The African National Congress (ANC) will host a media briefing on Tuesday and the disbandment of its youth wing is expected to form part of its report.

Over the weekend, the party held its first ordinary national executive committee (NEC) meeting since the elections.

On the first day of the meeting on Friday, hundreds of ANC Youth League (ANCYL) members camped outside the gates of the venue in Pretoria to demand that its mother body disband the structure.

The young lions even threatened to take the party to court if their demands were not met.

The disbandment decision follows the national working committee's (NWC) recommendations to the NEC to install a national task team.

Addressing the protesters on Friday, party spokesperson Pule Mabe said the NEC, the party's highest decision-making body between conferences, had received a memorandum from the NWC and it would be discussed in the meeting.

He said the NEC was conscious of the disbandment call.

A growing number of youth league members have been calling for the removal of leaders elected at the league's 25th national conference in 2015. They have asked the mother body to replace "old" leaders with a national task team that will take it to its 26th conference.

News24 earlier reported that the NWC supported the push for the collapse of the youth league's beleaguered national executive committee. This, amid growing calls from party members for the renewal of the ANCYL.

In April last year, ANCYL leadership hopeful Ndumiso Mokako accused the wing's top five of excessive gatekeeping, sidelining those who held different views, and only focusing on branches in the lead-up to conferences where leaders would be selected.

Collen Maine, as president, Desmond Moela, his deputy, Njabulo Nzuza, as secretary general, Thandi Moraka, as deputy secretary, and Reggie Nkabinde, as treasurer general, were elected to lead the league in 2015. They failed to lead the organisation to an elective conference before their term in office lapsed last year.

Four out of the five are now serving in the National Assembly or a provincial legislature. Nzuza was appointed Deputy Minister of Home Affairs.

Throughout their tenure, they were also criticised for failing to live up to the standards young members of the party had for the league, which has a rich history of producing firebrands and influential leaders who have been respected in society.

'Reasonable and valid request'

Instead, the five were often accused of being "henchmen" and "proxies" for some of the elders in the mother body.

An NWC official earlier told News24 the decision to dissolve the league was due to its failure to take the branches to a conference in 2018, despite three attempts to do so, with logistics and finances often blamed for the delays.

"It's a reasonable and valid request to ask for a disbandment," said one ANCYL NEC member, who spoke to News24 anonymously and who said he supported the move.

He said it was time to revive the league and ensure it became relevant and credible.

In an attempt to help the youth league in 2018, the NEC set up a task team to administrate and oversee the preparations for the conference. This task team was led by party secretary general Ace Magashule and included prominent former ANCYL members Dakota Legoete, Mabe and Zizi Kodwa.

However, not all league members were happy with the composition of the task team.