President Jacob Zuma says the ANC Youth League must use its energy to mobilise support for the ruling party.
Speaking at the national political commission of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa on Thursday, president Zuma said the Youth League must "go out there and organise the youth league to the ANC, for the ANC."
"It must use its energy to infuence the ANC, not the other way round," Zuma said to applause from the Numsa delegates.
His comments can be seen as a reaction to earlier statements by the ANC Youth League that the ANC had no right to remove its leadership as it had not elected them following the suspension of embattled youth league leader, Julius Malema and other top officials.
President Zuma, who is also president of the ANC, said the ANC Youth League was not a "spare wheel" of the ANC.
"It is an integral part of the ANC, that's why for its discipline and everything, its constitution must be informed by the ANC constitution. Its constitution must be subordinate to the ANC constitution and therefore its activities must be subordinate to ANC activities," he said.
Zuma said people read history wrongly, adding that even the militancy of the ANC is being misrepresented.
He said the founders of the ANCYL wrote a program of actions and felt so strong about it that they urged the ANC to adopt their policies.
"The day it was done only in history it remains that it was started by the Youth League, but it was an ANC policy programme. You can't then stand here today and say this is our policy, you haven't understood the history of the ANC Youth League. And you can make the noise 24 hours the whole year, it doesn't change the facts of history," he said.
