Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA) Gauteng Provincial Executive Committee Lekgotla 2 - 3 April 2011

Declaration, RELEASED ON 4 APRIL 2011

We, members of the YCLSA's SECOND Gauteng Congress Provincial Executive Committee (PEC), met in Tshwane from 2 - 3 April 2011 in our EIGHTEENTH Plenary Session. This very important PEC Lekgotla was augmented through additional delegates from District Executive Committees (DECs), in particular District Treasurers, and enriched by inputs from invited organisations, structures and guests, notably:

• South African Communist Party (SACP) Gauteng Provincial Secretary Comrade Jacob Mamabolo presented a keynote address;
• Gauteng Provincial Chairperson of our ally, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), also MEC for Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation Comrade Lebogang Maile presented a political input;
• YCLSA Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) branches, Pretoria and Soshanguve campuses, presented a special report on TUT through branch Secretaries comrades Hlami Mnengwani and Kgabo Morifi respectively; and
• The NYDA (National Youth Development Agency) Gauteng Board Member Comrade Mpumelelo Mokoena presented accountability report on the state of the NYDA in the province.

Comrade Mpumelelo Mokoena was elected from YCLSA Gauteng PEC by the YCLSA's Third National Congress (December 2010, Mafikeng) to serve as a member of the National Committee. The PEC Lekgotla was also attended by other members of the National Committee, Comrades Sello Maetso, Sephiwe Montlha and Kenny Motshekga.

The Lekgotla discussed challenges and opportunities facing the YCLSA, SACP and the alliance, and the province's political, social and economic contexts in their interrelatedness and connection to the broader South African and global contexts.

The keynote address by SACP Gauteng Provincial Secretary among others reminded the PEC Lekgotla of the milestones that the YCLSA in Gauteng has achieved since its SECOND Congress held in August 2008. The YCLSA in Gauteng has played and continues to play the role of the Party Builder involved in building a united, independent and strong SACP. We have advanced and defended the Party's general and particular lines, ensuring that the SACP in the province is steeled in revolutionary discipline in line with the Marxist-Leninist principles of democratic centralism.

In particular, as the YCLSA in Gauteng we played an outstanding role in the Party in decisively confronting foreign tendencies that have been restless to penetrate the SACP. In this regard we have stood up to the task of being the Party's first line of defence.

As the YCLSA we were invaluably involved in the processes leading up to and during the SACP's Special National Congress (December 2009, Polokwane) and YCLSA's Third National Congress (December 2010, Mafikeng). Both in these successful congresses, like in the SACP's twelfth National Congress (Nelson Mandela Bay, July 2007), foreign and entryist tendencies including Trotskyism were defeated and compelled into disgruntlement which has had no other option but to manoeuvre among others through other organisations and the hostile media as alternative platforms to attack the YCLSA and SACP, their programmes and leadership.

The political input by ANCYL Gauteng Provincial Chairperson centred on the need to build a strong and programmatic Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA). Both our formations agree that the PYA is an important platform to provide collective leadership to the youth in the province and the country. Like the SACP Gauteng Provincial Secretary's keynote address, the ANCYL Gauteng Provincial Chairperson's input covered strategic and tactical considerations in intensifying mobilisation for the achievement of an overwhelming ANC electoral victory in the forthcoming local government elections. As the YCLSA we call on all our members in the ANCYL to participate and lead by example with zeal and abide by the revolutionary mandates that the ANCYL arrives at.

From the special report on TUT the Lekgotla noted with dismay the disruptive conduct by utterly ill-disciplined elements against the Minister of Higher Education and Training (HET), SACP General Secretary, ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC) Member, Comrade Blade Nzimande, on 18 March 2011.

While we adopted strategy and will continue working out new tactics in responding to the attacks against our leadership, we respect the rights of government, the ANC and the SACP to take corrective measures. We note that the Minister went to TUT as per invitation by the institution to present a lecture. In the same line we respect TUT's rights to look into what happened in order to act likewise. However, we are interested to see what government, TUT, the ANC and SACP will do against the anarchy and prevention of its future recurrence. This is important and not only for the Minister of HET and the relevant department, but also for other guests in our institutions of learning broadly.

