The youth in South Africa need to stop fighting their leaders’ battles, DA national spokesman Mmusi Maimane said on Thursday. “We have a new South Africa led by old South Africans with old South African thinking,” Maimane said in Johannesburg. “We need to look at what are we mobilising the youth to do.”
He said it was concerning when young people stood up and said they would kill for their leaders, and called to make provinces ungovernable. Former ANCYL leader Julius Malema said in 2008 that he was prepared to “take up arms and kill for [President Jacob] Zuma”. The league recently said it intended making the Western Cape ungovernable.
Maimane was speaking at a debate, hosted by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, between the Democratic Alliance, the Young Communist League of SA, and the ANC Youth League, about youth participation and mobilisation.
YCLSA national chairman Yershen Pillay said the country’s youth needed bold and radical policy decisions. “We need less dependence on the State if we are going to drive change.” This was why the proposed youth wage subsidy would not work. “It doesn’t adequately respond to... the unemployment we face.” Pillay said the youth subsidy served the interest of business rather than the youth, and did not consider the education and skills gap. The YCLSA was proposing a medium-term, and a long-term plan for 2050. This included investment in co-operative development. “We need to give young people a chance,” said Pillay. “There needs to be a cultural change, make education fashionable.” He said the youth needed education and skills development, access to information, and entrepreneurship development. “You have a melting pot of interventions. A culture of service needs to replace a culture of entitlement,” said Pillay.
The ANCYL’s Vuyo Roji said there were people in South Africa who wanted the economic status quo to stay the same. “There are enemies,” he said. On the National Development Plan tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, Roji said the ANCYL did not believe a “political elite” could solve the problems. “We don’t think academics can sit in a corner and tell us what we need to do.” The ANCYL’s vision was to have an economy which eliminated poverty. He said the youth league still believed in nationalising strategic sectors of the economy, expropriation of land without compensation, and free education. Youth leaders needed to provide leadership. “They must be able to persuade and be persuaded,” he said.
Source: Sowetan
Showing posts with label Yershen Pillay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yershen Pillay. Show all posts
Friday, August 17, 2012
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Manamela re-elected at violent YCL congress
Young Communist League's Buti Manamela was on Saturday re-elected unopposed as the organisation's national secretary. Manamela survived the much talked about contest for the position at a chaotic and violent congress of the South African Communist Party's youth wing.
Four delegates from Mpumalanga were taken to hospital after they were injured by chairs allegedly thrown by disgruntled KwaZulu-Natal delegates. They supported Khaye Nkwanyane, the former deputy general secretary who was contesting Manamela for the national secretary position. KwaZulu-Natal is his home province.
Police fired teargas inside the Great Hall of the University of the North West's Mafikeng campus to disperse the violent crowd. On Saturday the congress was dominated by disagreements ranging from credentials to electoral rules. The Mail & Guardian had earlier learnt from delegates close to the process that the outgoing national committee had reached a deal whereby Manamela would retain his national secretary position and Nkwanyane would be guaranteed the national chairperson position in the name of "unity and ensuring that this process goes on".
The newly-elected top five leadership of the YCL are:
* Chairperson: Yershen Pillay
* Deputy chairperson: Mawethu Rune
* Treasurer: Joyce Tsipa
* National Secretary: Buti Manamela
* Deputy Secretary: Mike Mofutsane
A delegate from KwaZulu-Natal told the M&G that the province appreciated the contribution that Manamela made to the YCL, but did not want him to serve another term in office. "We are the ones who went to Polokwane and said Thabo Mbeki should not serve the third time. Why should we now allow it in the YCL?" asked the delegate. "He has served his time. We cannot reduce the organisation to one person". Aggrieved delegates said that Manamela and his supporters "stole" the conference. "They told us that we are breaking for dinner and once some people left the hall they decided to continue with the nominations," said a delegate from Limpopo.
The congress was so chaotic that delegates did not break into commissions, which normally discuss the state of the organisation and constitutional amendments should they be needed. It was expected that the YCL's Mafikeng congress would amend the constitution to allow Manamela to serve as both an ANC MP and the young communists' national secretary without being full-time at the SACP's head office. "Nothing was done since Thursday," a delegate from KwaZulu-Natal said, who added that the province would not recognize the leadership elected on Saturday. He and other delegates, who were outside the congress venue, were prevented from entering the hall by armed police who stood guard after calm was restored. "There is YCL BM (Young Communist League Buti Manamela) inside that hall and then there is YCL SA (Young Communist League South Africa) outside," the angry delegate said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Four delegates from Mpumalanga were taken to hospital after they were injured by chairs allegedly thrown by disgruntled KwaZulu-Natal delegates. They supported Khaye Nkwanyane, the former deputy general secretary who was contesting Manamela for the national secretary position. KwaZulu-Natal is his home province.
Police fired teargas inside the Great Hall of the University of the North West's Mafikeng campus to disperse the violent crowd. On Saturday the congress was dominated by disagreements ranging from credentials to electoral rules. The Mail & Guardian had earlier learnt from delegates close to the process that the outgoing national committee had reached a deal whereby Manamela would retain his national secretary position and Nkwanyane would be guaranteed the national chairperson position in the name of "unity and ensuring that this process goes on".
The newly-elected top five leadership of the YCL are:
* Chairperson: Yershen Pillay
* Deputy chairperson: Mawethu Rune
* Treasurer: Joyce Tsipa
* National Secretary: Buti Manamela
* Deputy Secretary: Mike Mofutsane
A delegate from KwaZulu-Natal told the M&G that the province appreciated the contribution that Manamela made to the YCL, but did not want him to serve another term in office. "We are the ones who went to Polokwane and said Thabo Mbeki should not serve the third time. Why should we now allow it in the YCL?" asked the delegate. "He has served his time. We cannot reduce the organisation to one person". Aggrieved delegates said that Manamela and his supporters "stole" the conference. "They told us that we are breaking for dinner and once some people left the hall they decided to continue with the nominations," said a delegate from Limpopo.
The congress was so chaotic that delegates did not break into commissions, which normally discuss the state of the organisation and constitutional amendments should they be needed. It was expected that the YCL's Mafikeng congress would amend the constitution to allow Manamela to serve as both an ANC MP and the young communists' national secretary without being full-time at the SACP's head office. "Nothing was done since Thursday," a delegate from KwaZulu-Natal said, who added that the province would not recognize the leadership elected on Saturday. He and other delegates, who were outside the congress venue, were prevented from entering the hall by armed police who stood guard after calm was restored. "There is YCL BM (Young Communist League Buti Manamela) inside that hall and then there is YCL SA (Young Communist League South Africa) outside," the angry delegate said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
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