ANCYL distances itself from alleged Maine succession comments

14 July 2016

Johannesburg – The African National Congress Youth League is distancing itself from a news report claiming that its president Collen Maine has opened up a succession debate leading up to the party's election congress in 2017.

In a statement, national spokesperson Mondli Mkhize lambasted a media report by Afrikan Voice which alleged that during Maine's speech at the Mpumalanga leagues' elective conference he said he would support Premier David Mabuza as the ANC deputy president.

"The Afrikan Voice reported that the ANCYL will support Mabuza for deputy president of the ANC in 2017. This is not true, the president never uttered these words or anything close to this," Mkhize said.

Mkhize told News24 that Maine only said going forward the ANCYL will find common ground with the Mpumalanga province leadership, "including the time when we go to 2017".

"We call on journalists who come to our programme to report factually. We as the ANCYL want to disassociate ourselves [from] these utterances," he said.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.