Buffalo City Metro (BCM) youth council chair Odwa Sokomani has compiled a report detailing events leading up to the contentious youth council conference earlier this month.
The report, to be sent to BCM councillor Xolani Witbooi, chair of the metro’s operations committee, comes against the backdrop of the ANC Youth League writing to the council speaker Alfred Mtsi, expressing disapproval of the conference.
Other youth formations have now joined the ANCYL in voicing their reservations about the youth council and, by extension, the conference.
The Daily Dispatch has seen parts of the report and an attendance register for the consultation meeting with youth political formations. Sokomani says the register confirms that they had engaged with the parties prior to the conference.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch this week, Sokomani explained why the youth council, and by extension the outcomes of the early-March conference in which they were re-elected, should not be nullified.
He blamed ANC factions in the region, saying he was consolidating a report to be tabled next week. Mayor Xola Pakati confirmed he had sent an official to investigate the matter and now had the full report.
“The misunderstanding stems from [the youth formations] not reading the constitution and not participating in the municipal process amending the constitution and the roadmap to council,” Sipho Kilani, secretary of the BCM youth council said.
“We have not done anything wrong, therefore we [should not] be nullified.”
Earlier this month, the Daily Dispatch reported youth formations were refusing to recognise the youth council leadership because their term had ended in 2015. But Kilani said the youth council’s term did not end in 2015 as it was aligned to the term of (the city) council which ended in August 2016.
“The constitution then indicates that the youth council may request an ad hoc extension” to prepare for elections.
DA Youth Eastern Cape chairperson Mawethu Kosani slated the youth council. “It’s a bogus structure, used to loot the municipality. You never see them and you don’t see their books.”
On the constitutional claim, he said: “Which constitution are they talking about? There was no consultative process. Kilani and Sokomani drafted [the amendment] by themselves.”
Mihla Hanise, chair of the EFF Student Command at Fort Hare University, said information was managed in a way to benefit the current leadership.
He had heard about the conference only minutes before it took place...