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A short-listed candidate for the National Youth Development Agency is attempting to block the selection process after his name was controversially dropped at the 11th hour.
Now accusations are flying that Kenny Morolong was shafted after interference and pressure from the ANC Youth League’s leadership.
Morolong is a rival of youth league president Collen Maine and last year unsuccessfully tried to contest the body’s top post.
This week, a parliamentary multiparty ad hoc committee established to appoint the agency’s new board interviewed 12 candidates for the seven positions on the board. Morolong, who is also the outgoing executive deputy chairperson of the agency, was one of them.
When the scores were consolidated, Morolong was the fourth-best performer of the 12 candidates. But ANC MP Boingotlo Nthebe announced during the committee’s last meeting on Wednesday that Morolong’s name would no longer be considered. Nthebe left the committee room after his announcement.
Another ANC MP, Mohapi Mohapi, explained that Morolong did not possess a post-matric qualification and that was why his application would not be considered.
Morolong’s lawyers have written to Parliament.
“We are requesting the secretary to Parliament to halt this process until they have corrected the impropriety that has occurred,” said Morolong’s lawyer, Ronald Lamola, a former deputy president of the youth league.
“We must know why they short-listed and interviewed him in the first place, and then what changed their minds?”
The lawyers’ letter also demands that “any process excluding our client from the list of recommended [candidates] be halted...”
“Unless you comply with the demands stated above, we hold instructions to bring an application for appropriate relief in the high court as a matter of urgency, for which costs may be sought against Parliament.”
ANC parliamentarians told City Press that committee members were inundated with calls from the youth league leadership instructing them to drop Morolong.
“The youth league said ‘take him out or we will take this process to court’,” said one MP.
The MPs said the spat had to do with the factional politics of the party, especially in the North West ANC, where Morolong and Maine come from.
Another ANC MP confirmed that a decision to drop Morolong was taken in a caucus meeting the morning after the committee had interviewed him, and following pressure from the youth league’s leadership.
League secretary-general Njabulo Nzuza denied that they had put pressure on MPs to withdraw Morolong.
“The guy did not have qualifications. He got pulled out, so I don’t know about putting pressure,” he said. He added that the league was happy “that comrades who were deserving and performed well got through”.
It is not clear why the ad hoc committee accepted Morolong’s application, short-listed him and interviewed him despite him not possessing the required academic qualifications. Morolong is also not the only candidate who the committee considered despite requirements not being met.
Zandile Majova, who also served in the outgoing board, made it into the final seven despite not having a three-year post-matric qualification.
Co-chairman of the ad hoc committee Phil Mapulane would not answer these questions when approached by City Press on Friday. Mapulane said he would not be able to comment, as the process was still ongoing.
The candidates who will be recommended to Parliament are: Young Communist League chairperson Yershen Pillay; Thulani Tshefuta, an ANC Youth League member who is also the president of the SA Youth Council; Bavelile Hlongwa; Thembinkosi Josophu; Ndumiso Mokako; Naledi Maponopono; and Zandile Majozi.
With the exception of Majozi, who is a member of the IFP, all the candidates are members of the ANC Youth League.
Parliament is expected to approve the names on Tuesday and President Jacob Zuma will make the final appointments.