As the YCLSA Gauteng PEC Lekgotla we declare as follows.

Defending the SACP and advancing to free, quality education:

1. The disgusting, ill-disciplined behaviour of disruption that was displayed against the Minister of HET at TUT has nothing to do with the state of education and training in our country and the genuine demands of students. We condemn it in strongest terms to the contempt it deserves.

2. In terms of our five-year priorities from 2009 elections as stipulated in our manifesto as the ANC-led alliance, which is the political centre, and in line with the Freedom Charter, we have committed ourselves to working towards a free and compulsory education for all children. As the immediate step, we have committed ourselves to ensuring that at least 60 per cent of schools are no-fee schools. Another immediate step is our commitment to encourage students from working class and poor communities to go to further and higher learning institutions. To achieve this, we state in the manifesto that we shall review and improve the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

3. It is clear that the ANC and its alliance have since then never deserted the masses of our people with regards to the above and other commitments on education as stipulated in our 2009 elections manifesto. This manifesto constitutes our five-year programme in a series of step by step tasks based on objective conditions to move towards the realisation of free and quality education. The ANC, the alliance partners COSATU and the SACP, and formations of our Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) participated in developing the 2009 elections manifesto and endorsed it as a campaigning platform for the electoral victory that was achieved.

4. The ANC January eighth Statement of 2011 which has been endorsed by the alliance stipulates further measures to rigorously advance towards free and quality education and training by reviewing the NSFAS. Good work has been undertaken to review the NSFAS.

5. For example, for the first time student funding in Further Education and Training (FET) institutions has been taken seriously. Government has allocated R210 million in that regard and R99 million for N1 - N3 in the engineering faculty. Students in FET institutions have in the past been absolutely excluded from TEFSA (Tertiary Education Fund for South Africa) and subsequently denied access to NSFAS. This has come to an end because of progress achieved. Thanks both the Minister of HET Comrade Blade Nzimande and the Cabinet as a whole under the leadership of the ANC President Comrade Jacob Zuma.

6. In the same line, we also welcome the progress achieved so far in setting up and building two education departments, one for basic education and another for HET. This has so far also delivered increased Matric pass rate with Gauteng, for the first time taking a lead as evidenced by the 2010/2011 results. Accordingly, we support the basic education department in taking measures to improve the quality of learning and teaching including forms of assessment and standards. Within this context, the Gauteng Education Department is holding a Soweto Education Summit. We shall be there as the YCLSA with a full delegation of five. We congratulate the department in taking that rightful step to sort things out. We shall continue to work together with our provincial education department which in our view is performing to the best of its ability within the context of all sorts on constraints.

7. Our Lekgotla finds the disruption that took place against the Minister of HET at TUT as nothing else but part and parcel of a politics of an apparently coordinated effort to attack the SACP, its programme, in particular the Medium Term Vision (MTV), and leadership with the GS as the first target. The ill-disciplined elements that caused and participated in the disruption include disgruntled SACP and YCLSA elements that travelled from outside Gauteng for nothing else but exclusively their shenanigans of disruption.

8. To the extent that there are disgruntled elements from the SACP and YCLSA that took part in causing and participating in the disruption, the YCLSA in Gauteng shall call on both the organisations to act decisively by enforcing revolutionary discipline and taking corrective measures.

9. As a matter of principle, we reaffirm the South African Student Congress (SASCO) as one of the important formations in our Congress Movement. We reiterate our policy that all members of the YCLSA in FET and HE institutions must join SASCO. In line with the SACP Constitution, we call on all YCLSA members in SASCO to refrain from forming YCLSA factions within that student organisation. The same goes for YCLSA members in the gallant student organisation Congress of South African Students (COSAS).

