On first meeting the newly elected secretary general of the ANC Youth League, I think that it’s a good thing that I did not see her take on e.tv’s tenacious news bull terrier Debra Patta, else I would have been devastatingly intimidated.
My colleagues told me how Vuyiswa Tulelo had gone punch for punch with Patta to defend president Julius Malema’s ”kill for Zuma” comments on 3rd Degree only days before the organisation’s Nasrec congress started.
The woman I meet at the congress registration hall on the Soweto campus of the University of Johannesburg is unmistakably in charge. She is like a level-headed and headstrong aunt — the one in your family who does not take nonsense from anyone, especially chauvinistic men.
”I don’t have to jump on top of the table to be heard, but I want comrades to accept that when we are in a meeting and we are discussing, they must deal with the reality that they left their wives at home,” says Tulelo, who is originally from the Northern Cape.
She turns 33 in July, and this might be her last term as a league official.
The married mother of a 21-month-old girl named Nomawethu, she is passionate about gender issues and says her organisation should do more to accommodate women. ”I am always faced with a task: do I take my daughter or not? We have no infrastructure for young mothers,” she says.
One of her priorities will be to ensure that the league ”becomes a place for young women”. This passion for gender equity has seen her crusading to create a young women’s assembly where women in the league can raise issues that affect them.
Does she ever feel intimidated in the male-dominated higher echelons of the league? Tulelo says she has spent her ”whole life” in the ANCYL — she served two terms of four years each as deputy secretary general — and is not daunted by her male counterparts.
When I stepped into the registration hall last Friday, I found her seemingly patient and in control, even as she barked orders at a brawny security official.
Tulelo managed the ANCYL’s continuation conference last weekend after the first one in Mangaung had to be called off when delegates engaged more in brawling with one another than with brainstorming the future of South African youth. She ran a tight ship ensuring that discipline was maintained and that the programme ran as smoothly as possible.
Tulelo showed herself to be an innovator. She organised for the registration and deliberation parts of the conference to be separated; a key aspect in ensuring a relatively peaceful confab.
Earlier in the process I asked her for a short interview on preparations for the congress, but she unapologetically turned me down, referring me to league spokesperson Zizi Kodwa.
My frustration worsened when Kodwa explained that the ”SG”, as Tulelo is affectionately known, is the best person for the interview. ”No, chief, she will speak to you, I am sure she just wanted me to vet you,” he says.
A little bit later, Tulelo sneaked a smile at me and said that she was now happy to talk to me as I had been ”cleared”. Such is the character of this young woman who has a firm belief in discipline within the ranks of the league that she will not disregard her organisation’s protocol.
”We need to go back to being a disciplined force of the left. The word ‘discipline’ means that at some point you will subject your independence to that of the majority,” she says, referring to disagreements that arose at the Mangaung conference.
Although a strong believer in discipline, Tulelo — as the Patta interview showed — is not scared to speak her mind. And she is not afraid to differ with the league’s political head, president Julius Malema.
I later spotted her taking Mail & Guardian political reporter Matuma Letsoalo to task over the depiction of ANC president Jacob Zuma as a ”baboon” in a Zapiro cartoon. She says the M&G cannot expect her to disassociate the Zapiro cartoon from the publication.
To drive her point home, she uses the analogy of actions by individuals in the league — such as Julius Malema’s ”kill for Zuma” comments, or events at Mangaung — affecting the organisation as a whole.
On Zuma’s corruption trial, she says: ”The beauty about the South African system is that you are innocent until you are found guilty.”
Having tossed aside officialdom for the duration of the ANC Youth League conference, she opted to dress in practical clothing that allowed her to roam comfortably around the Nasrec venue — even carrying equipment when the need arose. This is clearly not a leader who fears rolling up her sleeves and getting things done.
Her style, I observed, is to take the bull by the horns and remain informed of every decision being made on the administration of the conference. She often huddled in a group with fellow comrades who went to her for help or advice. We watched her, my colleagues and I, wondering when she would run out of steam — but she never did.
When my assignment comes to a close, I mentioned that the serenity of the conference had not been all that exciting for journalists.
”I am sorry,” she says, smiling. Humble indeed for one so competent, I think to myself.
Additional reporting by Matuma Letsoalo
Biography
- Like Julius Malema, Tulelo was a leader of the Congress of South African Students and led the organisation in the Northern Cape. She was also deputy chair of the league in the Northern Cape from 1995 to 1997.
- Tulelo was also involved in student politics and led the students’ representative council at Wits between 1999 and 2000.
- In February this year she was elected vice-president of the International Union of Socialist Youth. While she was a student, she served as part of the leadership of the South African Students’ Congress.
- She holds a BA (Politics) from Wits and she is a board member of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund.
- In 2004 Tulelo was elected deputy chairperson of the National Youth Commission. She was also a teacher at the women’s section of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
- She celebrates her birthday on July 17. She turns 33.
Additional reporting by Matuma Letsoalo