Johannesburg - The ANC Youth League needs to go back to basics, according to presidential hopeful and North West chairperson Collen Maine.
"We should be radical, but radicalism should not be reduced to anarchy," he told News24.
"We should be a youth league that is disciplined and engages with the ANC internally."
Maine said the competence of young people in the league also needed to be restored.
The ANCYL would still advocate for "economic freedom in our lifetime", which was adopted at its last national congress when Julius Malema was elected president for a second term.
Malema was expelled from the ANC in 2012 and has since started a new party, the EFF.
The ANCYL has not had official leaders since 2013 when its leadership structures were disbanded by the ANC.
The league is set to hold its elective congress from September 4 to 6.
Maine is a presidential hopeful whose province, the North West, has been lobbying around the country for his candidacy.
He said the ANCYL had to make sure the Freedom Charter was a guiding document on policy in the mother body.
"It should be the youth league that advocates for economic freedom in our lifetime as adopted in our last conference.
"It should be the youth league which says the freedom charter is the guiding document on policies of the ANC. We should say that we want free education at all levels, but it should be a youth league which engages on all those particular matters with the ANC," Maine said.
Young people had to be equipped with the necessary skills which would help move the country forward, he added.
