On a Polemical Note

Like George Bush and his imperialist agents, the current incumbent president of the ANCYL, Julius Malema, has decided to launch a destructive pre -emptive strike in anticipation of a difficult ANCYL conference where his leadership (and I dare say his misleading) of the ANCYL will be challenged openly and on a wide scale for the first time.

He has decided to rush those provinces that seem to be sympathising with him, to quickly declare their support for him so that he can claim a psychological edge over those opposed to his leadership. How myopic if one looks at the close margin and other shenanigans that led to him declared as the preferred candidate by these Provinces.

As usual, he has also made scurrilous accusations against the leadership of the ANC, that the latter is planning his demise at the national conference of the ANCYL. He even opportunistically and patronisingly misused the name of the former president, comrade Thabo Mbeki, to discredit his opponents as being jealousy of the brilliance of the former President. How quickly vulgar opportunists change! The media has been having a field day with Julius dancing on the gallery!

Few though have been able to point out that the current incumbent president is suffering from a severe anxiety because he is not really sure what is going to happen during the national conference of the YL. The fact that he is seeing ghosts and conspiracies everywhere is a sign of a populist and an opportunistic leader that is fast losing grip of the ANCYL. He is therefore attacking anyone and anything that moves like a Mexican bull chasing a red cloth. He is mired in a serious quagmire and paranoia in that he is already planning the disruption of the ANCYL Conference by accusing the ANC leaders of the same.

The fact is that when we as members of the ANCYL started to raise our discomfort with the leadership of Julius, we were labelled and vilified by the current leadership of the ANCYL. They dismissed our concerns saying they were not going to have any impact on the general membership of the ANCYL.

They are now eating humble pie because in all provinces members of the YL are becoming more vocal about what they call: Malema's divisive and cavalier leadership style that viciously suppresses all those opposed to his dictatorship.  These members are sick and tired of leaders who perpetually divide their Provinces for their narrow, personal and never-ending subjective interests.

To this end, comrades have been subjected to the most untold verbal and sometimes physical abuse because they dared question the direction to which this current leadership under Julius is taking the ANCYL.  As long serving members of the ANCYL, they have been able to explain to the general membership of the YL that calls of nationalisation of mines for instance, are just popular sentiments covering-up the true intention of this group of demagogs, which is to cling to positions of power to maintain and support their Hollywood lifestyles.

The calls about "economic freedom in our life time" also, from the perspective of these demagogues, have very little, if anything, to do with the mass unemployed youth of this country. These are just calls for economic freedom for the small elite led by Julius himself. This is the only logic of a capitalist economy whose intention is to amass as much profits whilst throwing crumbs in the way of ‘black and rough diamonds' like Julius.

The latter are then just happy to cut lucrative BBE deals on the one hand; whilst on the other hand managing popular and mass anger through rhetoric about nationalisation of mines. They make these calls without necessarily tempering with the very logic of capitalism that encourages a culture of crass materialism and individual accumulation of wealth because they are the pompous beneficiaries of the very system.

They do not care that it is the young workers who are the constant victims of casualisation and short-term employment by the labour brokers. Instead, our new ‘revolutionarists' have become proud ‘rough diamonds' produced by the capitalist system, and have become very rich without lifting a finger.

This should be the nub of the debates that the coming ANCYL conference should be discussing: the trajectory that we have traversed since the last conference in countering the logic of capital under the current leadership of the YL; and whether the ANCYL still commands a high moral ground in society as a credible, focussed, determined and revolutionary youth movement that is able to lead and represent the interests of the whole youth of this country.

In this regard, a cursory look at the performance of the current leadership raises serious questions and a number of indictments. Accordingly, we have been subjected to the most monotonous slogans that have no bearing whatsoever in ensuring a well skilled youth that is able to contribute meaningfully in the economy, not only as employees and rent seekers, but as entrepreneurs in their own right.

We also have been presented with the most diversionary programmes like the World Socialist Youth Conference that in fact became a disaster, and most probably a money-making scheme for those who use the power of money to remain in leadership positions within the YL and elsewhere.

These are no small things if one understands that as the youth and as a people in general, we make history by our own conscious and unconscious actions, and most of the time under conditions that are not of our own choosing. This then places a serious and historic responsibility on us as the youth not to act in sloppy ways that will compromise the future of this country.

We cannot be thoughtless about decisions that are to forever affect the course of our struggle and the direction of this country simply because we are just happy to be youth, and because of this fact we are forgiven for being reckless. We need to put serious thinking and effort when dealing with matters of national importance.

In this connection, the conference of the ANCYL is a matter of national importance and requires our serious attention. It requires a different kind of youth that refuses to be used as voting fodder for the benefit of the fat egos of irresponsible and destructive leaders. It needs us to start taking matters in our own hands by ensuring that money and Hollywood lifestyle is not the leading and sole determinant of policies and leadership questions in the ANCYL.

We need to also make sure that our organisational democracy, which allows for dissent and difference of opinion, is restored. But most importantly, we need to defeat the tendency of a leader who has made sure that the ANCYL is fashioned and personified in his own destructive image. We are not an organisation for a lumpen proletariat, but a revolutionary and dynamic youth movement that espouses the highest standards of revolutionary morality.

We therefore need to live up to our historic responsibility and reposition the ANCYL as   a revolutionary tool in the hands of the general membership of the ANCYL to change the lives of the youth of this country for the better.

Mzukisi Makatse is a member of the ANC and ANC YL.  He writes in his own personal capacity.

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