Opening Address by ANC President Comrade Jacob Zuma at the 25th ANC Youth League National Congress ANC Youth League National Convener Cde Mzwandile Masina National Coordinator of the ANC Youth League Cde Magasela Mzobe, Members of the National Task Team ANC NEC Members Former leaders of the ANC Youth League present Veterans of our movement Leaders of SASCO, YCL and COSAS present Esteemed delegates Comrades and friends, I bring greetings from the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress together with its hardworking and committed general membership. A conference is important for various reasons in the general political life of the organization. It is at this National Conference that you will be assessing the performance of this organization and evaluating its impact in society. This conference is very important and special for all intents and purposes. As you know, it is convened and organized by the National Task Team which was not elected at your last conference. The appointment of the Task Team came as a result of a difficult but necessary unprecedented decision taken by the ANC NEC in early 2013 to disband the NEC of the ANC Youth League. This decision was not taken lightly. It was one of the most difficult decisions that the leadership of the ANC has taken in recent times. It was taken as a consequence of continued ill-disciplined behavior in the League that brought the organization into disrepute on a number of occasions. I am certain that both the organizational and political reports will sufficiently reflect on some of the factors that necessitated the appointment of an interim leadership structure. Comrades, The founding manifesto of the seventy year old ANC Youth League asserted that: “The formation of the African National Congress Youth League is an answer and assurance to the critics of the national movement that African Youth will not allow the struggles and sacrifices of their fathers to have been in vain. “Our fathers fought so that we, better equipped when our time came, should start and continue from where they stopped”. The formation of the ANC Youth League seventy years ago in 1944 was a landmark of great significance on the path to freedom and self-determination for the African majority. The birth of the Youth League was an important milestone in the history of the ANC itself. The 1944 generation of the ANC youth takes the credit for having radicalized the ANC and transformed it into a fighting force for liberation and a mass organization. It is these young people who would in the later years sustain the momentum of our revolution; even under conditions over illegality. It is impossible to imagine how South Africa would have turned out had it not been for the militancy and youthful energy of young people of the ANC. Another equally important event in the life of the ANC Youth League was the 1991 National Conference at which the League was officially re-launched following the unbanning of the National Liberation Movement. The significance of that conference was marked by the enormous tasks that the youth of 1991 had to execute in relation to our democratic transition. The transition from apartheid to democracy, especially in the period between 1990 and 1994 needed a very strong youth with the energy necessary to mobilize and organize young people throughout the length and breadth of our country. Young people needed to be inspired by the peers about the role of youth in that during that delicate period when our country was strife-torn and at the verge of a civil war. We are happy that our Youth League, under the firm guidance of the ANC leadership, was up to the task and successfully led young people. The role played by the Youth League in delivering an overwhelming majority to the ANC during the 1994 elections cannot be overemphasized. These facts indeed lend credence to the notion that the Youth League has an integral and inalienable role to play in the life of the ANC. Comrade Delegates, This conference is convened and organized by an interim leadership structure just like both the 1944 and 1991 national conferences. It is a culmination of work that you have been busy with over the past twenty months or so. Although you might correctly believe that the journey to get to this conference was long and arduous, this conference is not in itself the destination, but part of a longer journey. The ultimate destination will be a well-functioning ANC Youth League which masters its twin tasks of advancing the interests of young people while at the same time, rallying these young people behind the banner and vision of the ANC. In this regard, you, the delegates to this conference, are part of a special generation making history in our movement. Just like the generations of 1944 and 1991, your generation will be remembered as having opened a new chapter in the life of the ANC Youth League. You are delegates to a conference which takes place under a very interesting context. This is the first national conference of the League since we celebrated twenty years of freedom and democratic consolidation. It is also the first conference since the ANC declared that we have now entered a second phase of our long drawn transition from apartheid colonialism to the national democratic society. During this phase we will take bold and decisive steps especially at the level of policy formulation to ensure radical economic transformation. This consultative conference therefore has the responsibility to determine the place and role of a united and radical Youth League in this second phase of our transition. Comrades, In this conference you must find time to deliberate on how to reposition the ANC Youth League in our society, to be the fighting force and a representative of South African youth in general. You further need to work hard in answering questions relating to why some young people who are members of the ANC and are eligible to be Youth League members choose not to be. The Youth League must do away with conditions which allow a young person to enjoy being a member of the ANC but seeing no need to be a Youth League member. Emerging from this conference, we the League should begin work that will make