At least five members of the newly appointed ANC Youth League National Youth Task Team (NYTT) are set to be booted out of the structure after the ANC national executive committee (NEC) called for the removal of all overage members.
This comes after complaints from within the ANCYL that some of the 35-member task team had reached 35 years of age, which disqualified them from being members of the youth body.
In terms of the ANCYL constitution, membership lapses once a member reaches 35 years but at least five task team members, mainly viewed to be close to embattled secretary general Ace Magashule’s faction, were included into the task team.
These included the task team's head of organising Mlondi Mkhize, ANC Gauteng MPL Lesego Makhubela and Mpumalanga’s Sonto Malapeng. The trio had turned 35 before they were appointed into the structure.
Eastern Cape’s Xolani Mgxoteni, 36, is being investigated for having submitted a fake ID document which purported that he was 34 years old, while another member Boitumelo Setlogelo was 37 years old.
The ongoing age scandal comes despite the new national task team being formed as a result of a previous one which was disbanded in response to ANCYL members’ complaints that it was not being led by legitimate members but by senior ANC leaders who had no authority to run the affairs of the troubled ANC youth wing.
Closing the address of the three-day ANC NEC meeting on Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa pointed out that the party’s top brass had received the report on the work by Luthuli House to ensure that “all NYTT members meet the age requirements of the ANCYL constitution, which is that they should be below 35 years of age”.
An NEC member said the party had questioned why the overage NYTT members had bypassed the selection process which was led by Magashule’s office.
“This is because there was assurance that all those appointed met the requirements before the NEC endorsed them,” the member said.
Last week, ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte had instructed all the NYTT members to submit certified copies of their ID documents and birth certificates as part of vetting and authenticating their ages.
While the affected members refused to comment on the current ANCYL age scandal, NYTT spokesperson Sizophila Mkhize had said the move to expose the task team members and “strictly” apply the age restriction was politically motivated as some of the members had just turned 35 years.
“You are 35 until you are 36.It is senior members of the ANC who are factionalising the NYTT and they are doing this now because they see that the people they support in the NYTT are not winning discussions as they expected,” Mkhize said.
Mkhize took a direct swipe at the party’s national spokesperson Pule Mabe, accusing him of having divisive influence within the structure.
Mabe was not immediately available.
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