Youth league talks tough

BIG POOL: WE ARE WILLING TO STEP IN AND SERVE, SAYS ANCYL LEADER Cyril told to fasttrack employment, fire incompetent officials.

ANC Youth League leader Collen Malatji has taken a swipe at former ANC members who left the party to start their own “Mickey Mouse organisations”, saying they’re taking advantage of people’s suffering.

Malatji addressed a youth engagement session with President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Communion Church in Mbombela yesterday, ahead of the party’s 112th birthday celebration tomorrow.

He called on Ramaphosa to fast-track job creation for young people and said former ANC members who started their own parties were using the issue to lure voters.

“We know after we have resolved these issues, these Mickey Mouse organisations led by criminals will not have voters because people will know it’s only the ANC that will resolve their problems,” said Malatji.

“Everyone who’s a criminal and kicked out of the ANC, when they’re bored with their wives, children and families, the first thing they think of is to form a political party, go to parliament and reverse the gains of freedom.

“Our people will no longer be used by opportunists who take advantage of the issues in our country.

“Even those who hate the people of South Africa now claim to have the solutions for our country.

“You can’t be kicked out as a criminal and somehow become clean when you have your own party, when people told us they don’t vote for ANC because it is associated with corruption.

“When we act on corruption, people form their political parties and say now they’re clean. Since when?”

Malatji also called on Ramaphosa to fire government officials who were not doing their jobs, saying South Africa’s youth was available and ready to serve.

Following the presentations of several young people who benefitted from government programmes, Malatji said it was clear that the past 30 years of an ancled government were not “wasted years”.

“It can’t be that we’re the ones who are given donations by countries that have nothing. It must be us who give them donations.

“Africans should no longer be a charity case to Europeans, people that have nothing, who use our raw materials to build their economies and later say Africa is poor, and give us food, after using our raw materials to build their economies,” said Malatji.

“Enough is enough. Young people want to partake in the economic activities of their own country.

“It is not normal for a minority to carry the majority, it should be the other way round.

“We can’t have Eskom collapsing due to engineers retiring, while we also have unemployed engineers. Hire these young engineers to solve our problems.

“We cannot have a shortage of doctors when we have unemployed doctors.”

He told Ramaphosa not to handle lazy government officials with kid gloves.

“Tell everyone that if they don’t want to work, you have an army of young people who are ready to be DGs [directors-general], directors and engineers.

“You are not desperate for people who don’t want to work. Don’t be scared to fire those who are sleeping on duty.

“There is enough manpower to resolve all those problems.”

You have an army of young people ready to be directorsgeneral, directors and engineers.

Collen Malatji ANC Youth League leader