The Media Statement of YCLSA-KZN Province on the outcome of the Provincial Lekgotla

2 March 2010

Introduction

The Young Communist League in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal had a successful two day Provincial Executive Committee Legkotla, from the 27-28 February 2010. It was attended by the Provincial Executive Committee Members and extended to our District Leadership. The Legkotla received a political report, organisational report and the report from the Provincial Treasury. In addition to this there were presentations on the land redistribution Programme, National Lekgotla POA and the state of the Province address.

We are inspired by the level of organisational growth, which is both qualitatively and quantitatively impressive. Our legkotla was held in honour of Mzala Nxumalo an organic intellectual, who dedicated his life to the cause of struggle for working class emancipation. We declared in his respect that as the YCLSA in KZN as long as there are young people who sleep without supper, young people who remain excluded from the “court of privilege” by the elite tenderpreneurs, if education is still a privilege for sons and daughters of cigar smoking elites, as long as young people drown in the pool of unemployment and die from preventable diseases, there will always be a reason for us to struggle.

We had met under a difficult period in the history of our revolution, the period where all that matters is just empty rhetoric disguised as revolutionary radicalism. We have noted this zeal-so misleading as it appeared- that when young people remain eager to know about the history of our struggle and pre-occupied by a single question on WHAT REALY WENT WRONG? WHY ARE WE ENGULFED WITH SUCH HIGH LEVELS OF YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT POST-1994? They can be fascinated by revolutionaries in words, who while looting from the very same poor people; they at the same time present themselves as the genuine representatives of the people and become more communist than the communist Party itself.

Noting this politically polluted environment the PEC Legkogla discussed the following issues as they stand.

The PEC Legkotla resolved from Political report.

• That the book by Mzala Nobleman Nxumalo titled ‘Gatsha Buthelezi, the Chief with a double agenda`, should be made available in all South African libraries. This is informed by the understanding that any Democracy must be informed by different ideologies; our young people must draw conclusions upon the total information they received. The material conditions upon which the court prohibited the book from our libraries were perhaps conducive for such determination, but under democracy our young people can not be fed with propaganda, the dirty side of history must be told, and that is at a particular point in the historical epoch: Gatsha Buthelezi betrayed the African cause and such must be known by all and sundry. The book by Mzala must therefore be seen and admitted as a catalyst in unmasking the truth about the history of our liberation struggle.

• That elementary elements of nepotism that seem to be alleged in the Office of the Premier (KZN) should be investigated so as to remove the clouds hanging around the head of the premier himself, parallel to this it has been reported that his daughter was awarded with a tender amounting Millions while rumours held it that his wife had also benefited on government tenders: this is not about wrongness or correctness of the act, it is about revolutionary morality and our quest to close a gap between the poor and the rich. The investigation of the Premiers` family will assist in vindicating the Premier from any unnecessary allegations that might emanate within the context of what is normally termed as conflict of interests, we are also aware of allegation of the Premier`s wife getting tenders on government Department where the Premier has the leverage, this is an insult to the poor and the workers of the country who struggle to put bread on top of the table while the leadership and its family are made millionaires at the expense of the poor and the workers. We are of the belief that this (if proven correct) will be an insult to the working class, and will mean a vote of no confidence to the Premier.

• That the state of the nation address by the president of the country, J G Zuma, our president, should be welcomed but indeed with reservations especially when it appeared that the president wrongfully referred to Pik W Botha as one of our own, and the architect of our Freedom. Let it be known by all South Africans that Pik W Botha is the number one enemy of the struggle, a political animal that stood at the mountain in defence of the system that dehumanised our people, he deserves no praises; the history of our country must not be falsely presented. Our memory should not be submitted to the colonial and capitalist centre of remembrance. Our memory should not be stolen by our adversaries to an extent that we even forget who we are, as a result of what they wanted us to be. Botha is the force of boom, and if he can be compared currently we can only comparer him with Helen Zille of Cape Town, the voice of white supremacy in South Africa under new conditions.

• The lekgotla was also puzzled by the level of contention by the Democratic Alliance with regards to the plight of the poor. The DA seems to project itself as the champion of the poor. To this effect there are few questions that are to be posed to this by-product of the apartheid regime. First; currently the South African commercial land is overwhelmingly in the hands of foreign white capitalists. Why is the DA so quite on this question and by so doing they endorse white billionaires and trillionaires while dismissive of affirmative action and BBEE? Its double-standard tactics show that the DA is not only yearning for the past it belongs to it.

