Even members of the African National Congress don’t take its Youth League’s pronouncements seriously.
”The rate at which the Youth League calls for boycotts, there is a good chance that their engagement on any issue will not be taken seriously,” said one former member.
”Ja, man, who will take the ANC Youth League seriously. They called for a boycott of the Mail & Guardian last month, but we are still buying it and reading it,” said a former official.
The two were part of a large group polled for a response to the league’s call for a boycott of next year’s cricket World Cup after it was annoyed by the United Cricket Board’s decision to scrap the quota system, later reversed.
”This resurrecting apartheid [sic] head in cricket had [sic] to be crushed,” fumed the Youth League in a statement.
The call for a boycott might have been overkill, but overkill is the name of the game with the Youth League. That was evident again this week when it called for disciplinary action against Jeremy Cronin, deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party, for an innocuous statement in private that he and others on the political Left in the ANC felt marginalised.
Many ANC members and political observers feel the Youth League is increasingly promoting a popular hard-core Africanist tradition in the ANC. But whether it can pull off a boycott is hotly contested.
”We have 400 000 members nationwide — we are a powerful force,” said Khulekani Ntshangase, the league’s spokesperson.
This claim is disputed by some in the ANC.
”The league today performs the function of Luthuli House’s loudspeaker,” said a former member.
The league’s recent pronouncement that the ANC’s top two positions may not be contested at the party’s national conference in December won it fans in Luthuli House, but not among the party’s rank and file who believe in democratic practices.
”Irrelevant” and ”a well-heeled bunch of youngsters who drive around in flashy cars” are two opinions of the Youth League recorded this week among ANC members, but they are remarkably widely held.
A personal encounter with Ntshangase last week illustrates the point.
Ntshangase: You are writing this piece about us without interviewing us. You have been talking to others …
Kindra: You want to be interviewed … it is no longer a news piece. I am writing a comment piece for next week. It is my prerogative to speak to whom-ever I wish … to get a sense of what the organisation is about, what their perceptions of the body are … It is an opinion piece for the comment section …
Ntshangase: You don’t know us? You have to ask other people… Don’t you know us?
Kindra: Yes, I do … you want me to tell you …
Ntshangase: Yes.
Kindra: I think you lack substance … You don’t know what you are doing — you make statements on issues that do not affect your constituency … You issued a statement on the Constitutional Court ruling on the defection law — what does that have to do with your constituency — the youth? And yet a few days later, when the court gave a judgement on nevirapine — which affects your constituency — you said nothing.
Ntshangase: Ahhhyeyye …
Kindra: You opposed the anti-privatisation campaign last year and yet you marched to highlight unemployment — when was it, last month? What have you really done for the youth in this country?
Ntshangase: It is a wrong opinion …
Kindra: It is my opinion … an opinion can’t be right or wrong…
Ntshangase: It has to be based on fact.
Kindra: It is an opinion on how I see things — opinions are subjective.
Ntshangase: You cannot write that … journalists cannot be allowed to write wrong opinions …
Kindra: Do you realise what you are saying? … This country has a liberal Constitution and liberal media … I have the right to express an opinion … I told you the piece is going in the comment section … Why am I discussing this with you? I haven’t even written the piece. Khulekani, just take time out and think calmly and try to understand what you are saying …
Ntshangase: I know what I am saying … the government gave the media rights to write, yet they have nothing good to say about the government. The time has come to review the rights … we must change the right …
Kindra: You know you are sounding like a fascist …
Ntshangase: A fascist … I may be so, but what I am saying is right.
Kindra: I don’t think I wish to continue this conversation … thank you.
Some believe the president Malusi Knowledge Gigaba’s leadership has managed to save the organisation from complete redundancy. They see the 30-year-old, who holds a master’s degree in social policy and has a thesis to his name, as an ”intellectual of note”.
Others say they don’t know how appropriate Knowledge may be as his second name, ”but he dresses well”, said an old university acquaintance.
Gigaba’s political life began in 1985 when he joined the Congress of South African Students, the South African Youth Congress, the South African Students Congress and the Young Christian Students at the University of Durban-Westville. He took over the national leadership of the league in 1998.
Last year Gigaba barely won re-election when trade unionist David Makhura emerged as the favourite for the top job. Gigaba, an MP, was said not to be devoting enough time to the league. But he quit Parliament to become the full-time president, with help from the old guard, including the late Peter Mokaba, a former Youth League leader.
”The new bunch of ANC Youth League leaders are a far cry from its founding fathers like Nelson Mandela,” said a member who was recently expelled from the organisation. ”Even under Mokaba the Youth League had a voice independent to that of Luthuli House. They are all careerists now. What have they done for the youth of today?”
He pointed out that all nine youth commissions appointed by the government had failed.
The league has also been silent on the suspension of its national executive member Andile Nkhulu, the chief director of public enterprises, who faces corruption allegations in the emerging forestry privatisation scam.