YCLSA statement on the utterances made by the ANCYL leadership
12 December 2015
The Young Communist League of South Africa [uFasimba] is worried by the utterances attributed to the leadership of the African National Congress Youth League [ANCYL] leadership.
The statements and utterances made by individuals leading the ANCYL in the name of the organisation are extremely reckless and reflect a display of young people who are being used by factions in pursuit of the narrow interests of parasitic capitalists.
The ANC is called upon to step in and reign the divisive and childish manner in which this new section of the ANCYL leadership is conducting itself, else the ANC will become divided as well as the alliance because not everyone likes the deterioration of revolutionary morality displayed in the name of the ANCYL and the so-called defence of President Jacob Zuma.
Divisions and the breakdown of the ANC and the alliance will not serve the interests of the national democratic revolution. It can only cause serious problems.
The leaders of the ANCYL need to understand the role of the organisation and not behave as if it they are Spokesperson of President Jacob Zuma. The more they try and fashion themselves as the President Spokesperson the more they drag and litter his name in factionalism, to the extent his decisions will become increasingly difficult to separate from such factional postures. President Jacob Zuma himself as the leader of the ANC must become worried about this and provide leadership against it.
There can be no doubt that the removal of former Finance Minister Comrade Nhlanhla Nene is widely not accepted, and this even from within the ANC itself by highly respected stalwarts with many years of experience in the struggle against national oppression dating far back before many of the post-Mangaung "heroes" and brand new leaders of the ANCYL were born.
Collective leadership is the cornerstone of our revolution. President Nelson Mandela has refused on many occasions to be defined outside the collective. President Jacob Zuma must take his cue from President Nelson Mandela and do likewise.
Immediately the principle of collective leadership is replaced by individual leadership as some leaders of the ANCYL are calling on President Jacob Zuma to act as an individual as if he was outside of the ANC and the alliance there will be serious problems. History does not lie.
In the first place President Jacob Zuma did not stand for elections as an individual. The ANC supported by the alliance and the rest of our mass democratic movement contested elections and put forward his name as its Presidential candidate. There were serious struggles fought in this regard.
It cannot be, contrary to what some individuals leading the ANCYL want us to believe just upon their arrival in office, that the President must now act as an individual outside the collective leadership of the ANC and the alliance and thus become an autocratic leader who is not accountable to the collective.
In terms of our movement's long standing revolutionary principles, all individual members and leaders in any capacity are subordinate to the collective organisation, not the other way around.
We need not remind anybody that President Jacob Zuma is himself a deployed cadre of the movement and he derives his mandate from it. Both the ANC and the alliance must be meaningfully consulted on any key decisions adopted to guide our revolution.
As the YCLSA we would like to caution against the emerging degeneration and divisive arrogance displayed by some young "leaders" who do things in the name of the ANYCL. They must not think that they are alone in history! Neither will history become the product of their actions alone as if they are in a vacuum without thought leadership.
Statement issued by Khaya Xaba, YCLSA National Spokesperson, 12 December 2015
