Young lions of the African Century

The day before the publication of this edition of ANC TODAY, I had the privilege to address the 22nd National Congress of the ANC Youth League. It was indeed very moving to spend some time with the almost 4000 delegates attending the Congress.

Here were gathered in equal number the young women and men on whom the future of our country depends. As we arrived at the conference venue, we could not but notice the fact of the youth of the Youth League delegates gathered at Nasrec, Johannesburg. It was inspiring to look at their young faces, and knowing why they had convened at Nasrec, understand fully that with them as our leaders, our country and people are assured of a bright future.

These young leaders are and will be meeting at Nasrec in conditions of peace in our country. To achieve this peace, other young people in our country, their earlier peers, lost their lives fighting for freedom and peace. As they meet, they know that they face no threat of the violence that tragically devours the lives of innocent people from Haiti to the Sudan, from the DRC to Palestine and Israel, from Nepal to the Cote d'Ivoire and Pakistan.

They are and will be meeting to discuss what their organisation, the ANC Youth League, other progressive youth organisations, our youth as a whole, the ANC and the rest of the progressive movement, and their Government, should do to realise the dream of a better life for the youth of our country, and all our people. They will not and are not discussing what they should do to end political violence in our country, because the sacrifices made by other young people helped to rid our country of the scourge of political violence.

It stood out as a great blessing that there is none in our country who has the possibility to use criminal political violence to deprive our country and people of the priceless human beings gathered at Nasrec as delegates to the 22nd National Congress of the ANC Youth League.

There is none who has the possibility to visit on these young people and the rest of our youth the death of thousands of young people we experienced as the apartheid system delivered its dying kicks, and which our people had experienced during the long years of colonial and apartheid rule.

All this came to mind because less than a week before the 22nd National Congress of the ANC Youth League convened at Nasrec, there had been yet another bloody incident, to the north of our country and region, that will forever remain as a blot on the African conscience, and a stern warning to all of us to remain permanently on guard for peace. A horrendous massacre took place at a refugee camp in Gatumba, Burundi during the night of Friday, August 13. The refugees were from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They had fled from the conflict that had taken place earlier this year in Eastern Congo. They belonged to the Banyamulenge ethnic group, which is related to the Tutsi population of Rwanda.

The killers came in the dark of night. They attacked a Burundi army camp located nearby, charged with the responsibility to protect the refugees. This was to stop these soldiers intervening as the murderers did their dirty work of murdering in cold blood well over 150 children, women and men as they slept.

The killers came in the night and hacked to death perfectly innocent people who were already suffering because violent conflict in their country had turned them into refugees. They poured petrol on the shacks in which the people lived and set them alight. Many of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition. Those who tried to run away were shot down in cold blood.

With cold and deliberate intent, they did not touch even one of the other refugees who stayed in other shacks a mere few metres away, but belonged to other Congolese ethnic groups.

The only fault of the dead was that they were Banyamulenge. A mindless and criminal hatred drove the killers to carry out an unpardonable crime against humanity. What they hated was the fact that the Banyamulenge were Banyamulenge. The murderers viewed the mere fact that the Banyamulenge exist as human beings as unacceptable.

They therefore took it upon themselves to commit cold-blooded murder, to ensure that the Banyamulenge cease to exist. Led by Adolf Hitler, the Nazis had taken the same decision with regard to the Jewish people, and systematically embarked on the Holocaust intended to annihilate an entire people.

Half-a-century later, other criminals, this time on our continent, carried out a genocide that claimed the lives of a million Rwandans in a mere 100 days. Hitler's African successors argued that the Tutsis of Rwanda, ethnically related to the Banyamulenge of the DRC, were "cockroaches" that did not deserve to live and therefore had to be exterminated.

There is an armed group in Burundi called the Palipehutu-FNL. This group, whose leader passionately presents himself as a born-again Christian, has refused to lay down arms and join the Burundi peace process. As the Barundi have courageously engaged the process to bring peace to their country, preparing for democratic elections, Palipehutu-FNL has taken the conscious decision that it will not join the peace process.

In action, it has made the unequivocal statement that it is determined to continue killing other Barundi, utterly contemptuous of the people's heartfelt desire for peace, and unmoved by the fact that 300,000 people have died in a decade-long conflict. Active in the vicinity of the capital city, in Bujumbura Rural, Palipehutu-FNL has unashamedly carried out operations that make the statement that this organisation, wrongly described as a Front for National Liberation, has nothing to do with the national liberation of the Barundi, and everything to do with the commission of violent crimes against the people of Burundi.

