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Rebone Tau
I was shocked to come across an article online on Business Day of 3 May 2017, in which President Collen Maine of the ANC Youth League is quoted to have said among other things:
“We are going to boo Ramaphosa back and it won’t be nice. We are going to make life difficult for him. We are going to boo him in an ANC meeting before we boo in a rally.”
What is potentially interesting here is who he means by ‘we’. Is he saying he will stand up alone in ANC NEC or NWC meetings and boo Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa? President Maine forgets how he was booed at an ANCYL rally as the newly elected president of the ANCYL in 2015 in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria at the Giant Stadium.
President Maine seems not to follow developments in the country. Cosatu has made it well known that it no longer has faith and confidence in President Zuma. Three unions were clear that they don’t want President Zuma to address the May Day rally, and the letters pertaining were widely circulated on social and other media platforms.
So, when the workers boo President Zuma, how does he now blame Deputy President Ramaphosa? President Maine should go and ask President Sdumo Dlamini why President Zuma was booed and stop being dramatic and think that he has monopoly over anarchy.
Currently the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) does not have a board, we have not heard him speak on the issue. The NYDA board is appointed by the president. We know that Parliament approved a list of seven names and submitted it to the president. President Collen Maine will never ask, “When is President Zuma appointing the NYDA board?”
President Maine seems to not care when it comes to issues of youth development. We don’t know his views on issues that should build the country. We don’t hear him speaking on ways to find lasting solutions to challenges facing the youth of South Africa. Education is very expensive for students. Education is colonial. We have not seen him marching with students on the issue of free decolonised education.
Youth unemployment is another challenge that the president of the ANCYL should be tackling. We can’t have so many young people unemployed in this country. He must give himself time to drive around the townships in Gauteng or any other province and even go to the rural areas and get a real sense of the struggles of young people.
The voice of the Youth League is deafeningly silent. It and he seem to speak only when it’s their turn to defend President Zuma or insult people in the name of defending President Zuma. He seems to have forgotten that he is not the President of President Zuma but that he is the President of the ANCYL. He should be talking on matters affecting young people.
Aluta Continua.
- Rebone Tau is a former member of the ANCYL's national task team. She writes in her personal capacity.
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