‘The African National Congress Youth League is there to adopt radical, militant positions that the ANC can only contemplate …
”Youth must never be paralysed by fear. The role of youth is to respond radically and sharply, but with an understanding of the bigger picture.”
These comments are courtesy not of the league’s motormouth spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa, nor its president, Fikile Mbalula. They were made two years ago by ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe at the league’s 60th anniversary celebration.
Of course, Motlanthe’s comments do not give the league licence to call Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser ”Lucifer”, or to brand the ANC Women’s League ”holy cows” or ”paralysed and paraplegic”. Nor do they justify the comment, allegedly made by Kodwa, that the National Prosecuting Authority is like a ”dog” that must be hit so hard that its masters reveal themselves.
However, they do provide an important context for understanding the hyperbole that characterises many of the league’s statements.
It is no wonder they are called loony, hotheads and undisciplined. But is that all that defines the youth league? Should they be written off in serious politics? I think not.
The youth league’s public support for Jacob Zuma as the next president begs the question: Is the league playing its traditional role of kingmaker? Recall that youth leaders by the name of Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela were instrumental in the replacement of conservative ANC president AB Xuma with JS Moroka in 1949.
Or are they simply consumed by their hatred for President Thabo Mbeki?
Ironically it was Motlanthe who censured the league this week for its recklessness. This related to its ”Lucifer” reference and suggestions that Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils had acted improperly, implying that he had become part of a conspiracy to destroy Zuma.
The latter is indeed a serious allegation, but it was not the youth league that first suggested a conspiracy in the ANC.
In a climate where many senior politicians appear afraid to speak their minds because they need to protect their careers, is the youth league not doing everyone a favour by voicing what others say in corridors, and anonymously to newspapers?
This is not the first time that ANC politicians have conveniently hidden behind the league.
Remember in the early 1990s, when then youth league president Peter Mokaba led chants of ”kill the boer” during the negotiations with the National Party government? The ANC grudgingly condemned Mokaba, but his comments made it possible for the party’s negotiators to portray themselves as moderates battling to keep a restive constituency at bay.
While today’s youth league is defined by its opposition to Mbeki, it is worth remembering that not so long ago, the league was campaigning for an Mbeki presidency. As one youth leader recently commented rather carelessly: ”We fetched Mbeki from a dingy place in Hillbrow and made him president.”
Hubris? Maybe.
But while its support for a Zuma presidency automatically puts the league in opposition to Mbeki’s proposal for woman president, it is worth remembering that the league was the first structure to adopt a 50/50 resolution, at its 2004 congress, following which Mbeki told the youth he would propose that this gender policy be followed by all ANC structures.
Let’s not throw the baby out with bath water. Over the years the league has been a voice of conscience within the ANC, challenging the organisation and infusing it with new ideas. In the 1940s the ANC did not expel the wild young militant named Walter Sisulu. They did not even tone down his militancy. Instead he was moulded into a leader who was then used to rein in other young radicals — among them a certain rebel named Nelson Mandela, who was known for his propensity to break up meetings.
Our public discourse has become languid, ahistorical and predictable.
Rapule Tabane is associate deputy editor