Statement of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress Youth League following the NEC meeting held on the 17th to 18th August 2012 (August 27 2012)
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) National Executive Committee (NEC) met at an ordinary meeting on the 17th and 18th August 2012. The meeting was called, as per the constitutional imperative, to reflect on developments and assess progress towards the attainment of the mandate bestowed upon this us by the 24th National Congress.
The NEC meeting was the first since the seminal National Policy Conference of the African National Congress which adopted radical and urgent policy shifts required for Economic Freedom in our Lifetime. The NEC applauded and thanked branches of the ANC for bringing to an abrupt end the attempts to marginalise and isolate the ANC Youth League and its views. The resolutions taken by Policy Conference and to be ratified by the National Conference in Mangaung, particularly on adopting strategic nationalisation and expropriation of land withouth compensation, have reaffirmed that which the Youth League has said. The issues we raise, the ideas we articulate, are not ours, we merely act as conduits to remind the ANC of the commitments it made to the people at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.
We are extremely pleased therefore that the Freedom Charter has regained its centrality within the organisation and trust that indeed it shall be the lodestar that guides all our deployees in the work they must undertake moving forward. Economic Freedom in our Lifetime, which is the attainment of all Freedom Charter objectives, is therefore no longer a programme of the ANC Youth League but soon a programme of the ANC as evidenced by the resolutions taken.
NEC noted the attempts to divert and confuse society on the resolutions of the Policy Conference and thus mandated the National Working Committee (NWC) and all Provinces to convene Provincial General Councils, Regional General Councils, Zonal and Sub-Regional Meetings, Branch General Meetings and all structures where members of the ANC and the ANCYL gather to ensure that the correct message is communicated to all and to consolidate the gains of Policy Conference towards Mangaung.
Further, the NEC, in line with the pronouncements made by the African National Congress, has begun internal deliberations to take forward the resolution for strategic nationalisation and will be making submissions to the ANC that the mineral wealth to be nationalised should be based on the economic importance of the mineral or sector concerned as well as the risk associated with the supply thereof to safeguard our economic and political sovereignty.
To this end, we shall be proposing the nationalisation of strategic companies such as SASOL, Kumba Iron-Ore and Acelor-Mittal. This should be accompanied by the nationalisation of the following minerals: iron, platinum group minerals, vanadium, manganese and zinc. The NEC also reiterated the call for the amendment of section 25 of the Constitution to enable strategic nationalisation of mines and expropriation without compensation. It further called for the speedy establishment of an Expropriation Commission that will be able to expropriate land in the public interest and for public purpose, thereby removing this task from the untransformed courts of South Africa.
Inequalities in South Africa will be eradicted through section25 as amended to enable redistribution. To this end, the National Development Plan of the National Planning Commission should also be premised on the fact that inequalities will be addressed through redistribution. The need is for urgent and decisive intervention in the economy which remains fundamentally unaltered; the root cause of the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Young people are failed by this National Development Plan and the direct challenges facing them remain unaddressed.
The NEC further devoted time on our approach to organisational development and renewal. We understood Policy Conference to have expressed itself on the need for the renewal of the organisation and the renewal of leadership. We have fully support this perspective and we are clear that such renewal will undoubtedly ensure that generational mix finds expression in the leadership outcomes not only of Mangaung but all elective processes of the ANC. When the times comes to nominate, the African National Congress Youth League will argue and lobby for decisive men and women to rise to the challenges facing the organisation.
A new generation of leadership that will confront capital without fear must emerge. We remain convinced that our people are impatient with the slow pace of economic transformation and this time bomb is no longer ticking but is progressively exploding as evidenced by the Marikana Massacre. Together with our structures, we will be conducting our own assessment of the implementation of the Polokwane Resolutions and amongst others, we expect this to guide us in our determination of the performance of the leadership collective at the helm of which is President Jacob Zuma.
We have repeatedly called for the implementation of free education and most recently the resignation of Minister Motshekga for failing dismally to deliver the most basic necessity for quality education - books. These and many more examples, we have spoken of as an organisation, continue to point to the blatant challenges arising from a lack of bold and courageous leadership. We call upon all our members and supporters to volunteer their time to assist destitute students with a catch up plan and those who still have in their possession textbooks from the previous years, which are still useable, to bring them forward to assist.