every young person in the country to want to be a member of the ANC Youth League. Through the manner in which you conduct yourselves and carry out the mandate of the ANCYL, you will as members of the League attract scores of young people to the ranks of the ANC. When we talk of the role of young people in the advancement of the National Democratic revolution, one is reminded of the words of the revolutionary intellectual, Former General Secretary of the Communist Party and Treasurer-General of the ANC Comrade Moses Kotane. He said in 1968: “At this hour of destiny, your country and your people need you. The future of South Africa is in your hands and it will be what you make of it”. The Youth League remains an investment and reservoir for future leaders of the ANC. When we see Youth League leaders, we see future leaders of the ANC. A vibrant and active Youth League brings us joy because it sends a reassuring message that the ANC has a future, and that the future will be safe in your hands. You dare not fail us and all our people in this regard! Comrades, Every political gathering in our movement should be a political school. It is therefore incumbent upon you to teach each other about how a Youth League member must conduct himself or herself. Today the phrase “by their fruits you shall know them” reigns more true for Youth League members. An ANC Youth League member must have distinguishing features from the rest. A young person who is a member of the ANC must be able to advance ANC policies wherever they may be found. This is consistent with the historic role of the ANC Youth League as a preparatory school of the ANC. Indeed, the task of young people is to learn, learn and learn some more. Therefore, this consultative conference in 2014 must recommit League members to the service of the ANC. The League must do everything in its power and use its youthful energy to help the ANC achieve its own objectives. The Youth Leagues objectives by definition must reinforce and advance the objectives of the ANC. Let me emphasise that out of this conference must emerge a Youth League that does not have objectives that are contrary to those of the ANC. There are mistakes that have happened in this glorious movement since 2005 or so which must not be repeated. We must eradicate the lack of discipline, the setting in of negative tendencies such as gatekeeping, the bad influence of money, lack of respect for one another and for higher and lower structures, and a general culture that displays a lack of understanding of the values of the ANC and what it stands for. At this conference, we also urge you to begin building an inclusive Youth League. A League that welcomes the inputs and participation of all progressive youth, and indeed all youth that wants to associate with the ANC. From here must emerge youth that will be able to influence other young people, and influence ideas and the discourse in society about the future of our country. We need a Youth League that will teach young people to be patriotic and love their country. It should be an ANC Youth League that is able to develop young people politically and which will defend the ANC. It should be an ANC Youth League that will conscientise young people to be disciplined and which will promote revolutionary militancy and not anarchic militancy. Indeed, you have a lot of work to do. History has bestowed upon you a huge responsibility of rebuilding this glorious youth league. You should ask yourselves what an ANC Youth League should do in the era of freedom. Anton Lembede said you should be prepared when your task comes. Therefore, the ANC Youth League should have an outlook that is broader. In this era of freedom, we are now building a country. Therefore the issue of education and skills development should be an apex priority for the ANC Youth League. You should be empowered with the necessary skills to lead this country to prosperity and sustainable development. You should also be in tune with the socio-economic development needs of the country. The youth should have a contribution to make in developing policies that will make this country a better place for the youth. Most importantly, we need warriors for economic transformation. We reiterate that our freedom is incomplete without economic freedom. When we talk about radical economic transformation, the ANC Youth League should know better than anyone else what we are talking about. The Youth League should play a key role in unpacking the policies we developed at the national conferences on economic transformation. The League should play a key role in the process of deracialising the ownership of the economy and the means of production. This is necessary for our country as broadening the ownership and participation of the economy will contribute faster to the achievement of inclusive economic growth and sustainable development in our country. Let me conclude by reminding you of the words of the founding President of the ANC Youth League Anton Lembede when he took time to think carefully on what a Youth League member is called upon to do. He said: “We are not called to peace, comfort and enjoyment, but to hard work, struggle and sweat. “We need young men and women of high moral stamina and integrity; of courage and vision. In short, we need warriors. This means that we have to develop a new type of youth of stoical discipline, trained to endure suffering and difficulties. “It is only this type of youth that will achieve the national liberation of the African people. Even today, I believe the ANC Youth League needs this kind of young people as you “rebuild a united and radical ANC Youth League for the advancement of the economic freedom in our lifetime”. Our instructions to you are simple. You must redeem the integrity and stature of the Youth League in society. You must spare no effort in building strong presence from the ground up in all your structures. You should let discipline reign supreme. We wish you a successful national consultative conference. Amandla!!! Matla!!! Matimba!!! All power!!! I thank you
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 10:16:27 +0000
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