Blade Nzimande vulgarises a necessary national debate

The African National Congress Youth League is the political preparatory school of the African National Congress. The members of the ANC Youth League, from a very early age, learn at the feet of seasoned and experienced leaders of our movement of the glory that is the ANC, what it means to be an ANC leader and the role ANC should play as the legitimate leader of society. Leaders of the ANC therefore have a huge responsibility to be above reproach in word and in deed as dictated to by our seminal document, Through the Eye of the Needle.

It was with astonishment therefore that the ANC Youth League read of the utterances made by Dr. Blade Nzimande, supposedly in defence of President Zuma, calling President Mbeki an HIV/ Aids denialist. Dr. Nzimande has reached the lowest levels of intellectual engagement, demonstrating an inability to discuss the content and merit of the issues raised by President Mbeki resorting rather to name calling, a silly and immature reaction to any debate.

Dr. Nzimande is supposed to be a communist, the vanguard of the working class, capable of a rigorous and robust debate and exchange of ideas. To attack individuals and their supposedly "questionable legacy" does not contribute anything to the necessary national debate that Dr. Nzimande is now vulgarising. The ANC Youth League has constantly said that the defence of leaders cannot be at the expense of the integrity of the ANC. No person therefore should hide behind defending President Zuma to stop the nation from debating issues of national interest, different ideas should blossom.

The ANC itself has made an acknowledgement that all is not well in the movement, hence the National Policy Conference agreed on a need for radical and urgent transformation to address poverty, inequality and unemployment and emphasized the need for organizational renewal at all levels . Now it cannot be that the self-appointed defender of President Zuma expects everyone to bury their heads in the sand and not comment about what is arguably one of the most difficult periods in Post-Apartheid South Africa.

Denialist too is a subjective term, open to all manner of interpretations, as the ANC Youth League we understand denialist to also include those who refused that an independent forum should be established outside the South African Communist Party to investigate the black plastic bag saga.

We trust that moving forward, Dr. Nzimande will use the lessons of history rather than ammunition against those he considers attackers of the President Zuma, but rather as reflective and considered criticism to propel the ANC to deliver on the aspirations of the people.

Criticism indeed is one principles of the ANC' s organisational democracy and we celebrate it. We hope too, that Dr. Nzimande will follow his own criticism of President Mbeki and raise issues in the correct structures such as the National Executive Committee if he was of the opinion that an ex-officio member of the NEC needed to be admonished.

Statement issued by the ANC Youth League, October 26 2012

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