ANCYL says DA is ‘eating what is left’ of ANC in GNU - IOL

ANC Youth League says the DA is “eating what is left” of the ANC, questioning the party's continued governing arrangement with its political rival.

The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) secretary-general Tsakani Shiviti says the Democratic Alliance (DA) is “eating what is left” of the African National Congress (ANC), arguing that the governing arrangement between the parties is damaging the ANC's credibility and undermining its policy positions.

Shiviti said the DA was a right-wing party whose positions on affirmative action, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act and land reform were at odds with those of the ANC.

In an interview on 702, she questioned why the ANC continued governing alongside a party that opposed policies it had long advocated.

“Now, if you don’t want affirmative action and the ANC is for affirmative action, why are we going to bed with the DA?” Shiviti said.

She argued that the ANC could not credibly promote policies that its governing partner opposed.

“We don’t have to go to bed with the DA because we are tarnishing our name, and our credibility is now in question because we can’t be saying this when we are governing with them,” she said.

Shiviti’s comments follow the Youth League’s public declaration that the DA and other right-wing parties should be a no-go area for ANC coalition arrangements.

As previously reported by IOL, ANCYL president Collen Malatji said on Tuesday that the organisation would not support coalition agreements that compromised the ANC's ideological principles, particularly on BEE, affirmative action and economic redress.

Malatji also called for the Youth League to have meaningful representation in coalition negotiations following the ANC's poor performance in the November 4 local government elections.

Despite its objections to the DA's participation in coalition arrangements, Shiviti said the Youth League could not independently withdraw from the ANC's governing arrangements because it remained bound by the party's structures, policies and resolutions.

“The ANC Youth League is the wing of the ANC and we don’t exist outside the policies and the resolutions of the ANC,” she said.

She said the organisation would instead continue engaging the ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) in an effort to change its position.

She said the presence of young ANC members, including deputy ministers, in government did not mean the Youth League supported the DA's involvement.

“We do have people that are deployed that are from the ANC. We have deputy ministers that are young there. But that does not mean that we are comfortable with the DA.

“We are never comfortable with the DA.”

The ANC's Extended Special NEC is meeting on Thursday to consider and adopt a mandating guide for its coalition negotiations team following the local government elections.

The meeting is also expected to receive reports on the party's initial engagements with other political formations.

The outcome will guide the ANC's negotiating team as it seeks arrangements to establish governments in municipalities where no party secured an outright majority.

Shiviti also discussed potential coalition partners, including ActionSA and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), saying the Youth League assessed parties according to their policies rather than the votes they had taken from the ANC.

“It's not about the votes, it's the policies. It's what you stand for,” she said.

She said she still needed to examine ActionSA's policies more closely as the party continued to grow.

She was more positive about the EFF, describing it as a breakaway from the ANC Youth League and arguing that the two organisations shared similar policy positions despite differences in their approaches.

“EFF is a child of the ANC Youth League,” she said.

“The EFF is advocating for Freedom Charter. That is a policy of the ANC.”

Shiviti said former ANC Youth League members had left the organisation to establish the EFF.

“We don't differ when it comes to policy. We just differ with the approach,” she said.

The ANC entered the Government of National Unity (GNU) with the DA and several other political parties after losing its outright majority in the 2024 general election.IOL Politics