Former ANCYL provincial deputy secretary in Limpopo Thandi Moraka’s case was struck off the court roll after she appeared in the Dzanani Magistrate´s Court last Wednesday.

Moraka was arrested for allegedly stealing accreditation papers during the chaotic ANCYL Limpopo Provincial Conference that took place at the Makhado Multipurpose centre in April this year. Moraka was arrested for being in possession of ANCYL documents and a charge of theft was laid by Magdalene Moonsamy, a youth league spokesperson and NEC representative at the conference.

The conference turned into chaos after squabbles between supporters of Masoga and Frans Moswane, who was elected chairperson, got out of hand. The group supporting the former chairperson of the ANCYL in Limpopo, Lehlogonolo Masoga, was removed from the conference by police members at Malema´s orders, paving a way for Moswane´s plain sailing to the post.

Thandi Moraka said she was happy with the court ruling. An ANCYL member, Eric Hlungwani, said the youths fully agreed with the prosecution and the court that this matter was not a criminal but rather a political case that could best be resolved on a political platform. Hlungwani said the incident was a serious case of abuse of state power by the same people who cried foul when the might of state apparatus was unleashed against them before the Polokwane conference.

“The political humiliation of Thandi Moraka by the national leadership and authorities in the province is something that needs redress and we fully support a view to approach the Public Protector for intervention. It has always been our wish that this case should have been handled out of court by the same political leadership that took it there. The ANCYL national leadership has been pleading with us not to deal with political matters in court, yet they unashamedly remained in court for the last three months until the case was dismissed. It is now clear that going to court is only revolutionary for as long as it suits the national leadership of the ANCYL," Hlungwani said.