The fallout between former friends and allies Fikile Mbalula, the ANC’s secretary-general, and Mduduzi Manana, a member of the party’s national executive committee (NEC), is said to lie at the heart of the ructions that rocked the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) this week
The league’s leadership was embroiled in a tit-for-tat showdown after secretary-general Mntuwoxolo Ngudle issued a fiery suspension letter to president Collen Malatji — apparently in retaliation for a suspension Malatji announced against him during his closing address at the league’s meeting earlier in the week.
The pair have also clashed over preparations for the league’s early conference scheduled for mid-December, even contradicting each other when delivering their state of readiness reports to the NEC last week. Their stand-off is similar to that seen in the ANC several years ago, when then secretary-general Ace Magashule announced he had suspended party president Cyril Ramaphosa after the national working committee directed Magashule to step aside after charges against him.
Ngudle was on Friday instructed to apologise and retract his suspension of Malatji, whom he accused of “misleading all our structures in terms of the role of the president”, after a tense meeting with ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula on Friday.
“I wish to publicly apologise for the letter to suspend the president of the ANCYL, comrade Collen Malatji,” Ngudle said in a statement. “I profusely apologise to the collective I lead — [and] the entire membership of the ANC Youth League, the former leaders who called with concern, and the ANC — for any damage caused. Yesterday’s events are regrettable and will never happen again.”
According to highly placed youth league and ANC sources, Malatji and Ngudle’s differences are said to be rooted in the fallout between Mbalula and Manana, who until now were seen as “godfathers” of the youth league.
Mbalula and Manana, once close, were instrumental in installing both Malatji and Ngudle at the youth league conference in 2023. The pair also worked on installing the current leadership of the women’s league and the veterans’ league
“The problem here is that the two, Mbalula and Manana, are fighting for the soul of the youth league; it looks like Malatji is heavily pushing back against Manana’s control of the structure,” said one source sympathetic to Malatji.
Another source close to Ngudle said: “You know people are saying Ngudle doesn’t support Mbalula, while Malatji is fully behind him; so that’s where this war emanates from, and nowhere else. So basically those who don’t want Mbalula must be moved out quickly,” the source said.
Malatji is aligned to Mbalula, while Ngudle and the league’s treasurer-general, Zwelo Masilela, are believed to have sided with Manana in the fallout.
Mbalula and Manana, once close, were instrumental in installing both Malatji and Ngudle at the youth league conference in 2023. The pair also worked on installing the current leadership of the women’s league and the veterans’ league. Their faction had gained a lot of sway in the NEC, where they also won some hard-fought battles, including over the disbandment of both the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provincial executives.
But their honeymoon came crashing down after Mbalula received several complaints from the party’s national and provincial leadership about Manana’s alleged misconduct in the ongoing regional conferences. Manana is the party’s national organiser and is highly involved in the running of all conferences.
Mbalula’s hand was forced, and he is said to have penned a letter informing Manana of these complaints and instructing him to stop his alleged machinations. Those who have seen the letter say it went so far as barring him from attending any of the regional conferences.
Asked for comment, Mbalula accused the Sunday Times of “undermining” him “generally as the ANC SG” and issued a threat that “this will not go unchallenged”, while Manana gave a more comprehensive response denying any fallout.
“There is no fallout between me and Mbalula. This illusion exists in ... people’s imaginations. Mbalula and I come a long way,” Manana said.
He also denied that there was a tussle between the three youth league heavyweights. “There is no infighting in the ANCYL. Malatji, Ngudle and Masilela are brothers, and they can never be divided by an early conference. It is a resolution of their NGC and therefore a wish of ANCYL branches.”
He said Malatji was expected to give overall political direction, Ngudle to provide administrative leadership, assisted by his deputies, and Masilela to take care of logistics, “which will ensure that this congress is a resounding success”.
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