New leaders at helm of ANC Youth League in Dr W B Rubusana region
THE ANC Youth League in Dr WB Rubusana region elected a new leadership last weekend, which has vowed to place young people in the region at the centre of development.
The conference elected Luvo John as chairman and Maliviwe Bata as his deputy; Desmond Davis as secretary and Lubabalo Mati his deputy, and Xoliswa Sopazi as treasurer.
Their election will play a big role when the league holds its national elective conference later this year. Davis said yesterday the regional conference had no clear position on who to support to lead the region and was engaging other regions and provinces on who to nominate for the national election. However, the league is clear that it will support the current national executive committee member of the young lions, Mbasa Satyi, as provincial chairman in the Eastern Cape.
“The WB Rubusana region will therefore be engaging and lobbying other regions in the province to ensure that this triedand-tested comrade will be the custodian of our best wishes and hopes for this province’s young people,” Davis said.
ANCYL members should be mindful that, to unlock the potential in Buffalo City Metro and have the voice of the youth taken seriously, young people would have to unite behind advancing youth development.
“The ANCYL will lead a series of engagements with the various chapters of the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) structures within the region and convene a PYA summit to rebuild its structures, redress the impasse that saw Sasco losing the University of Fort Hare to opposition groups, and roll out programmes towards the national elections in 2019,” he said.
Unity within the PYA would be pivotal in ensuring the electoral success of the ANC in the upcoming general election, he said.
He lambasted the decision by some ANCYL students to stand in the SRC elections. “It can never be acceptable to go against our own national congress resolutions, which clearly state that the only organisation that is permitted to contest SRC elections within institutions of higher learning within the PYA is Sasco.
“No matter what the ideological differences at a certain time, the youth league must remain the leader of the PYA and do so by example,” Davis said.
The road ahead to “reclaim the ANC from the clutches of those who view the party as a tool to accumulate private wealth” would not be easy.
“Our duty is to liberate the young people of the region even if those views make us unpopular.
“If we are to succeed as a collective we will do so through repositioning the centre of the ANC in the region to be youth focused,” Davis said. —