ANC Youth League (ANCYL) calls on Western Cape Premier to apologise to parents for ugly remarks
27 July 2015
The ANCYL in the Western Cape is disgusted at the ugly and callous words uttered by Western Cape Premier Helen Zille in an interview on E-News on Sunday 26 July 2015. In a so-called attempt to urge parents to assist the Government with curbing gangsterism among our youth, the Premier said, "if they can't be good parents then they shouldn't have babies".
We demand that the Premier apologises unconditionally to all the mothers and fathers in our gang-infested communities whose children have fallen prey to the scourge of gangsterism and drugs despite the immense efforts on the part of parents. Many of our parents themselves are terrorised by their children who are members of gangs and/or drug addicts.
This is a neo-conservative value-judgement with clear racist and classist undertones similar to the Premier’s refugee remarks. The Premier’s Thatcherite approach fails to take into account the socio-economic conditions in our unequal Western Cape in which parents are forced to bring up their children and which give rise to gangsterism and drug abuse.
Such irresponsible statements by leading politicians entrusted to serve our communities are not only dangerously insulting to our communities, but attempts to absolve Government from its responsibility of tackling the apartheid legacy of inequality.
The Premier’s remarks further locates the current Provincial administration as an un-caring anti-majoritarian government whose policy positions are derived from the DA’s a-historical and liberal “Open Opportunity Society” paradigm.
The ANCYL advises the Premier to spend a considerable amount of time with these parents that she is referring to so that she can witness first-hand the daily struggles they experience in bringing up children under difficult circumstances.
During these challenging times our parents and youth do not need their self-worth to be undermined by politicians. Instead as leaders we need to be positive role models who can work together to instil hope in our communities. Leaders must attempt to empower our youth so that they can free themselves from these conditions of inequality which contributes to social ills such as gangsterism and drug abuse.
Within the next few weeks and months the ANCYL will be announcing the rollout of various sustainable youth development campaigns in an attempt to address the challenges faced by our youth in the province. We are confident that the public will support us in this regard.
Statement issued by Muhammad Khalid Sayed, ANCYL Western Cape Provincial Chairperson, July 27 2015
