BY Seatlathebe Lepomane

Eusebius McKaizer’s views on the Star newspaper make for an interesting observation. This common line of thought that has come to characterise the middle class opinionistas who have been projected by the mainstream media and shoved down our throats, is all too familiar and progressively running out of relevance.

There has of late been an emergence of a new trend from comments that are targeted at any attempt towards reconstruction and rebuilding in the ANC, emanating from outsiders who have fashioned themselves as gatekeepers of opinion making in the country. Eusebius McKaizer is predictably no exception to this.

The opinion piece on the Star newspaper of Monday the 07th September 2015, titled “ANCYL didn’t rise from the ashes” commits classical fallacies not uncommon to his kind, those who are self-anointed thought leaders. Such an air of self-importance they carry! While nobody contests with the catchy phrase, which will put him in the good books of the marketing department at Independent Newspapers, misled and misleading allegations are made in that article which need honest engagement.

True to the character of so called owners of knowledge, such a sense of authority is used to comment on the internal matters of the ANC Youth League by one who has never been a member of ANC Youth League nor the ANC. The doomsayer begins by predicting a future for the Youth League, as gloomy as the English winter.

While so many of our poor young people who have put their faith and aspirations for economic freedom in their lifetime on the shoulders of the ANCYL, can only marvel at your knowledge and mustering of English culture and its topographical dynamics, to a point where you may comment on its ‘gloomy winter’ with such authority, let us educate you about the ANC Youth League which we know.

The ANC Youth League went through a period that sought to cleanse itself of its past mistakes and this period has seen about the constitution of two subsequent National Task Teams with the mandate to rebuild the structures of the Youth League and prepare it for a National Congress which would be constituted by correctly built branches that are true to the character of the ANC Youth League.  It is the processes and the outcomes of this Congress which McKaiser makes opinions on, with such a misled sense of authority.

In the nature of ANC Youth League congresses, which was no exception during the 25th National Congress, reports are submitted on how far we have come since the last National Congress and such gives us a picture of where we are in our political and administrative growth, amongst others. We then discuss policies which will take us forward as well as elect leaders mandated to carry these policy positions forward. It is this one aspect of Congress which McKaizer seems to be interested in, processes around election of leaders!

Whereas McKaizer makes claims that “Yet, despite at least three people being willing to become president of the ANCYL, a bizarre and hasty elective process resulted in one Collen Maine being elected unopposed. The rules that resulted in this outcome were anti-democratic. Not in the sense of being unlawful as such, but certainly not in the spirit of promoting maximum contestation of ideas and leadership.” Democracy is not such a relative concept Mr McKaizer, don’t distort it to suit your interests.

Part of the democratic processes in electing leadership during ANCYL Congresses is that nominations would be made either prior Congress, through duly constituted Branch General Meetings or from the floor, during Congresses. A threshold is set for nominations, within the Constitution of the ANC Youth League and if we remain with only one contender who would have passed such a threshold, it then becomes nonsensical to put one candidate through a voting process, the only thing you seem to think sums up democracy. This process was followed to the latter during the 25th National Congress. We can only wonder which undemocratic processes you are then referring to.

Whereas you lament the absence of the notion of individuals selling their vision to be elected, such a culture does not exist in the ANCYL nor in the ANC. Delegates advance ideas in their commissions at Congress as they would have been mandated by their branches. These ideas find policy expression through resolutions taken at Congress.

The leadership that is elected then gets collectively tasked with the mandate to implement these resolutions. It is the vision of the Branches we are interested in, and not presumptions of individuals. Our leaders are expected to articulate a collective vision on the resolutions we would have taken at Congress and that can only come after Congress. We remained true to this culture and your likes cannot tell us about how we should run our processes. As for the issue of role models, we leave it to McKaizer to prove that the individuals who make our ANCYL NEC leadership collective are not and cannot be role models, something he has dismally failed to prove.

We emerged from the 25th National Congress inspired to take the path correctly articulated in the ANC Today by former President of the ANC Youth League, Comrade Malusi Gigaba, that being; First, the urgent need to rebuild the ANCYL, in terms of both its organisational machinery as well as political and ideological orientation; Secondly, the urgent need to mobilise, organise and educate – that is, conscientise – the youth in general so that they remain a dependable, conscious and disciplined revolutionary-democratic force;

Thirdly, the urgent need to re-establish the vast political influence of the ANCYL in society in general, among the youth and within the ANC and finally, the urgent need to define the role of the youth during this period that the movement has unanimously decided to characterise as the second phase of the democratic transition.

We indeed agree with you that the ANC Youth League did not rise from the ashes. That was not the point. The 25th Congress laid a foundation for the Youth League to rise from the ashes and we are contend with that as well, not only the history which your assumed we are exclusively content with. Rising from the ashes is a process and not an event defined by Congress. We will embark on that future orientated process as we unapologetically advance economic Freedom in our lifetime!

Seatlathebe Lepomane is a Chairperson of the ANC Youth League in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati Region. He writes in his personal capacity.

The letter does not represent the views or Taung DailyNews and it employees or whatsoever. The letter remains the opinion of the writer.

-TDN

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