Perhaps it should have not come as a surprise that, by its own admission, Palipehutu-FNL was involved in the Gatumba massacre of Friday, August 13. This armed group has become so accustomed to the shedding of innocent blood that it made bold to make the statement that it was responsible for the Gatumba massacre. It went further to say that it had no fear of retribution for its crimes, because it was certain that it had become untouchable.

Outraged, a few days ago, on August 17, the Annual SADC Summit Meeting, attended by all the Heads of State and Government on the Community and held in Mauritius, issued a Communiqué in which it "condemned the recent massacre in the refugee camp of Gatumba in Burundi."

Meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the following day, August 18, the 22nd Summit Meeting of the Great Lakes Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi, also discussed the Gatumba massacre. It recalled an earlier decision taken on June 5 in which it urged the Peace and Security Council of the African Union to take appropriate action against Palipehutu-FNL because of its stubborn refusal to join the Burundi peace process.

At this August 18th meeting, and having considered the Gatumba massacre, the Great Lakes Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi took a further and important step forward with regard to Palipehutu-FNL. It said:

"In the light of recent incidents (viz the Gatumba massacre), and the refusal of the Palipehutu-FNL to desist from violence and to actively join the peace process, the Summit resolved to declare Palipehutu-FNL a Terrorist Organisation, and urged the African Union and the United Nations Security Council to support this decision, and for the relevant UN Security Council conventions and protocols on the combating of terrorism to apply in this regard."

As requested by the Great Lakes Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi, and responding to the Gatumba Massacre, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union issued its own Communiqué on the situation in Burundi on August 17. It reiterated its "appeal to all Member States to implement the decision of the 21st Summit of the Regional Initiative to impose, with immediate effect, restrictions on the movements of the leaders and members of the Palipehutu/FNL."

It went further and "stressed the urgent need to neutralise the negative forces in the DRC and in the Great Lakes Region by taking steps to put an end to their criminal activities, and requested the Chairperson of the (AU) Commission to initiate without delay consultations with all the countries of the region, as well as with the United Nations and the other concerned actors, with a view to submitting to it proposals on the measures that should be taken to accomplish that objective."

The decision of the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) correctly draws attention to the continued existence in the Great Lakes Region of other genocidal death squads similar to Palipehutu-FNL, and the need to defeat and suppress these "negative forces". These include those who committed genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

Hopefully, both the AU PSC and the UN Security Council will urgently consider the request of the Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi to declare and act against Palipehutu-FNL as a Terrorist Organisation. Similarly, the International Criminal Court should investigate the Gatumba massacre and prosecute those responsible for this high crime.

These institutions, the one African, and the others global in their jurisdiction, must act on the recommendation to punish those responsible for the Gatumba massacre. They must also act to give hope to our youth and the youth of Africa that the generations that currently have the privilege to determine the future of our country, our continent and the world are truly determined to hand over to all future generations a continent at peace with itself.

They have to apprehend and neutralise the negative forces, including the mercenaries, which think that they can derive some benefit from the death of the innocents. They have a responsibility to contribute to the great efforts of the African masses to create the space and the conditions for them to build a better and humane life for themselves.

Members of the ANC Youth League are meeting and will continue to meet at Nasrec to discuss what they should do to build that better and humane life for our youth and people, as well as the youth and people of our continent, the African Diaspora and the rest of the world.

The challenges they face are not different from the challenges that face all of us as a people. They confront the challenge to make their own contribution to the further entrenchment and consolidation of democracy in our country, to ensure that we remain loyal to the injunction that the people shall govern.

They have a responsibility to participate in the process of giving life and meaning to our commitment to the people's contract to create jobs, fight and eradicate poverty and create a better life for all.

They have a task to help ensure that we build a truly non-racial and non-sexist society. As a token of their seriousness in this regard, the ANC youth ensured equal representation of men and women in the composition of the branch delegations at their National Congress. In this regard, they have given a lead to their own mother organisation, the ANC, and the rest of our country's democratic movement.

The National Congress of the Youth League will also make yet another important contribution to the national effort to construct the new South Africa by indicating what our country should do to address the challenges of the upliftment and empowerment of our youth. Our movement and government will have to pay close attention to these decisions and ensure that we respond to the aspirations and views of our youth in a serious, meaningful and practical manner.

