YCLSA statement on the factional utterance by the ANCYL

The Young Communist League of South Africa [uFasimba] has noted with dismay, the factional utterances made by the new leadership of the ANC Youth League in its statement, released on Thursday, 1 October, to the effect that the Minister of Higher Education and Training Comrade Blade Nzimande has failed to deliver free education since he was the Minister in 2009.

It is unfortunate that the leadership of the ANCYL had not received induction when it made the unfortunate factional utterances. The brand new leadership of the ANCYL has definitely not read the ANC electoral manifestos, in particular, the 2009 and 2014 ANC national election manifestos from which the Minister derives his mandate.

Most probably, the reason why this brand new leadership of the ANCYL has chosen to or mistaken the Minister for the whole of the ANC and the government, and the attacked him individually for implementing the ANC electoral manifesto is that they are driven by factional interests that have nothing to do with education but all to do with the ANC National Conference that is scheduled to take place in 2017.

The ANC electoral manifestos have been accepted by, and are binding on, the ANCYL. The manifestos outline the ANC’s five year priorities which the Minister has been taking forward successfully through a programme accepted both by the ANC and the government under the leadership of President Jacob Zuma. The fact that the money allocated to the Department of Higher Education and Training that is being led by Comrade Blade Nzimande is not sufficient to deliver on all priorities at the same time cannot be blamed on him.

In the ultimate analysis, the new leadership of the ANCYL is telling us that President Jacob Zuma has failed since 2009 when he became President to bring all monopoly industry under the ownership and control of the people as a whole as stated in the Freedom Charter. This is absurd and the Young Communist League of the South Africa rejects such populist grandstanding with the contempt it deserves.

The Young Communist League of South Africa calls on the leadership of the ANC to look into that type of behaviour; else the movement will become disunited, degenerate and fall into a terminal crisis. We will not fold our arms when such factional utterances are threatening the unity of our movement

The ANCYL with this stunt is starting on a wrong footing that is setting it for failure in leading the Progressive Youth Alliance [PYA]. As the YCLSA we value the unity and cohesion of the PYA and we will go all out to defend and build unison between the PYA components. As the YCLSA we will be asking for a bilateral meeting with the ANCYL to iron out these issues.

The Young Communist League calls on government to move uninterruptedly with the transformation of post-school education and training and the progressive implementation of free quality higher and vocational education and training. The government must decisively deal with the problems of the use of institutional autonomy by racists and tenderpreneurs to block transformation.

Issued by Khaya Xaba, YCL National Spokesperson, 2 October 2015