Is the ANCYL helping youth or helping itself?
6 March 2010, 08:59
There's a letter going around in political circles addressed to one King Juju. Perjoratively also known as Little Julie, imini mina (Mini Me) and Cry Baby, ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema won't like it much.
The ANCYL's spokesman, Floyd Shivambu, once said that "the Youth League is today the most formidable youth political organisation, not only in South Africa, but also in the entire continent and the world". But the letter captures a prevailing mood about the ANCYL and sniggers at that. It says instead that Malema and his private political agenda have clouded the league's reason for being: to champion young people.
"My Lord, it's me, your loyal servant," it begins. "I wish to sincerely apologise for burdening you by writing this letter and adding to your busy schedule. My king, I understand that your schedule, as president of the ANC Youth League, consists of such important work as busying yourself with sniffing out those forces of darkness who are baying for your blood, spying on journalists who sleep around with politicians in exchange for information and ending your week with a huge party where you are surrounded by a circle of women."
Going on to speak of kissing the notorious Breitling watch, which has become a bit of an albatross for Malema, and of how the proceeds from "nationalising the Range Rover" could see 50 top African students being sent to university, the letter is signed by a member of the league in Gauteng.
Apart from giving Malema a good thrashing, the letter is all about the ANCYL not serving its constituency, which is battling a poor education system, unemployment, human rights abuses and violence, and struggling with general disappointment. In striking out at a leader left bloodied over the past couple of weeks over his business interests, his income and his big birthday party, it warns that the ANCYL will not become a cult in which "worshipping, uncritical masses must laugh and cheer at every jibe dished out by you, my Lord".
The letter supports those who say Malema's future as the ANCYL president is not assured because he couldn't give a damn about the young nation. On the parallel, attention is shifting to his deputy, Andile Lungisa, who is the chairman of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA). Lungisa's supporters are seen to be mostly on the left - predominantly Young Communist League members and trade unionists - and they are said to be actively mobilising to get him into the big office on the seventh floor of Luthuli House.
But that only adds fuel to another argument, which also centres on fear that the youth agenda is being used as a political driver for those with weightier personal ambitions.
Lungisa has himself been the target of accusations that the NYDA has been too slow in delivering, that it is consuming large amounts of money that cannot be accounted for, and that it is a political organisation too intimate with the ANCYL as it must find employment for ruling party deployees.
The circle grows ever more vicious, but Shivambu is clear. The ANCYL - and Malema - may be misunderstood by some sectors of society, but it understands its role and its relationship to other youth organisations and its own party's higher purpose.
"Those are very lazy accusations to say we are not serving the youth. If you look at what the ANCYL is supposed to do, it has twin tasks: it must mobilise the youth behind the vision of the ANC and it must serve as a political school," Shivambu said.
"Although we are involved in assisting in society in different ways, our job is also in convincing the ANC itself to have a greater focus on developments around the youth. It was our resolution, for instance, to make it easier to employ young people that was taken into the State of the Nation address and then reflected in the Budget speech.
"A lot of what we do is advocacy within the structures of the ANC. This isn't how it has always been. If you look back around 1996, you'll see that we were not properly positioned to respond to the aspirations of the youth. We were very fragmented and almost ghettoised. We defined ourselves outside of what the government was doing, but that doesn't work.
"An organisation like this must be able to work within the context of a national youth policy, and that was only adopted when we entered office in 2009. It binds all government planning processes to have a specific focus on the youth."
Shivambu rubbishes criticism levelled at the ANCYL in terms of its influence on the NYDA.
"The relationship we have with them is almost the same as the relationship the ANC has with the government in terms of policy direction. We guide them."
Steven Ngubeni, the CEO of the NYDA, goes further than that. He acknowledges that the impression created has been that the agency - formed out of the ashes of the notorious Youth Commission and Umsobomvu Youth Fund - had been slow to get going and that it had a politically partisan staff who were compromising its greater goals.
But he defends the agency's activities, saying it is finally "in full swing", setting up youth development offices in municipalities around the country and establishing offices at provincial level, as is legislated in terms of the act which governs it. This has been against the odds, he says.
"We currently have 113 offices located at the local or basic level and these are mostly linked to municipalities. But these are the quick wins. Our provincial offices have been far more of a problem. We took these over from the provincial Youth Commission offices and that left us with major labour relations issues. I have to move meticulously in terms of addressing those issues. We do not want to be endlessly caught up at the CCMA.
"We have to deal with the current staff which we inherited first.
"People say we have been appointing. This is not true. We are sorting out our existing problems first, and when the time comes, it will be my prerogative as CEO to do recruitment on the basis of finding people who can assist me, not on the basis of those who have the loudest voice. I can't be bullied. I am building a new organisation and we must realise a new vision.
"Remember that the NYDA has a board and that board is represented by the ANCYL, the Freedom Front, the IFP, the business sector, disabled youth... it is not one party's interests only which are being heard. The only bias we do have is that we are biased towards rural youth, disabled youth and the previously disadvantaged... those who need our support most.
