By Doreen Mokgolo
The ANC Youth League in Ekurhuleni has passed a resolution to rebuild branches to improve its support in the 2026 local elections.
On Wednesday, the region held its secretariat meeting with 120 branches in Ekurhuleni to identify some of the challenges they encountered during the 2024 election campaigns and devise remedies.
Ekurhuleni is one of the ANC’s strongholds in Gauteng, having contributed 53% of the 50.19% in the province during the 2019 national election results. However, support for the party in Ekurhuleni dropped to 33% in the national elections held on 29 May.
In an interview with Scrolla.Africa, ANC Youth League secretary in Ekurhuleni, Mpumi Sangweni, said the party can only improve its performance in the 2026 local elections by rebuilding branches.
“The majority of the ANC membership comes from young people, and the majority of citizens in this country are the youth who have withdrawn their participation in the elections.
“The results of the elections are evident; the efforts we made during the campaigning season didn’t yield the results we expected.
“This tells us that we are not on the ground and are failing to address young people’s challenges.
“Our support dropped drastically also due to the administration of the DA/EFF in 2021-23 [in Ekurhuleni] when they took office and scrapped all the programmes, which include the Ekurhuleni R100m bursary, internship and other youth upskilling programmes,” he said.
Sangweni said the party was punished because it holds a majority with 78 wards and 86 councillors, yet services are not reaching the people, especially those in the townships where its support lies.
“This is the period for the party to self-correct by being on the ground and helping address the challenges faced by young people, whether in education or empowering them in businesses.”
The party’s constitutional amendment requires voting-based structures to have at least 30 members per voting district for a branch to be in good standing.
Picture above: Mpumi Sangweni.
Source: Supplied
