A youth summit on affirmative action will be convened to discuss and finalise a common perspective on the issue, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) and Freedom Front Plus Youth announced on Tuesday.
”We’ve agreed that the redress policies have not adequately addressed the racial inequalities of the past,” said ANCYL national spokesperson Floyd Shivambu at a media briefing in Johannesburg.
The parties have agreed to convene a summit that will involve all youth stakeholders.
A date for the event is yet to be announced. ”We will do this as soon as possible, after consulting with our structures,” said Shivambu.
Both organisations agreed that the conditions of the poor should be improved regardless of their racial background.
Interim President Kgalema Motlanthe has also recently admitted that many in leadership do not apply affirmative action correctly. He said affirmative action is meant to assist capable people who were denied opportunities because of the colour of their skin, and not to favour one race group over the other.
Other issues discussed at the meeting on Tuesday included racism, the reinstatement of corporal punishment and the promotion of mother-tongue education.
The ANCYL and the Freedom Front Plus Youth still remain divided on the issue of the reinstatement of corporal punishment as a way of instilling a sense of discipline in schools.
”There is a problem in the school system. The current way of discipline is not implemented correctly. There were no problems of learners attacking teachers and stabbing one another before the abolishment of corporal punishment,” said Cornelius Jansen van Rensburg, Freedom Front Plus Youth leader.
Van Rensburg said that in the Afrikaans community, children were traditionally given a hiding as a way of discipline, and therefore corporal punishment should not be seen to have a racial connotation to it.
”If giving children a hiding is seen to have some racial connotation to it, then should sending people to jail be seen as such? We can’t treat children as adults.”
On Monday, the Freedom Front Plus Youth handed a memorandum to a representative in the Presidency in Pretoria asking for the return of corporal punishment in schools.
In the memorandum, the organisation said recent statements by ANCYL leader Julius Malema and others showed that corporal punishment is still needed.
Shivambu, however, said the ANCYL opposed this because violence or force cannot be used as a corrective measure to instil a sense of discipline. ”Many children left school because of being afraid of being beaten up by teachers.”
Although a verdict has not been reached on the issue, both parties have agreed to ensure that a culture of discipline is restored and maintained in schools and in society.
Both organisations also expressed concern about racist incidents perpetrated by young people, more particularly on university campuses around the country.
”Racism exists in South Africa, both white on black and black on white. As part of the solution to racism and racist attitudes in communities, we’ve agreed to work within our constituencies to promote and advocate non-racism,” they said. — Sapa