16/07/2005 22:05 - (SA)
ANCYL rocked by dissension
JIMMY SEEPE
THE ANC Youth League is being rocked by divisions over whether President Thabo Mbeki should make himself available as leader of the ANC for a third term.
The league's deputy president, R uben Mahlaloga, has broken ranks with its leader, Fikile Mbalula, by distancing himself from a position paper by the latter.
It calls for ANC structures to reject the proposal for Mbeki's third term.
Mahlaloga, who is also an MP, said he was baffled by the position of the league since the issue of the "two centres of power" had never been discussed.
He was responding to the league's paper, "Two Centres of Power Not a Solution to Our Challenges" by Mbalula and league spokesperson Zizi Kodwa. It advocates a single presidency for the ANC and the country if - the ANC continues to be the ruling party.
The league said if Mbeki was elected as party leader in 2007, it could create an untenable situation that could lead to unnecessary conflicts between the ANC presidency and the person elected as the country's president.
But Mahlaloga, in an article in today's City Press, expressed concern about the conduct of his comrades.
He said they were involved in the character assassination of the ANC president.
Zizi Kodwa disputed Mohlaloga's contention that the issue had not been discussed.
He said: "The views expressed by the deputy president have never been raised in any constitutional meeting of the organisation.
"Any suggestion that there are those of our leadership who articulate positions that are not of the organisation is mischievous, lacks truth and is in all earnest, a sponsored view."
In his weekly online newsletter, Mbeki warned ANC members against engaging in heated incitements, tribalism and excessive display of political partisanship. These, he said, would bring the movement into disrepute.
Mbeki quoted from an article by Pixley ka Seme - a founder of the ANC - which appeared in the newspaper Imvo Zabantsundu on October 1911.
In the article, Seme reported the words of a great paramount chief who wanted his name to be among the those of the princes who endorsed the formation of the South African Native Congress, which was later changed to the African National Congress.
"There should be, among other things, a firm resolve on the part of every member to eliminate factors which have in the past proved fatal to the continued existence of such societies.
"They should set their faces strongly against the jargon of racial feeling, the ebullition (heated incitement) of the element (of tribalism) and excessive display of political partisanship," the chief is quoted as saying.
Mbeki said this meant that members of the ANC should know that whatever they do would be subjected to the intense scrutiny of the masses.
"The masses will not permit us, members of our organisation, to weaken or put their movement, the ANC, in disrepute," he said.
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