10. We concur with the SACP Gauteng Province that the disruption at TUT represents one of the manoeuvres in a continuation and re-enactments of and realignments in the same attacks that were directed at the SACP with the GS as the first target. The failed attempts in this regard include those made prior to the Party's Special National Congress (December 2009, Polokwane) calling for the resignation of the GS, World Bank-style pay offers, and violent disruption of YCLSA's Third National Congress (December 2010, Mafikeng). In Mafikeng particularly, this new tendency sought to capture the YCLSA as a weapon to fight against SACP's leadership, strategy and tactics. We shall make sure this new tendency continues to fail.

11. We note that the attacks against the SACP and its leadership now comprise of a coordinated manoeuvre aimed at the Party's thirteenth National Congress, COSATU's eleventh National Congress and ANC's fifty-third National Conference to be held in 2012. Related to this the Gauteng SACP Provincial Working Committee (PWC) released a statement on 27 March 2011 distancing the Provincial Chairperson Comrade Nkosiphendule Kolisile and SACP Gauteng from participation in the attacks against the SACP GS as reported in the media. While welcoming and respecting this position, we however want the SACP in Gauteng to dig deeper and get to the bottom and essence of this matter. We shall ask for a report in this regard.

12. We shall fight till death parts us from the earth's stage in building the SACP, advancing the struggle for socialism and defending the Party's leadership. We reaffirm our confidence in the leadership of our SACP GS, the Minister of HET Comrade Blade Nzimande and the Party's Central Committee. We have adopted a strategy of action to illustrate this in the course of unfolding history in which we are not spectators but active participants. We shall not fold our arms. We shall leave no stone unturned in defending the Party, its leadership and programmes.

SACP's Medium Term Vision (MTV):

13. In line with the SACP Gauteng Province, while acknowledging the limitations of the state we reaffirm the Party's MTV and decisions to contest the hegemony and character of the state. This is the most essential content of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) and the struggle for socialism in our present day period. Through the MTV we shall continue to build strong and independent working class organisation in both the YCLSA and SACP.

14. Like the SACP Gauteng Province, we also wish to caution against a casual and liberal approach towards the state as the highest concentration of power, particularly in a capitalist society such as ours. In line with the MTV, we shall defend and advance the deployment of Party cadres and leadership in any centre of power, the state included.

15. Our Lekgotla discussed class configurations that have been taking place in South Africa since transition to democracy. If not tackled decisively through prompt measures this could affect the SACP too as it affects other organisations. Therefore as part of the measures to defend the Party, as the YCLSA we shall call on all SACP PEC members to disclose if they own any business or shares or hold any directorship in any company. The SACP is a working class organisation and capitalists must not even form part of the Party leadership.

Local Government Elections:

16. Our PEC Lekgotla occurs in the context of local government election campaigns in which YCLSA members are campaigning for an ANC-led alliance victory. Our Gauteng YCLSA Provincial Secretary Comrade Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo will lead our stepped up election programme. The Lekgotla is satisfied that our election programme is on the right track.

17. We condemn the racist manner in which the DA (the so-called democratic alliance) as backed up and supported by all means including clandestine research by trade union Solidarity and SAIRR (the so-called South African Institute of Race Relations).

Economic transformation and development:

18. We take into consideration the sky-rocketing youth unemployment which has among its parts, one that is structural to the South African economy and another that has been caused by the structural global capitalist crisis as we have witnessed it. We will work tirelessly to together with government and progressive forces to tackle youth unemployment. The Lekgotla reaffirmed the YCLSA Jobs for Youth Campaign as more relevant than ever. We adopted a programme detailing our tasks in transforming and developing the economy of Gauteng. To support this, we established a special commission on economic policy and research.

19. We note with concern that the Gauteng economic development trajectory is increasingly becoming neo-liberal in character. In this regard, if left, the policy of the so-called "globally competitive city region" will intensify the province's intra-core-periphery dichotomy and entrench Gauteng as the core in the South Africa of uneven development. In the same line, the Lekgotla mandated the PEC in its next plenary session to review all its Sub-Committees and Commissions in order to optimise efforts and skills for the achievement of the work expected ahead.