"There is also a view that what we want from the government, we get, but we are grappling to get resources from other government agencies, so we have to lobby and get involved in advocacy like everybody else."
Hector Yebo, who is the youth development officer at the Breede Valley municipality, believes the NYDA is genuine. While his office is trying to reach as many young people as possible with literacy activism and helping them to get their drivers' licences, it's a tough job every day.
"This region of ours is like a rural area. Many young people here are not well educated, meaning most of them are unemployed. We called Andile Lungisa ourselves and he came here himself. We told him about how marginalised we feel. Now, voila, the NYDA is opening an office here in three months."
But Sthembiso Khanyile of the youth wing of Cope says they can't help their uncertainty about the ANCYL and the NYDA.
"The youth of Cope, you'd remember, were born out of a similar process to that of Cope itself, in that we came from across the political divide to form something that would be different from the ANCYL.
"We wanted to focus on what has to be done to uplift the quality of life of communities.
"We have observed what the NYDA's supposed mandate is, too. Has it yet made any impact on the lives of the youth? We say this because no NYDA boards have yet been installed and youth development is thus still in limbo. This is primarily because you have the youth league of a ruling party monopolising a public entity because the ANCYL has deeply politicised youth issues.
"For us, on the other hand, it's like the Chinese idiom of the sound of one tree falling being greater than the sound of the entire forest growing. We believe our work as a youth wing is already touching communities on the ground.
"For instance, this past weekend we were in Polokwane in a village where we were fixing up a community creche. We're building early childhood development centres and helping schools affected by tornados. We want to be a beacon of hope for young South Africans, and have lasting projects. It's actually beyond politics."
Aimee Franklin, who is the youth director of the DA, agrees with Khanyile. She admits that it struggles to get media coverage.
"For example, at the moment we are rolling out a petition to have teaching declared an essential service so that teachers cannot strike as easily. We're also running protests across campuses to have the tax on textbooks scrapped. There's another petition we've started on the national student financial aid scheme to have the threshold to qualify pushed up so that kids from lower middle-class families can also benefit. These are the kind of things the ANCYL should be doing.
"We are worried that a legislated body like the NYDA is still not properly up and running with all its millions from Parliament. They should be setting out their plans for the year, but they still haven't constituted their provincial offices, as they are mandated to do. We think it's just a lack of willingness to engage.
"But we carry on. We feel there are shifts happening among young people that will see a result in the next election. Our youth are being failed and are just sick and tired of it."
The ANCYL's spokesman, Floyd Shivambu, once said that "the Youth League is today the most formidable youth political organisation, not only in South Africa, but also in the entire continent and the world". But the letter captures a prevailing mood about the ANCYL and sniggers at that. It says instead that Malema and his private political agenda have clouded the league's reason for being: to champion young people.
"My Lord, it's me, your loyal servant," it begins. "I wish to sincerely apologise for burdening you by writing this letter and adding to your busy schedule. My king, I understand that your schedule, as president of the ANC Youth League, consists of such important work as busying yourself with sniffing out those forces of darkness who are baying for your blood, spying on journalists who sleep around with politicians in exchange for information and ending your week with a huge party where you are surrounded by a circle of women."
Going on to speak of kissing the notorious Breitling watch, which has become a bit of an albatross for Malema, and of how the proceeds from "nationalising the Range Rover" could see 50 top African students being sent to university, the letter is signed by a member of the league in Gauteng.
Apart from giving Malema a good thrashing, the letter is all about the ANCYL not serving its constituency, which is battling a poor education system, unemployment, human rights abuses and violence, and struggling with general disappointment. In striking out at a leader left bloodied over the past couple of weeks over his business interests, his income and his big birthday party, it warns that the ANCYL will not become a cult in which "worshipping, uncritical masses must laugh and cheer at every jibe dished out by you, my Lord".
The letter supports those who say Malema's future as the ANCYL president is not assured because he couldn't give a damn about the young nation. On the parallel, attention is shifting to his deputy, Andile Lungisa, who is the chairman of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA). Lungisa's supporters are seen to be mostly on the left - predominantly Young Communist League members and trade unionists - and they are said to be actively mobilising to get him into the big office on the seventh floor of Luthuli House.
But that only adds fuel to another argument, which also centres on fear that the youth agenda is being used as a political driver for those with weightier personal ambitions.
Lungisa has himself been the target of accusations that the NYDA has been too slow in delivering, that it is consuming large amounts of money that cannot be accounted for, and that it is a political organisation too intimate with the ANCYL as it must find employment for ruling party deployees.
The circle grows ever more vicious, but Shivambu is clear. The ANCYL - and Malema - may be misunderstood by some sectors of society, but it understands its role and its relationship to other youth organisations and its own party's higher purpose.
