ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema will have to decide this week whether to fight fire with fire or hand out olive branches in a rising rebellion in his organisation's ranks.
Eastern Cape youth league leaders won their court case last week, while factions in the Western Cape, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo are expected to meet the league's national leadership in court in separate cases this week.
The ANCYL has described the actions against it as "alien" to the organisation's culture, while the dissidents have argued that the courts were their last alternative.
The Eastern Cape's provincial leadership structures got the High Court in Grahamstown to declare the dissolution of its provincial committee by the national leadership null and void last week. Provincial leader Mlibo Qoboshiyane said the province would work with the national leadership to make a third attempt at convening the Eastern Cape's conference after previous meetings dissolved in anarchy.
The Eastern Cape's success has spurred the disbanded leadership in the North West and Western Cape to prepare to approach the courts this week to similarly reverse their disbandment by the national leadership.
Mpumalanga's Ehlanzeni regio-nal leadership was expected to add its voice to the rebellion today by filing an urgent application in the high court to nullify what it called a "bogus" regional conference that took place this weekend.
Leaders in the Sedibeng region in Gauteng yesterday also complained that they were unhappy about the way their elective conference was being handled by leaders from the provincial and national executive committees.
Meanwhile the South Gauteng High Court is expected to hear arguments today by ousted Limpopo leaders after the league's national leadership refused to reverse disciplinary action against them for walking out of a provincial conference earlier this year. New leaders were elected in their absence.
Many in the league who have lost faith in Malema would like to see his deputy, Andile Lungisa, take over. But after a meeting of the league's national working committee last week, Lungisa declared he was not seeking to unseat Malema.