Almost 60 years ago, in September 1944, shortly after the establishment of the Youth League, the newspaper, 'Bantu World', published an article entitled "Congress on the March", written by one of the great heroes of our struggle and the first President of the ANC Youth League, Anton Lembede. He said:

"The African National Congress is a fundamental feature of a stage in the evolutionary process of the African people - a stage when the Africans have become conscious of their glorious past, of their fierce present-day struggle for survival and of the great role they can play in, and the substantial contribution they can make to the progress of mankind in the future. This is the African Spirit - the spirit which is being interpreted and applied by the ANC."

All those privileged to observe the 22nd National Congress of the ANC Youth League at work will not hesitate to confirm what Anton Lembede said, that in our youth we have a new generation that will make a substantial contribution to the progress of humankind in the future. Long live the Young Lions of the African Century!

Youth League Congress I

'Raise the level of struggle'

The 22nd National Congress of the ANC Youth League opened in Johannesburg on Thursday with a call by outgoing league president Malusi Gigaba for the organisation to raise the level of the struggle to a new and higher level.

The congress, in which around 4,000 delegates are participating, is taking place at the same time as the organisation celebrates the 60th anniversary of its formation in 1944.

In his political report to the congress, Gigaba said: "Our 60th anniversary is thus a moment to step up gear, to raise the level of the struggle to a new and higher level, to do things in a different way."

"The Congress must demonstrate this need for change, embracing new forms of organisation, ideas and programmes, whilst continuing, in the new period, to pursue the goals we set sixty years ago."

"During this phase, we must spread the roots and influence of the organisation further among the youth and our people as a whole, especially among the younger generations, and strengthen its basic units, the branches, as they take charge and carry the burden of the political mobilisation, organisation and education of the youth and to champion their socio-economic development and empowerment," he said.

Gigaba called on delegates to "spend less time on rhetoric and pie-in-the-sky ideas" and concentrate more on practical ideas and programmes that respond to the expectations of the youth. When meeting in commissions, congress delegates should focus on local actions that engage provincial and local governments, and the private sector, in efforts to economically empower youth.

"It is our ongoing task to wage an unrelenting struggle for youth development and empowerment," he said.

Much of the organisational work of the league over the three years since its last congress has focused on the re-alignment of its branches and the political renewal of its structures. This emphasis on building the branches of the league needs to continue if the organisation is to meet its objectives.

"It is in branches that all young people forge their first political and organisational consciousness and experience, where activists are grinded into cadres and cadres developed into leaders, both for our movement and our country.

"This means turning our branches into catalysts for youth political activism and socio-economic empowerment. The Youth League branch must be a reference point for the youth in local communities, which summons them into action to wage political and socio-economic struggles. It must impart on them the political and organisational experiences they desperately require in order better to become activists for reconstruction and development," Gigaba said.

As an organised body of opinion with the ANC, and a mass political youth organ of the ANC, the broad role of the Youth League, Gigaba said, was to provide young people with an organisation of their own wherein, while remaining within the fold of the ANC, they would forge independent political and organisational experiences in order to be ready, when their time comes, to lead the ANC and in fact society itself. The league also needed to imbue the ANC with fresh ideas, with political dynamism and organisational vibrancy; defend and advance the unity and integrity of the ANC; and provide a platform for debate among the youth of all the challenges and problems facing South Africa, Africa and the world.

Gigaba warned against behaviour which weakened the organisation and undermined the confidence of the youth in the league and the ANC: "We have rejected the falsehood that to mouth slogans and rhetoric or to wear a revolutionary looking t-shirt and cap defines a person as militant."

He said there were those within the youth league and ANC who appeared to believe that they must use their ANC membership to gain access to material gain, "in pursuit of which they divide and corrupt the movement and its cadres, using material incentives to take advantage of the plight of many young people".

The changes in the country over the last ten years have placed a particular responsibility on the youth: "Democracy means that the youth must bear the principal responsibility for the people's struggle for total liberation and upliftment; they must be at the forefront of efforts to resolve all the problems facing our people."

"They must carry the hopes of the nation and be responsible in the execution of the struggle, always being available to provide ever-lasting solutions to the vexing problems our people face."

As the leading organisation of South African youth, the ANC Youth League similarly has a critical role to play in the struggle for liberation and development. "The masses of the youth continue to trust that we are their political home, the custodian and champion of their political and socio-economic interests, and they trust that the ANC Youth League will not mislead them."

"We cannot afford to fail these youth, and neither can we fail our movement that expects that we will continue to discharge our responsibilities as the foot-soldiers of the revolution," Gigaba said.