"Those are very lazy accusations to say we are not serving the youth. If you look at what the ANCYL is supposed to do, it has twin tasks: it must mobilise the youth behind the vision of the ANC and it must serve as a political school," Shivambu said.
"Although we are involved in assisting in society in different ways, our job is also in convincing the ANC itself to have a greater focus on developments around the youth. It was our resolution, for instance, to make it easier to employ young people that was taken into the State of the Nation address and then reflected in the Budget speech.
"A lot of what we do is advocacy within the structures of the ANC. This isn't how it has always been. If you look back around 1996, you'll see that we were not properly positioned to respond to the aspirations of the youth. We were very fragmented and almost ghettoised. We defined ourselves outside of what the government was doing, but that doesn't work.
"An organisation like this must be able to work within the context of a national youth policy, and that was only adopted when we entered office in 2009. It binds all government planning processes to have a specific focus on the youth."
Shivambu rubbishes criticism levelled at the ANCYL in terms of its influence on the NYDA.
"The relationship we have with them is almost the same as the relationship the ANC has with the government in terms of policy direction. We guide them."
Steven Ngubeni, the CEO of the NYDA, goes further than that. He acknowledges that the impression created has been that the agency - formed out of the ashes of the notorious Youth Commission and Umsobomvu Youth Fund - had been slow to get going and that it had a politically partisan staff who were compromising its greater goals.
But he defends the agency's activities, saying it is finally "in full swing", setting up youth development offices in municipalities around the country and establishing offices at provincial level, as is legislated in terms of the act which governs it. This has been against the odds, he says.
"We currently have 113 offices located at the local or basic level and these are mostly linked to municipalities. But these are the quick wins. Our provincial offices have been far more of a problem. We took these over from the provincial Youth Commission offices and that left us with major labour relations issues. I have to move meticulously in terms of addressing those issues. We do not want to be endlessly caught up at the CCMA.
"We have to deal with the current staff which we inherited first.
"People say we have been appointing. This is not true. We are sorting out our existing problems first, and when the time comes, it will be my prerogative as CEO to do recruitment on the basis of finding people who can assist me, not on the basis of those who have the loudest voice. I can't be bullied. I am building a new organisation and we must realise a new vision.
"Remember that the NYDA has a board and that board is represented by the ANCYL, the Freedom Front, the IFP, the business sector, disabled youth... it is not one party's interests only which are being heard. The only bias we do have is that we are biased towards rural youth, disabled youth and the previously disadvantaged... those who need our support most.
"There is also a view that what we want from the government, we get, but we are grappling to get resources from other government agencies, so we have to lobby and get involved in advocacy like everybody else."
Hector Yebo, who is the youth development officer at the Breede Valley municipality, believes the NYDA is genuine. While his office is trying to reach as many young people as possible with literacy activism and helping them to get their drivers' licences, it's a tough job every day.
"This region of ours is like a rural area. Many young people here are not well educated, meaning most of them are unemployed. We called Andile Lungisa ourselves and he came here himself. We told him about how marginalised we feel. Now, voila, the NYDA is opening an office here in three months."
But Sthembiso Khanyile of the youth wing of Cope says they can't help their uncertainty about the ANCYL and the NYDA.
"The youth of Cope, you'd remember, were born out of a similar process to that of Cope itself, in that we came from across the political divide to form something that would be different from the ANCYL.
"We wanted to focus on what has to be done to uplift the quality of life of communities.
"We have observed what the NYDA's supposed mandate is, too. Has it yet made any impact on the lives of the youth? We say this because no NYDA boards have yet been installed and youth development is thus still in limbo. This is primarily because you have the youth league of a ruling party monopolising a public entity because the ANCYL has deeply politicised youth issues.
"For us, on the other hand, it's like the Chinese idiom of the sound of one tree falling being greater than the sound of the entire forest growing. We believe our work as a youth wing is already touching communities on the ground.
"For instance, this past weekend we were in Polokwane in a village where we were fixing up a community creche. We're building early childhood development centres and helping schools affected by tornados. We want to be a beacon of hope for young South Africans, and have lasting projects. It's actually beyond politics."
Aimee Franklin, who is the youth director of the DA, agrees with Khanyile. She admits that it struggles to get media coverage.
"For example, at the moment we are rolling out a petition to have teaching declared an essential service so that teachers cannot strike as easily. We're also running protests across campuses to have the tax on textbooks scrapped. There's another petition we've started on the national student financial aid scheme to have the threshold to qualify pushed up so that kids from lower middle-class families can also benefit. These are the kind of things the ANCYL should be doing.
"We are worried that a legislated body like the NYDA is still not properly up and running with all its millions from Parliament. They should be setting out their plans for the year, but they still haven't constituted their provincial offices, as they are mandated to do. We think it's just a lack of willingness to engage.
"But we carry on. We feel there are shifts happening among young people that will see a result in the next election. Our youth are being failed and are just sick and tired of it."
- This article was originally published on page 4 of The Pretoria News on March 06, 2010
Pretoria
