NEWLY-elected Limpopo ANC Youth League Provincial Secretary Phineas Sebola has used his address to the elective conference in Polokwane to attack Gauteng ANC Chairperson and Premier Panyaza Lesufi, in what appears to be a factional battle before the governing party’s 2027 national conference. 

Lesufi, believed to be a contender to succeed President Cyril Ramaphosa as party leader, has been attacked in recent months by ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula, one of the candidates alongside Deputy President Paul Mashatile. In recent months, Mbalula charged and hauled Lesufi before the ANC’s top leaders to explain himself for allegedly trashing the Government of National Unity (GNU) in a media interview. 

The ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC), which includes Mbalula, later decided to “reconfigure” the Gauteng PEC, thus curbing Lesufi’s political powers and those of his Kwazulu-Natal counterpart, Siboniso Duma.  

Mbalula is believed to enjoy the support of the Limpopo ANC Provincial Executive Committee (PEC), whose members include ANCYL leaders. Mbalula is also seen as close to former Limpopo ANCYL Chairperson Ernest “Tonny” Rachoene, whose praises Sebola sang after his election on Saturday, February 1.

He attended the funeral of Rachoene’s father in Polokwane last year. 

Addressing the 11th Limpopo ANCYL conference at Jack Botes Hall in Polokwane on Sunday, Sebola declared his support for ANCYL President Collen Malatji’s second-term ambitions before launching a scathing attack on Lesufi. 

He claimed the Gauteng premier had done nothing for the youth except to thrive on publicity stunts and hijacking Malatji’s political campaigns, including the march he led to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Malatji addressed the same conference on Saturday. 

“We declare to support a campaign for the second coming of President Collen Malatji as the president of the youth league. President Malatji did not have to go to Johannesburg to mobilise nyaope boys and high school kids to fill the streets when we had the economic freedom march.”

“He is the president who led the youth league and can articulate issues of the youth league. Today, we have a president who wakes up in the morning every day; we do not know how many times he has had to apologise,” Sebola said. 

“He wakes up every day and confronts the capital head-on. We went to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. We walked to JSE and fought JSE head-on. When we arrived at JSE, Panyaza came to take pictures, but he confronted Panyaza even in public. Panyaza, who was untouchable that all of you believed he was a mini-god in Gauteng, the president of the youth league confronted him head-on and spoke against the PR stunts he pulls in Gauteng, claiming to empower young people when he is not doing anything,” he further claimed. 

In October 2024, Malatji led a march from the ANC’s headquarters in the Joburg CBD to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)’s offices in Sandton, about 10 kilometres away.

The league called for urgent economic reforms to address youth unemployment and demanded an inclusive economy that empowered South African youth. 

Sebola also backed Malatji’s ambition to retain his position as ANCYL president in the next national elective conference. 

“We are saying these kinds of presidents are the presidents we want for a second term. Unfortunately, the youth league is not chieftaincy; we would want him to be our president forever. History tells us that maybe one day we will be able to declare him an honorary president of the youth league,” Sebola added. 

African Times News contacted Lesufi spokesperson Vuyo Mhaga for comment on Sebola’s verbal attack. Mhaga referred the publication to ANC Gauteng Spokesperson Lesego Makhubela, who failed to respond to calls and a Whatsapp message.

Makhubela had not responded to the request for comment at the time of the article’s publication. 

Lesufi has been under fire from within and outside the ANC since the Gauteng ANC PEC excluded the DA from its Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) after the May 2024 general elections, even though the DA and the ANC had reached an agreement nationally. 

After Lesufi announced his new Cabinet in June 2024, Malatji slammed and accused the premier of appointing “celebrities” and “golden boys” as MECs.

He also claimed Lesufi’s MECs had been absent during the pre-election campaign when the ANC faced the prospects of losing power.

“These MECs were nowhere to be found during campaigns but drinking campaigns in the suites with slay queens. We know there are golden boys in Gauteng whom no one can touch,” Malatji claimed.

Last year, Gauteng DA Leader Solly Msimanga accused Lesufi, without providing evidence, of irregularities and maladministration. He tore into Lesufi’s flagship job-creation programme, Nasi Ispani, claiming it was a waste of taxpayers money.

Msimanga also accused Lesufi of sitting on the various reports of corruption and irregularities within the Gauteng government.  

“The collapse of Nasi iSpani shows that employment opportunities for the over 2.5 million unemployed Gauteng residents, many of whom are youth, cannot be created through badly planned short-term programmes. Political expedient programmes lacking long-term sustainability due to budget constraints will only leave the people, who are breadwinners, solely dependent on these contracts, feeling short changed and diminish their trust in government,” he lashed out.

“The DA demands that Premier Lesufi takes Gauteng residents into his confidence and acknowledges the failure of Nasi iSpani. The people of Gauteng deserve a job creation strategy that is well-planned and budgeted for, not gimmicks,” Msimanga said in a statement. 

Others who publicly attacked Lesufi or the Gauteng ANC included DA Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille, Afriforum, former DA leaders, and a section of the mainstream media. 

The Limpopo ANCYL conference also elected Faith Sebopela as ProvinciaL Chairperson, Frans Motupa as Deputy Chairperson, Frans Kgole as Deputy Secretary and Muvhuso Maimela as Provincial Treasurer.