JOHANNESBURG (Sapa) - Dethroned Limpopo provincial chairman of the ANC Youth League, Lehlohonolo Masoga insists he is still the provincial leader of league, despite the election of a new chairman in a conference at the weekend.

"I am the chairman... the conference was adjourned and it continues this weekend. I have not been replaced," he said on Tuesday.

 "The provincial executive committee [PEC] reflected on the adjourned conference and unanimously agreed that conference should be reconvened as a matter of urgency and conclude its business just like we did with Mangaung and Nasrec conferences that produced the current NEC [national executive committee]."

He explained that the conference at Makhado near Louis Trichardt was adjourned after some delegates started protesting and singing songs which effectively affected the conference proceeding.

The delegates complained that the conference could not proceed while other delegates were being accredited.

"When their view was dismissed on the basis that credentials were not presented and their issue would be attended to at a later stage, the affected delegates started protesting by singing songs..." he said.

He said before the provincial ANC chairman Cassel Mathale could speak, ANCYL president Julius Malema took over the podium to address the conference and ordered that the protesting delegates should be removed from the hall by police.

"The delegates that constituted approximately half of the delegates left the conference venue and whilst outside they where attacked by the police with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets."

"At that moment the president ordered for the removal of the security hired by the provincial leadership and replaced it with a private security brought by him...The conference was therefore adjourned in the light of the volatile environment and failure of the registration team to conclude its work of accrediting delegates and resolving outstanding disputes."

Frans Moswane was elected the new chairman of the youth league in the province, unopposed after Masoga and his supporters who were unhappy about the proceedings, left the conference venue.

Secretary general of the ANCYL Vuyiswa Tulelo said anyone who convened or attended an illegal conference of the ANCYL would be violating the organisation's constitution and risked being expelled  from it.

"Such conduct can only be remedied through expulsion, because there has never been any formal communication or complaints from any of the branches of the ANC Youth League in Limpopo."

She said those who were unhappy about the outcome of the provincial conference should lodge their complaints with relevant structures.

Tulelo said the elective conference of the ANCYL in Limpopo proceeded despite attempts "by the former PEC members to disrupt it".

She explained that  provincial congresses of the ANCYL were convened and presided by the National Executive Committee (NEC) and any gathering at a provincial level that is convened outside the approval of the NEC was tantamount to forming another organisation.

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