As hundreds of journalists were ushered into the plenary session of the ANC’s 55th national conference — where election results were to be announced — the first telling sign that Cyril Ramaphosa had won was when a young male delegate was overheard on the phone telling the person on other side that “Hey Maan, LeTaima Ibuyile”, a slang term meaning, in short, “The Old Man has retained his position”.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Relief for Ramaphosa but the wolves remain resolutely on NEC doorstep”

The Radical Economic Transformation (RET) Forces, joined by the ANC Young Lions in several provinces, were emphatic in their messaging that he was not coming back and would be replaced by his rival Zweli Mkhize, while Ramaphosa’s supporters maintained Uyabuya (he is coming back).

These terms had begun in KZN, but later caught fire around the country. When former KZN ANC chairperson Sihle Zikalala (who had alienated himself from the RET faction by seemingly supporting Ramaphosa over Zuma) was attending a mass prayer meeting at Nkandla in support of former president Jacob Zuma earlier this year, a video clip was spread on the social networks which showed some of the RET supporters jeering him and telling him to his face, “Akabuyi lo”; he should forget about retaining his position as the leader of the ANC in KZN. When the provincial elective conference was held, Zikalala lost to 44-year-old Sboniso Duma, when his Taliban (Young Turks) faction swept the floor.

The Young Lions gambled on Zweli Mkhize to unseat Ramaphosa and lost. They were unhappy that the party has not been able to revive the ANC Youth League which has largely been led by task teams or weak leadership since the departure of Julius Malema, who was kicked out of the party and later formed the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), taking with him the militant activists who were once creative in bringing vibrancy and radically changing ANC policies.

Taliban clean sweep

In KZN, the wing of former Youth League leaders who called themselves the Taliban made a clean sweep, taking over the entire KZN ANC top five as well as many provincial executive committee positions. In Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi won the position of provincial leader of the ANC after beating Lebogang Maile who led the Adiwele faction which seeks radical transformation of the economy. But after the province held its elective conference, the two realigned themselves and later joined hands in supporting Mkhize’s election drive against that of Ramaphosa — as did former ANC spokesman Pule Mabe and former Ekurhuleni executive mayor Mzwandile Masina.

The Zweli Mkhize campaign was carried on the shoulders of the young KZN ANC provincial leadership, with implicit support or tentacles that spread in Gauteng, North West and regions of Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

The Young Lions were hoping to consolidate their power under a Mkhize-led ANC. They planned to populate the top seven positions and the National Executive Committee (NEC) with young people, or at least leaders sympathetic to their cause, like Paul Mashatile.

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Young people within the ANC have reason to be unhappy about the status quo. Increasingly, they are failing to convince young voters to vote for a party that is not making any tangible changes for the young.

According to Statistics SA in June this year:

“South Africa has over 10 million young people aged 15-24 years and, of these, only 2.5 million were in the labour force, either employed or unemployed. The largest share (7.7 million or 75.1 %) of this group of young people are those that are out of the labour force (ie inactive)”.

According to a report in the publication The Conversation, South Africa has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world — 63% of its young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are jobless. A large proportion of these young people have never worked in the formal economy. The report says these young people are a “ticking time bomb” that could explode and plunge the country into anarchy.

Previous NEC ‘out of sync’

Duma, the KZN ANC chairperson, said the previous NEC was out of sync with the party’s branches, and many young members wanted change.

“The young people want the change of direction in the ANC and in the country… they are also suffering because of unemployment, inequality. So, they want this conference to reflect this so that it finds expression in the resolutions,” Duma said, adding that the energy crisis and rampant load shedding was of great concern to South Africans, including the youth.

One female ANC Youth League delegate from the Eastern Cape, who asked not to be named, said they were finding it extremely difficult to counter the narrative of Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), hence they supported Mkhize.

“Many of our young people are left out in the cold, so they see no need to vote for the ANC. The EFF, on the other hand, is promising them things, promising to change things for the benefit of the youth.

“We in the ANC… have the ANC Youth League (that) is almost dead. It has task teams all over the country. We want change that will bring back a strong, united ANC Youth League that will spearhead the issues of young people.

“Cyril and other senior leaders are not listening to us, that is why we wanted to remove them and bring people who will change things,” she said.

Youth-oriented leaders

Verus Ncamphalala, the 38-year-old secretary of the KZN Far North region, said although the youth could not get Mkhize elected party leader, they were successful in flooding the NEC with youth-oriented leaders. He said this augured well for the party ahead of the 2024 elections.

“If you look at the new NEC there are many former and current youth leaders… the ANC is beginning to look like the demographics of the country in terms of youth representation,” he said.

Gauteng is one of the key provinces on the verge of falling into opposition hands in the 2024 general elections unless something dramatic happens between now and those polls.

In the final days before the conference, the Gauteng ANC provincial leadership openly threw its weight behind Mkhize.

Thembinkosi “TK” Ncinza, the 44-year-old Gauteng ANC provincial secretary, said the new leadership should not be triumphalist, but quickly address the many challenges facing the country, especially alienated young people who were increasingly detached from the party.

He said the Gauteng ANC leadership was aware of the dangers facing the party in the province but believed that the new top seven and the NEC leadership would lead the party to victory. “They understand the problems and issues facing our people,” he said.

“Many of those elected into the NEC are young people who come from the generation of 2008 and 2011… that was calling for economic freedom in our lifetime which finds itself, years later, in the ANC’s policy of radical transformation of the economy. It would be interesting how these leaders implement these policies, but we have confidence in them,” he said.

Biggest threat

Political analysts say the alienation and economic marginalisation of the youth is the biggest threat facing South Africa.

Protas Madlala, an independent political analyst based in Durban, said the ANC relied on its struggle credentials, but the youth was not there during the struggle and they wanted to see change now.

“The EFF has eclipsed the ANC in tertiary institutions and is taking most of the youngsters there, taking up the struggle of the youth who are excluded, who have no funds to study… amongst the poorest of the poor, the ANC still has a chance, but they are running out of time.

“The ANC has to have a developmental approach. They have to go to the ground, galvanise the youth who are unemployed by providing job opportunities and come up with programmes to provide the youth with necessary skills, provide them with opportunities to open businesses.

“Government is spending billions on programmes like National Youth Development Agencies, but these agencies are elitist and benefit youth who are connected. They should go to the ground, the township and rural areas and make changes there,” Madlala said. DM