• The Lekogtla also expressed gratification and congratulates NEHAWU Branch in the Department of Transport KZN (HO) on it victorious struggle against labour Brokers. We believe that labour brokers are the worse form of new slavery and we vow to continue campaigning for their complete ban.

• The Lekogtla also express anger over the abuse of state resources in the Province of KwaZulu Natal over a so called opening of Parliament which had been turned into a Fashion show extravaganza while our masses have been reduced to spectators. While we see a need for the Premiers state`s of the Province address, we are perplexed by the detested and meaningless Kings Address that seeks to promote him as an individual (he wants his pictures everywhere) and his huge budget is also worrisome. People who do not wake up in the morning and have never been employed had been turned into milliners by virtue of their so called hereditary position; this must come to an end.

The brief POA Programme.

Following the adoption of the National Lekogtla POA ours as the Province was to discuss the implementation of the National Programme, in our Province and we resolved as follows in that regard.

1. The Youth and Economy

The Young Communist League in the Province of KwaZulu Natal will convene the ‘YOUTH FOR JOBS SUMMIT` in April on the 27th.. This will coincide with the freedom day. Our intention is to use the summit to mobilise young people in a dialogue that will seek to map a way forward. This is also in line with our historical understanding that ‘people are their own liberators` and ‘Nothing about us without us`; It us as young people who are unemployed, it us also who must come out with solutions in this regard.3.4 million Young people across the country are unemployed and thus account for high levels of crime.

2. Nationalisation

The Province of KwaZulu Natal as it is a case elsewhere, support the understanding that the means of production must be transferred to the hands of the majority and not just the State. This is informed by many historical examples of State Capitalism; South Africa also comes from this historical catastrophe, where white monopoly Capital was able to strengthen their hold on state power for the benefit of minority. We are saying any form of Nationalisation that does not serve as a driving force to the socialisation of means of production is useless.

Other than mines, SASOL, MITTAL STEEL, Reserve Bank and other commanding heights of the economy must be placed under the hands of people.

3. Corruption

The Provincial Lekgotla also supports unapologetically the SACP`s anti-corruption campaign. We call all government Departments to heed to this call in defence of the revolution. Our greatest challenge at this epoch of our revolution is money that is used on congresses to buy delegate and leadership positions for some leaders. This money may be accumulated through corrupt means, in this regard all patriotic forces and democrats who truly love our land are to day invited to join hands with the Party so as to eliminate this threat to the National Democratic Revolution and our Socialist cause.

4. Social Transformation

The Provincial Lekgotla agreed that we need to make a submission to the Portfolio Committee on Health and Social Development in the KwaZulu Natal regarding our Campaign for Free Sanitary Towels for Young Women.

We are persuaded by the reality that most of young girls in schools and rural areas are subjected to long distance travelling to buy these expensive items. This is undermining the need to make our people feel dignified on issues which their pockets are too short to address. By doing so, the government will be extending its core function of building a developmental state.

In our struggle for Free Education, we will fight for a transparency in the allocation bursaries to deserving young people in order to Make Education Fashionable and opening the “doors of learning”. This is however advocated in the ANC manifesto which the YCL carried along during the 2009 elections campaigns work. In that we said we will deliver the Youth Vote for the ANC and we did, we must now deliver Free Education. THERE IS ALSO A NEED FOR ALL MEC`s AND MINISTERS OF BOTH HIGHER AND BASIC EDUCATION INCLUDING ALL TEACHERS TO PUT THEIR CHILDREN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, SO AS TO RESTORE CONFIDENCE IN THESE INSTITUTIONS.

During the elections we assisted through our Kabelo Thibedi Campaign ID Campaign more than 40 000 people in the country and thousands in the Province young and old to acquire Identity Documents (ID).We commit to continue with our campaign and aim to assist more than 10 000 young and old people this year to have ID`s.

We call for the provision of Free and Compulsory Circumcision for Young Boys and Universal Access to both Male and Female Condoms as a programme to halve the level of infection of HIV/AIDS. As the YCL KZN we advocated this position in the ANC Provincial Lekgotla earlier this year.

For more details contact
Mafika Mndebele, Provincial Spokesperson (YCL-SA KZN Province)
073-5745953