“It’s not a bad idea…. it is actually being discussed in various structures of whether it should be done,” he told reporters in Johannesburg.

The ANC Youth League first mooted the idea shortly after the local government elections, demanding an overhaul of the party’s leadership structures after it lost three key metros.

Mantashe said the youth league had the same status as any province.

“It has a right to make a proposal to the ANC.”

But if an early elective conference happened, the ruling party needed to do with this with the aim to reconcile differences within its structures, he said.

ANC members should not hold an early elective conference and then “fight it out there, smash each other, blood on the floor… [and] we come out of the conference more divided”.

“It should be an early conference with a clear objective… but to go to an early conference; it is not a bad idea,” said Mantashe.

The next ANC elective conference is scheduled for December 2017.

News24