini’s watch who he says are their “puppets”.
The league will have a provincial elective conference on 7 December 2018.
Mpumalanga ANCYL deputy chairman Trevor Nkosi says he personally feels he must give others the chance to lead the ANCYL.
Nkosi says the reason he is available for the position of league provincial chairman ahead of congress is because he respects the comrades who have requested him to stand “but personally I have never stood up and say I want to lead the ANCYL”.
Nkosi spoke to the 013NEWS reporter Friday afternoon this week after it had come to light that he is actually turning 36 next year April.
He was born on 27 April 1983 and the age limit for being a member of the ANCYL is 35 years.
“I have raised the issue of my age to comrades but you know comrades they always have something they put forward to justify their views,” the affable Nkosi said over the phone.
“I have said that I’m 35 years-old already and I think now I’m ready to contest the space in the ANC,” he said.
He said personally he feels the ANCYL should be led by people between the age of 20 and 30 and afterwards “give those who are following you the chance”.
Nkosi said when he told comrades about his age “they started saying, ‘No, we have confidence in you. We want you to lead us, you have the capacity to change the political landscape in the province for young people”.
He is endorsed by his home region of Gert Sibande as well as other comrades in Bohlabela and Nkangala.
In mid-2017, Nkosi, who had previously served as regional secretary and chairman of the league in Gert Sibande before being elevated to the position of deputy provincial chair in 2016, was elected as the regional executive committee member of the Gert Sibande ANC.
Also Mduduzi “Mswati” Nkosi, former leader of the Nkangala ANCYL, got elected to the Nkangala ANC REC as was outgoing league provincial leader Tim Mashele for the Bohlabela ANC REC in June 2017.
Nkosi, who is also the chief whip of the Gert Sibande district municipality, said comrades began pointing out the age of current national leader Collen Maine who is apparently 38 years and former leader Fikile Mbalula, who left the league in 2007 at 38, to say he must accept leading the league.
He said it is because he respects them that he is available “but personally as Trevor Nkosi I’m no longer there”.
“I feel other young people should be given the opportunity to lead the league. Our space is now in the ANC,” Nkosi said.
He is yet to be charged and the league says they won’t say what charge he will face until a disciplinary committee has done its work.
Nkangala ANCYL secretary Thabang Mathebula has spoken up about his suspension, saying he was still “shocked” as to what he did.
News of the soft-spoken regional youth leader were brought to light by provincial secretary Pholoso Mbatsane this week, confirming they have decided to send Mathebula home pending a disciplinary hearing.
Mbatsane didn’t say why they have decided to suspend the regional secretary but said the suspension comes after they “noted with deep regret” his “recent conduct”.
“We have deliberated on the matter and decided to suspend Comrade Thabang Mathebula pending his disciplinary hearing,” Mbatsane said in a statement.
Mathebula said he saw the press statement that Mbatsane released on behalf of the provincial executive committee and was “shocked, what is it that I did”?
“Currently as I’m sitting here I’m not sure what is it that I did,” he told the 013NEWS reporter over the phone.
“I don’t even know of a suspension because from where I’m sitting now I haven’t received anything that seeks to say ‘Comrade Thabang you are suspended or here’s an intent to suspend you’. No. I’m still waiting for anybody to come to me and say ‘you are suspended and this is what you have done’,” he said Thursday morning.
He said it was “unorganisational” of the PEC to suspend him through a press statement and “[that] is not how we process issues in the organisation”.
“So I’m not sure whether the person who wrote the press statement felt he had to put my name in it or is that of somebody else. I don’t know. But what I can say is that I have had an regional executive committee meeting and the convener of the region from the province was here and I can confirm that there is no message of that nature that was communicated,” he said.
In the press statement, Mbatsane said that a disciplinary hearing is meant to restore order and “not meant to resolve private problems”.
“The PEC wants to put it on record that and in a clearer context that disciplinary procedures are not meant to resolve private problems, intimidate or silence a particular member. The whole purpose of DC processes is restore order and discipline within the organisation,” he said.
Mathebula wants to be the provincial chair of the ANCYL when a congress is held on 7 December 2018. He will face-off with Trevor Nkosi, the provincial deputy chair who is also gunning for the same seat.
Provincial spokesman Bheki Sithole said they will not reveal what Mathebula did because he still has to appear before a disciplinary committee.
“He is suspended. The disciplinary committee will summon him. But for now we are not gonna be able to publish the detailed charge sheet, I can only confirm that he is suspended,” Sithole said, adding the matter is “sub-judice”.
” He is yet to receive his charge sheet from the disciplinary committee and the date of appearance. After everything has been done we will then make it public. We will come back and say ‘this is what he is charged for’,” said Sithole.
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Collen Maine and ANC secretary Ace Magashule came to listen to the cries of the branches.