20. We are worried that the so-called prospering areas could continue to receive much preference as attention is placed on the services economy, media houses, "high-value add manufacturing" (which are only concentrated in small enclaves) and the dominance of Transnational Corporations (TNCs) which exercise imperialist influence and receive special treatments. We are also concerned about de-industrialisation, particularly as dominant in the province's peripheral areas such as Babelegi. Government's overwhelming concern on "reducing the cost of doing business" in particular for TNCs unfortunately seems to be aiding the process of de-industrialisation despite commitments to the contrary. We want all this "globally competitive city region" arrangement to be reviewed. This cannot be left to Gauteng alone as if South Africa is a federal state. Because of its economic position Gauteng could determine the direction of the South African society.

21. We note from the 2011 Gauteng State of the Province Address that R220 million has been spent to acquire land parcels and that a further R252 million will also be spent likewise for human settlement. This, R472 million is a scare resource given that a greater amount by far will be required if Gauteng is to do reach the goal of eliminating squatter camps. We call on government to take the issue of land reform more seriously and consider expropriation in the "national interest", human settlement being but one. Hesitation in resolving this matter in the manner we propose will only handover the many Gauteng's vulnerable working class communities to more disasters than we have recently seen with the rains that devastated the many informal settlements.

22. The Lekgotla held a workshop on the New Growth Path document. We reaffirm the National Committee decision to welcome the tabling of this document and support for its Jobs Drivers which must be further enriched, accordingly expanded and shielded from neo-liberal dominance. We further reaffirmed the National Committee resolution calling for a review of the document's macro-economic framework as it does not constitutes paradigm shift but constitutes paradigm maintenance of macro-economic management regime that was introduced under GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution). This includes both the fiscal and monetary policies and a wrong conclusion wages, i.e. wage increase moderation. We developed detailed positions in this regard and shall further enrich them when we replicate the workshop on the New Growth Path document at district levels to be attended by our branches.

23. We will also recommend to our National Committee to press for the review of Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) in so far as the Treasury retains economic policy making powers. In our view, such powers should at least have been shifted to the Economic Development Department (EDD) after its establishment under the auspices of the Presidency and the Cabinet. In capitalist societies where neoliberalism has attained dominance the treasuries serve as a hub of neoliberal policies and South Africa by no means and exception.  

We reject the sky-rocketing fees tolling of roads:

24. Socially, the sky-rocketing fees tolling will make matters worse in the context of the many gated communities that have mushroomed in Gauteng. We call on government to do away with this phenomenon. Economically, this tolling will at least have a prohibitive impact on freedom of movement, choke survivalist endeavours and increase the cost of employment search by raising the cost of travelling in a society whose human settlement patterns have been constructed through apartheid to the disadvantage of Black people in General and Africans in particular. Retrenchments represent another extreme of the tolling in some instance. We reiterate our rejection of the sky-rocketing fees tolling of national and even regional and municipal roads in the province.

25. We note and support the SACP Gauteng's submission on the tolling. However, as the YCLSA we are seriously concerned that the so-called consultations in Gauteng, as the case of Khutsong has illustrated, have a tendency of being notoriously bogus. In particular, if it was not of the public's concern it is clear that the only thing that was remaining on the part of the powers that be was just to implement the tolling as the date for such had already been announced.

International Context:

26. We note and condemn the imperialist regime change manoeuvres in Africa and internationally. In particular, we condemn the imperialist underhand in Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, in the Middle East and elsewhere. We condemn the attacks against Libya by imperialist forces in the name of the so-called no-fly zone. These imperialist forces, the USA, France and the likes are interested in nothing except puppet governments and looting of natural resources such as oil. Highlighting this reality does not mean support undemocratic governments. To the contrary, democracy must be defined by the people themselves.

27. In line with the above we call for an immediate cessation of all violence in Libya, Ivory Coast, and the automatically USA-supported Israeli violence against Palestinians.

Issued as adopted by the eighteenth YCLSA Gauteng Plenary Session, the Lekgotla, as the Tshwane Declaration 2011

Statement issued by Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo YCL Gauteng Provincial Secretary, April 4 2011

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