The province’s ANC Youth League (ANCYL) on Monday expressed shock at reports that the mother body has dissolved the league although provincial secretaries from Limpopo and Gauteng have confirmed being informed of the disbandment.

Provincial secretary Dikgang Stock said: “This is news to me, I only heard about it in the news. I am in Johannesburg now and we will be having an NEC meeting this evening. Maybe it is then when I will be briefed about the outcome.”

He said if the ANCYL NEC is shown the door, they will accept the resolution.

“We are operating in a democratic state, if democracy suggests that it is proper to dissolve leadership of a structure within the ANC, we will therefore abide by that resolution.”

The province’s ANCYL has been a stronghold of expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema and declared its support for Malema publicly and his policies. Stock had at one stage even made a call on national television for the removal of President Jacob Zuma as the ANC president in Mangaung, and vowed that his deputy then, Kgalema Motlanthe, would emerge victorious at the conference.

He said if the league’s NEC was disbanded, then their provincial structure would be illegitimate. The ANCYL is expected to host its provincial conference in April.

Meanwhile, the Youth Communist League in the province said it accepted the decision to dissolve the NEC.

Provincial spokesperson, Kabelo Mohibidu said: “We welcome the decision by the NEC to dissolve them, actually it is long overdue.

“Structures of the league were dysfunctional.”

He said they would support an interim structure which would be put in place till the next conference.

“At least now young people will have a voice, they have been subjected to other individuals’ ideas for a very long time,” Mohibidu said.

For more details go to http://www.thenewage.co.za