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Following its legalization in 1990, the ANC resurrected its youth wing, the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) to take the place of SAYCO, which had federated the South African youth in the late 1980s. The composite character of ANCYL and its independent attitude created strong initial tensions with the ANC, at the time of negotiations with the apartheid regime, but the ANC eventually strengthened its grasp over ANCYL after 1994. Still, Mbeki’s coming succession reignites tensions within the ANC, thus bringing ANCYL back to its role as a major battleground for the control of the ANC.