Delegates attending the African National Congress Youth League congress on Thursday sang “Asifunye-i-agenda yama capital [We don’t want a capitalist agenda]”.
It was not clear whether the message was directed at South Africa’s economic path or the corporatist bent of the league’s leaders.
Earlier this year, the Mail & Guardian revealed the extent of the league’s involvement in business. The series of articles caused debate in the movement and anger among its leadership who have been, until now, the biggest beneficiaries of mining, financial services and other big deals.
The congress was addressed by President Thabo Mbeki and was attended by about 4 000 delegates, among them youth league veterans Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla, Northern Cape Premier Dipuo Peters, Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi and presidential adviser Billy Masetlha.
The biggest welcome from delegates went to a Zanu-PF delegate and the exiled former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who addressed the congress in Zulu and outlined his perspective of contemporary Haitian politics. He argued that Haiti was in control of latter-day colonisers and later thanked Mbeki for providing him and his family with a temporary home.
On the opening day much of the youth league’s venom was reserved for “left-wing militants”. Both the political report by outgoing president Malusi Gigaba and the organisational report by outgoing secretary general Fikile Mbalula were scathing about the left wing, by which they meant the Young Communist League (YCL), the youth wing of the South African Communist Party.
Gigaba said there was “some leadership mongering … and self-seeking opportunists who have sought to turn the league into an anti-ANC instrument in the name of spurious left-wing militancy”. He added: “We have left the task of opposing the ANC to its genuine opponents while conducting ourselves as its loyal activists and agents for its historic cause.”
Gigaba continued: “We have rejected the falsehood that to mouth slogans and rhetoric or to wear a revolutionary-looking T-shirt and cap defines a person as a militant.”
In his organisational report, Mbalula said although the league had welcomed the formation of the YCL, it had been subjected to an “unprecedented” attack by the communists before the congress. “It must be noted that matters raised in the media have never been raised by the leadership of the YCL to the league, whether as criticism or otherwise.”
Mbalula added that the new leadership to be elected on Saturday would “seek clarity on the origins of the insinuations and establish a platform through which issues could be discussed”.
In his assessment of the political landscape, Mbalula also said that a recent Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general strike “was an act of insubordination aimed at overthrowing the government”.
The relationship between the league and the organised young communists has deteriorated to its lowest levels in the weeks leading up to the congress and raises interesting questions about the longevity of the tripartite alliance.
After its national executive meeting last weekend, the YCL commented that it was disturbed by the idea that free-market ideas are being projected as a solution to the problems facing the youth.
The YCL last weekend denied a plot to take over the ANC Youth League but added it would not discourage any of its members who want to contest leadership positions this weekend as long as they did not use the communist stage as a platform.