Whether Minister Angie follows her conscious or not, young people remain disadvantaged and are not ready to sit for the final examinations this year. All progressive forces in society are called upon to be as mobilised as they were during The Spear debacle and support these young people in any way they can. To all youth affected by this issue, the Youth League calls upon them to dedicate all their energies to preparing for the examinations despite the failings by those whom we trusted to nurture them.
All stakeholders must cooperate with all investigations currently underway in Marikana - judicial enqurieis and investigations into the murder of miners by the police. We support IPID investigation into the torture of the arrested minders. We condemn such barbaric acts committed by the police who are meant to serve and protect as we condemn the employers' unwillingness to negotiate with the miners and the use of violent weapons by the miners during the strike. The commission must also enquire into the profits made by Lonmin as it is our view that these profits could easily pay the salaries demanded by the workers. The commission must not only point wrongs committed but must also bring recommendations that will better the living conditions of the miners.
The National Executive Committee was further extremely critical of Corporate South Africa which continues to be unpatriotic and even dismissive of the attempts of the people of this country to embrace them. Corporate South Africa, the biggest beneficiaries of apartheid, continues to enjoy the benefits of demcracy without responding with the much needed investment and job creation expected as they continue to enjoy economic priviledge.
Corporate South Africa remains the only sector that has never appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for their own atrocities committed against the people of this country during apartheid. It is perhaps this knowledge that there shall never be any recrimination for their actions, hence recently the banking industry continues to throw stones at the ANC led government without commitment to ensuring fundamantal economic transformation to the benefit of the majority.
The JSE Securities Exchange, the heart of Corporate South Africa and with arrogance of power, continues to disregard youth and youth employment. To date they have not seen it even fit to respond to the demands of young people delivered to them a year ago during the highly successful Economic Freedom March. Corporate cartels run rampant and deal harshly with anyone intent on exposing their unscrupulous tendencies as evidenced by the axing of the Estate Agency Affairs Board CEO. The CEO of the Competition Commission is under fire for exposing pricing fixing and collusion at amongst others - Tiger Brands, BMW and Auction Alliance.
The NEC commended the criminal justice system for bringing the Boeremag trialists to book. The judgement reaffirms that any and all extremists should know never to seek to impose themselves to our people down the barrel of a gun. We call upon all South Africans to work together to build a united South Africa and for the criminal justice system to not have eyes and ears when dealing with matters of justice. We support the appeal by Chris Mahlangu against the harsh sentence of a life sentence plus 15 years for the murder of Eugene Terblanche.
Mahlangu made the point in a court of law that the murder was in self defence following repeated abuse by the deceased. We remain convinced that the court was never compelled to level the maximum sentence given the case presented by Mahlangu. Lives of white people cannot continue to be more valuable that those of other people in society. The issue of child labour and the living conditions of farm workers should be investigated in SA farms as exposed by the second accused.
We have noted that the implementation of the Global Political Agreement of Zimbabwe continues at an extremely slow pace skewed towards Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, a new friend of the South African government. We trust that Comrade Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's election as AU Commission Chair will stem the tide of the recolonisation of Africa disguised as democracy and seeking to undermine Africa's liberation movements, our historical allies. We call on the South African government to also join the progressive countries of Spain and Argentina by refusing to harbour within its borders mass murderers who have committed heinous crimes against humanity.
Tony Blair must, on his arrival on South African soil, be arrested and handed over to Interpol to face charges for war crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court - this Court cannot continue to exist to prosecute only African leaders while turning a blind eye to those who believe military might and territorial invasions are the only ways to prop up their regimes and satisfy their ever expanding capitalist greed.
As the African National Congress Youth League, we are resolute that the hour of youth has struck and the time has come for decisive, radical and urgent policy shifts. To this end, we will not only be a critical body of opinion within the ANC but also a catalyst for unity within the ANC towards the realisation of the only transition of our struggle - fundamental socio-economic change underpinned by a radically transformed economy.
We call upon all our structures to intensify recruitment and implement fearlessly the vigourous programme of action developed towards Mangaung. Members of the ANCYL must swell the delegations of the ANC and march with unity of purpose and a single resolve - election of men and women who do not sway to the tune of white monopoly capital but are resolute, tried and tested leaders who understand that the struggle now is an economic one. We will not deterred by attempts by particularly the South African Broadcasting Corporation to present a factional and one-sided view of the swelling waves of renewal within the structures of the ANC.
Statement issued by the ANC Youth League, August 28 2012
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