A "hyperactive" African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) was better than a passive one, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who is also ANC deputy president, said on Friday.

"If you are passive, it means that tomorrow's ANC will be passive," he told delegates at the ANCYL national general council at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.

"We are heartened by the fact that our [ANCYL] problem is a very good problem. In our view, you are a good problem," he said.

"It's better to have a good problem. We can live with that. It says to us that tomorrow's ANC will be hyperactive."

The ANCYL brought "oomph" and "radicalism" to the ruling party.

Motlanthe said that he expected the ANCYL to be active and said that discipline was paramount for this.

"Discipline of work is very important. Not in the sense of disciplinary proceedings. That I will not enter into. But the self-discipline of each and every member to understand that the youth league will be what you make it out to be.

"It's the discipline to know how to implement the decisions of the youth league."

Implementing decisions required discipline and every individual member, not just leaders, bore the responsibility to do so, Motlanthe said.

"You are tomorrow's ANC, and if tomorrow's ANC is to be better than today's ANC that seed must be planted today in the ANCYL.

"It can never happen that the next generation [of the ANC] does worse than the previous generation. Always strive to ensure that the ANC of today is better than the ANC of yesterday."

Motlanthe also spoke about the importance of the alliance and the danger of factions, which he described as "undemocratic"