ANCYL above the law?

The African National Congress Youth League in the Eastern Cape confirmed yesterday that it would be convening a congress in the province despite there being an interdict prohibiting it from doing so.

The youth league in the Eastern Cape previously disbanded its provincial executive committee resulting in a court order which interdicted it from holding a conference in the province unless it was convened at the instance of the provincial executive committee who were also to be participants thereat.

According to league secretary-general Vuyiswa Tulelo their action was not in defiance of the court order. It was simply a case of these officials not having been elected in a court of law.

“I don’t think the judge is an expert on the ANCYL just as I’m not an expert in law,” she told a press briefing in Johannesburg.

In other words because ANCYL officials aren’t elected in court they are above the law when it comes to matters pertaining to the league.

A useful analogy might be that nobody is born or bred at SARS and as such the next time the government is collecting tax perhaps Tulelo might pass that message along. South Africans in terms of her thinking might also ignore the police, courts and the government when there is no revenue because the citizens of this country weren’t put here by any of them.

Notwithstanding while they are ignoring the interdict she confirms that the league’s national executive committee (NEC) has instructed its national working committee to appeal the Grahamstown High Court order.

This of course begs the question — why bother?

The conference is scheduled to run from Friday to Sunday in Grahamstown and according to Tulelo any member who tries to prevent another member from attending will face disciplinary action.

We really must bring in some Kangeroos to play with Panjo. Must be loads of them outside the “court” that heard Lehlogonolo Masoga’s disciplinary hearing.

With regard to the league’s Limpopo branch she confirmed that the NEC had decided to confirm and recognise the leadership elected at the Makhado congress. In this regard she said that the league’s national NEC took strong exception to members of the Youth League “who choose not to follow and exhaust internal processes and choose to use courts as forms of relief”.

This in reference to the legitimate channels used by Masoga to stop disciplinary proceedings against him or calling for the reconvening of the conference wherein ANCYL President Julius Malema ordered police to throw opponents out.

The conference duly elected a pro-Malema chairperson, Frans Moswane, whom the Sekhukhune municipality are allegedly charging with fraud arising from the fact that he was paid a salary of R35 000 a month despite allegedly not reporting for duty since June 2009.

Another former employer, the Limpopo economic development department, wants repayment of about R146 000 after Moswane allegedly continued drawing an R11 000 monthly salary after he had resigned in 2007.

Accordingly it appears that both in the Limpopo as well as the Eastern Cape regard for the law is not top of the league’s priorities.

There’s a whole country in Africa which operates under a system that Tulelo and her friends can relate to. If they were to pop up to Mogadishu today they might find out what it is like to live in a country where people disregard the law.

Strangely the law which is being run by the government of a ruling party that they might have heard of.

Even more difficult to understand is the fact that they are grooming the future leaders of the party while sending out a signal to the million or so members of the ANC that the law is something you can take or leave.

Which might present a tiny problem if it is picked up by the 30-odd million people annoyed at service delivery in this country. They might decide that the ANCYL has a good point — obey nothing.

If that is the case try and look up any movies you can on the French Revolution and get the feel of what lawlessness looks like. In the place of the aristocrats they need just substitute themselves and find out just what a pain in the neck that was.