The biggest challenge facing the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) today is how best to redefine what the role a traditionally militant youth organisation is supposed to be in a democratic South Africa. An inability to recalibrate its vision to current realities has made it susceptible to being used as a vehicle for personal aggrandisement.
The ANCYL’s militancy derives in large part from the context of the struggle during which it was formed, especially in the late Forties, but also later, in the interregnum between apartheid and the new democracy in the Nineties. This militancy was tempered by idealistic objectives that made the league a credible force. Its goal was to ensure a total transformation that sought to reinstate human dignity, respect and tolerance for difference. The biggest enemy was the apartheid regime and the league took a tactical position that suited the era.
In a democratic state in which the ANC is in government, its youth wing requires a more nuanced form of engagement. The purpose of the organisation has remained the same — to achieve total transformation on all fronts — but the rules of engagement have changed.
The ANCYL is part of the government and it needs to play a leadership role. It is not in opposition to the government, but a platform through which ANC policies find meaning and expression. Yet the youth leadership has not realised this. Structures are reduced to lobbying grounds for personal aggrandisement.
What we are seeing is a failure of adjustment as well as a lack of thoughtful cadreship capable of redefining the role of the ANCYL and engaging effectively in the development of our country and our people. The league is marked by rhetoric and thugism, with no real substance in the fight to build a capable citizenry.
Many are starting to question the essence, relevance and significance of the ANCYL today. The question is not so much about the organisation itself but rather what it can offer in the current realities our youth experiences today.
Our youth face a lack of cadreship development. The mother body should provide political education. How can a youth leader spend 15 years as both secretary general and president and still exhibit the attitudes of somebody who doesn’t know what the pivotal role of the ANCYL should be in the new democratic context?
If we do not accord education the prestige it deserves, we will continue to breed and idolise shallow leaders who serve only themselves. Unless we come to terms with the fact that the days of militancy are gone, our definition of leadership will remain misguided.
I was shocked when Fikile Mbalula, the exiting leader of the ANCYL, pledged to mentor the newly elected president, Julius Malema. What would such mentoring entail? With respect, the record of Mbalula’s leadership is part of the new mandate for the new leadership to undo.
It is time for new blood to refocus and reposition the ANCYL and go back to basics. This is an opportunity to reclaim the league as a political school that provides opportunities for leadership development founded on a sound understanding of the issues confronting today’s youth in our country, on our continent and in the world at large. One hopes Malema will lead the league in the right direction and we wish him all the best.
Amos Mboweni is the chairperson of the ANC Gaby Shapiro branch and a former secretary general of the SRC of the University of Cape Town