Youth League Congress II

Youth called upon to seize the opportunities of democracy

Delegates to the ANC Youth League's national congress, currently underway in Johannesburg, will be calling on the young people of South Africa to take advantage of the opportunities brought about by democracy.

Meeting under the theme of 'Seizing the opportunities of democracy to confront the future', the national congress is the highest decision-making body of the league, which has the power to make policies and decide on programmes of the ANC Youth League and elect the National Executive Committee. The congress takes place during the year in which the Youth League is celebrating 60 years of its existence, making it the oldest youth movement on the African continent.

Delegates to the congress are deliberating on a number of critical issues facing the organisation, the youth and the country more broadly. This follows a period of discussion within Youth League branches and structures of a number of discussion documents aimed at guiding and stimulating debate prior to the adoption of resolutions at congress.

These discussion documents, while acknowledging the major strides made in putting the youth agenda at the centre of the country's development, highlight a number of challenges that still remain. The documents propose a number of approaches in addressing these challenges. These approaches will debated by delegates over the course of the weekend.

Among the issues covered in the documents is the question of youth and social transformation. In order to deal with the serious levels of poverty experienced by the majority of South Africans, various interventions are being explored and implemented at a government level. Even though there has been a drastic increase in those accessing the grants and social services, there are still serious shortcomings, the documents argue. They suggest the ANC Youth League should therefore look at advocating and lobbying for the gradual expansion of the Child Support Grant to cover children up to the age of 18. It should also develop a national campaign aimed at young parents, especially young fathers, to take responsibility for maintaining their children.

On the question of economic and social integration, the documents propose the launch of dedicated community youth enterprises or co-operatives from 2005 as part of the broader poverty alleviation initiatives, and income generating strategies in all 284 municipalities in the country.

They note that HIV and AIDS remains a serious challenge to South Africa's youth: "We need to increase the support for NGOs that work in combating the spread of this pandemic among the youth. The Youth League should continue its efforts for voluntary testing, awareness, providing support and care for those infected and affected in order to halve the number of new infections by 2010."

Delegates will also be focusing on the work and effectiveness of bodies like the National Youth Commission, Umsobomvu Youth Fund and South African Youth Council. The congress will therefore look at a range of options and answer incisive questions about the role and function of these institutions in advancing youth emancipation. One of the key options suggested in the discussion documents is the merger of Umsobomvu Youth Fund and the National Youth Commission into a single youth development agency with broader and clearer mandates. Such an agency could then focus on youth policy formulation, research as well as effective programme implementation. Such an agency should also be able to eliminate confusion about roles, tensions and competition and improve overall political impact and influence on other sectors and stakeholders, the documents argue.

The congress will also explore the possibility of merging the financing functions of various lending institutions such as Khula, Umsobomvu, Nations Trust into a single entity such as a National Cooperative Bank. The National Student Finance Assistance Scheme will come under scrutiny with a view to improve access to student access for all youth.

Delegates will be considering proposals that young people should play a lead role in the implementation of the Expanded Public Works Programme, and 30 percent of its budget should target youth, particularly rural youth. Another proposal being discussed is that government should consider the establishment of a state financing house which will be part of the broad empowerment strategy. Such a financing house would be positioned to compete with commercial banks and aimed at empowering blacks, youth, women and people with disabilities.

The congress will also be considering the state of organisation of the Youth League, and specifically the lessons learnt by the recent re-alignment process. In his organisational report, Youth League Secretary General Fikile Mbalula told delegates the re-alignment process taught league members valuable lessons about organising youth; helped modernise the organisation; and exposed youth league members to the various communities and sectors in which they need to work.

"Through the re-alignment process, we have assembled a trusted army of young revolutionary democrats of which it becomes thereafter the task of the ANC to socialise them in the culture and tradition of the movement," he said.

There are however a number of areas in which the league remains weak. Because the organisation does not organise in the workplace, it has not been able to reliably measure success in organising working youth. It has also not been able to make much progress in organising youth from minority communities, particularly white youth. There has however been much progress in recruiting young women into Youth League branches. The challenge, Mbalula notes, is to address the issue of women in leadership positions and broader gender transformation.

Mbalula said a particular challenge for the youth league is to equip the youth to participate meaningfully in economic development: "As an organisation we must not fail to make sure the enabling environment is created to ensure our youth acquire economic skills as well as real economic opportunities."

More Information:

• ANC Youth League

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