The recent revelations in the Mail & Guardian of the 06 May 2011, about Andile Lungisa supporting comrade Julius Malema for a second term as ANCYL president, did not come as a surprise for many of us members of the ANCYL, particularly to those of us opposed to comrade Julius Malema's lust for a second term.

It is important to emphasise that comrades should respect the right of comrade Lungisa to choose and support whichever candidate he may deem suitable for whatever position in the ANCYL. This fundamental right to freedom of choice must always be protected at all costs even if the choice did not favour our own individual or group preferences in the leadership contest within the ANCYL.

It is also important to emphasise the contextual circumstances within which the declaration of support to comrade Julius by comrade Lungisa has taken place. Members of the ANCYL would remember that when there was an orchestrated coup to depose comrade Lungisa of his deputy presidency during the NGC of the ANCYL last year, it was us members of the ANCYL, against vilification and innuendo, who saved him from such political thuggery.

We saved him not because we had personal affection to him, but because we believed that an evil hand was behind the plot to have him deposed from the office of the deputy presidency. It is now telling that the deputy president is declaring support for those who were chief suspects in organising his deposition during the NGC of the ANCYL. It is clear that he has bowed to pressure. Not shocking at all if one considers his prevarications on a number of important matters of principle.

The statements by Lungisa in his response to Mail & Guardian also reveal a battered man who fears for his political career. In so doing he throws out the window all principles and political convictions to save himself from the wrath of his master. This comical but kamikaze stance by Lungisa would be funny if it was not tragic.

It is a political tragedy when comrades are prepared to lose all their political convictions and thus their credibility just so they are in good books of comrade Malema. It is a politically expedient course that may yield results for you in the current political dynamics. However, because history is always a judge, it would do so very harshly to political paraplegics like Lungisa.

We are the first ones to remind Lungisa of our right to choose whichever candidate we prefer within the ANCYL. For him to trump up this democratic right in justifying his decision to support Julius is phony because when Julius crashes and annihilate all those choosing leaders opposed to him, Lungisa always keeps quiet. For him now to be paraded in the media as a political prostitute that has just realised the error of its wicked ways undermines the very right to freedom of choice without undue pressure.

It is clear that comrades like Lungisa have given up all that should define the leadership content of the ANCYL leaders. They have tended to close their ears to voices that call for a revolutionary youth leadership that positions itself as a credible, disciplined and revolutionising force within the ANC and society.

They have also forgotten, if they knew at all, what Lenin told the youth movement in Russia about their duty and task in times of constant crises. Lenin unequivocally told the youth to do three things, and that is to learn, learn and learn even more about everything the revolution has achieved and still has to achieve.

This Lenin said not because he wanted to have a youth that study by rote huge volumes of books on Marxism-Leninism. He was encouraging a historical and scientific approach to the study of matter as historical phenomena in conducting a revolution. This should be what informs the leadership content of our leaders in the ANCYL today.

It is therefore in this context that the campaign to elect a democratic and politically strong leadership as lead by comrade Lebohang Maile in the next ANCYL conference continues undeterred. This campaign is gaining momentum each and every passing day. The lies peddled in the media to discredit this campaign are not going to have any serious effect, for ours is to remain focus on the task at hand to restore the ANCYL to its membership.

It is a blatant lie that we have no numbers going to the conference next month. It is also a convenient lie that there are discussions to have comrade Maile as deputy president of the ANCYL. Our objective is clear, and it is to ensure that there is a new leadership collective that will be lead by comrade Maile after the June ANCYL conference.

Comrade Lebohang Maile, as a disciplined member of the ANCYL, does not have to be going around announcing his availability or intention to lead the ANCYL. He has never done so before and he is not about to do that now, as that would be against the traditions and culture of the liberation movement. It is us members of the ANCYL who want him to lead the ANCYL to a path of sustained and all-round development of our people. As an experienced leader he can be able to combine discipline and militancy in a strategic and dialectical way to achieve maximum results. Unlike those ill-disciplined elements that make a lot of rhetorical noise without any results whatsoever.

 We know for a fact that the second termers are nervous about the wave of discontent towards the leadership of comrade Malema. This discontent has been building for some time now. It has taken various forms and has expressed itself at various levels of the organisation including the NEC of the ANCYL. Members of the ANCYL are wounded with the fact that democracy in the ANCYL is the thing of the past.

The fact that they are unable to even choose their representatives to conferences of the ANCYL- because they are intimidated by the use of vast amounts of money- angers them even more. These members are very worried that there seems to be a raging bull dog in the ANCYL that intimidates into submission weak members like Lungisa.

They have therefore decided to take a stand against this foreign tendency so as to bring the ANCYL back to its members. They are very loud in their belief that the ANCYL is not a sole property of an individual who seems to be angry towards everyone else but himself. They are resolute that come June, the unexpected will happen. A new leadership collective lead by a politically capable leader of Lebohang Maile's caliber will emerge!

Mbasa Metuse is a member of the ANC and ANCYL in Centurion branch, Gauteng Province. He writes in his personal capacity

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