32 Facts About Andile Lungisa

Andile Weah Lungisa was born on 21 December 1978 and is a South African politician from the Eastern Cape.

Andile Lungisa has been a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress since December 2022.

Andile Lungisa rose to prominence as the deputy president of the ANC Youth League between April 2008 and June 2011.

Andile Lungisa is the former chairperson of the National Youth Development Agency and the former president of the Pan-African Youth Union.

Andile Lungisa was born on 21 December 1978 in Tsomo in the former Cape Province, now the Eastern Cape.

Andile Lungisa's maternal grandparents were AbaThembu supporters of the African National Congress and of King Sabata Dalindyebo; his paternal grandparents had lived in Lesotho since 1952 and his father was born there.

Andile Lungisa became active in politics as a teenager, joining the South African Students Congress at the age of 14 and later becoming chairperson of SASCO's regional branch in Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown.

Andile Lungisa later joined the regional executive committee of the mainstream ANC branch in Nelson Mandela Bay.

At the ANCYL's chaotic 23rd National Conference in Bloemfontein in April 2008, Andile Lungisa was elected as deputy president of the league.

Andile Lungisa stood for the position on a slate aligned to the winning presidential candidate, Julius Malema.

In subsequent months the challenge coalesced into a nascent campaign with support concentrated in the Eastern Cape, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and the South African Communist Party's Young Communist League; Andile Lungisa's backers, including Lehlogonolo Masoga and Buti Manamela, were associated with opposition to Malema's bid to have Fikile Mbalula replace Gwede Mantashe as ANC secretary-general.

In January 2011, as the ANCYL elective conference approached, Andile Lungisa withdrew from contention for the presidency, reportedly throwing his support behind Malema's other rival, Lebogang Maile.

Andile Lungisa did not stand for re-election to a top leadership position, but he was elected as an ordinary member of the ANCYL's National Executive Committee.

Andile Lungisa was the chairperson of NYDA for one term between April 2009 and April 2013.

Andile Lungisa was the deputy president of the African Union's Pan-African Youth Union between 2008 and 2011, and on 5 December 2011 he was elected as its president during the third PYU congress in Khartoum, Sudan.

In December 2012, Andile Lungisa attended the mainstream ANC's 53rd National Conference in Mangaung, where he was nominated to stand for election to the party's National Executive Committee.

In March 2017, Andile Lungisa was asked to resign as Nelson Mandela ANC region chairperson having been in the position for less than a week.

In terms of ANC Constitution, Andile Lungisa was supposed to resign first as Eastern Cape ANC provincial executive committee member before contesting on a lower level.

Later in 2017, Andile Lungisa launched a bid for a leadership position in the Eastern Cape ANC, joining provincial chairperson Phumulo Masualle's slate ahead of the provincial party's upcoming elective conference.

Andile Lungisa became an outspoken critic of Oscar Mabuyane, who was elected to replace Masualle as provincial chairperson at the conference.

The incident was caught on camera by fellow councillor Renaldo Gouws and Andile Lungisa was sentenced to an effective 2 years.

Andile Lungisa said he acted in self-defense but Judge Morne Cannon of the Port Elizabeth Magistrates Court, said Lungisa changed his versions throughout the trial and his evidence could not be trusted.

Andile Lungisa served 16 days of his sentence before gaining release on R10,000 bail in May 2018, pending his appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Andile Lungisa ultimately resigned from his MMC position in August 2020, but he reportedly remained an ordinary councillor when he entered prison the following month.

Andile Lungisa's two-year prison sentence was halved by the special remission of sentences announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during the Covid-19 pandemic, and he received parole on the remainder of his sentence because he was a first-time offender.

Andile Lungisa was released on parole on 1 December 2020 after serving two-and-a-half months in prison.

Between July 2021 and October 2022, Andile Lungisa faced criminal charges for allegedly contravening COVID-19 lockdown regulations by holding a political gathering during the July 2021 civil unrest.

Andile Lungisa first appeared in the Motherwell Magistrate's Court on 23 July 2021, but trial was delayed after he failed to attend a court hearing in October that year.

Andile Lungisa initially succeeded in appealing that decision in September 2021.

However, Mabuyane and his allies won in all the top leadership positions; Andile Lungisa lost the treasury to Zolile Williams, who received 799 votes to his 673.

Andile Lungisa was nonetheless reelected to the Provincial Executive Committee as an ordinary member.

In mid-2022, Andile Lungisa launched a campaign to ascend to the ANC's national leadership as the party's national treasurer-general.