The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) and trade union Solidarity’s youth wing failed to agree on Thursday on whether youth should be exempt from affirmative action.
The two youth organisations held talks in Johannesburg to discuss how affirmative action could benefit different racial groups.
ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula said his organisation does not share Solidarity’s belief that the youth should be exempt from affirmative action.
”We don’t share the sentiments that affirmative action is a racial entrenchment. We believe that it is about redressing the question of inequalities for the disadvantaged.
”It is not a replacement of white people with a particular regime. In fact, we need a black Broederbond to go about putting black people in the mainstream economy without being unapologetic about it,” said Mbalula.
He said it is still too early to talk about abolishing affirmative action and that the majority of black people are still unemployed.
Mbalula said black economic empowerment is ”insulted” by fronting and misrepresentations. ”Just because we have the likes of Patrice Motsepe does not mean that black people are rich or that we have arrived.
”We believe that 13 years of freedom is a short time to undo the damage done by years of racism. Our people are still living in shacks and using bucket systems,” said Mbalula.
‘Opportunistic’ call
Last week, the ANCYL dismissed as opportunistic a Freedom Front Plus call for young South Africans to be freed from affirmative action.
Solidarity Youth president Ernst Roets said affirmative action creates racial conflict among youths wanting to enter tertiary institutions and the work industry. Solidarity does not have a problem with affirmative action per se, but believes that guidelines could be adjusted to benefit youths of all races.
”We cannot stress the importance of addressing past inequalities, but we are concerned about how these inequalities are being addressed,” said Roets. ”We are for affirmative action, but not in its current form. How can a poor white person not benefit from affirmative action? We want affirmative action to stop focusing on skin colour and to focus on the socio-economic status of a person.”
He said the youth now have equal opportunities and should therefore not be discriminated against because of their skin colour.
”The youth don’t look at policies or ideologies. They look at what’s happening on the ground level — since 1994 we have had instances where white youth have failed to gain entrance to tertiary institutions and been overlooked in the job sector despite being better qualified. This creates racial conflicts among the youth.”
Both groups agreed to hold more talks on affirmative action and called on other youth organisations to join their discussions.
Roets said that he hopes that they will reach common ground with the ANCYL on other issues affecting the youth.
”This was a first meeting in a series of long debates. We will continue to engage the ANCYL on issues affecting the youth and hope that we will reach an agreement in our future discussions,” he said. — Sapa