ANC elders must quit youth structures

THE FRAGMENTED ANC Youth League and the existential duress of its structures are not products of chance, but a long process of discussion and action by ANC elders’ factional interests.

The ANC National Youth Task Team (NYTT) is led by comrades who are old enough to be the parents of its general membership. A movement, which was the repository of the intellectual brilliance of young people and youthful activist capital, has been reduced to an old-age home. President Peter Mokaba must be turning in his grave.

The ANCYL has been liquidated into an instrument that serves to defend the interests of ANC national leaders and facilitate the economic and social upward mobility of old comrades, who have pledged allegiance to the factional establishments but lack the political capital to find expression in the main politics of the ANC.

It is no surprise that on the basis of their common plight and struggle, ANCYL members have demanded that the ANC disband the youth task team. Branches of the ANCYL in the Eastern Cape have appointed a parallel provincial executive committee, constituted by their political peers, and are in solidarity with young people.

In an attempt to collapse old committees that carry no popular mandate, progressive old comrades are resigning. This is honourable. Young comrades who serve with old comrades must also submit their resignations.

More importantly, the ANC must disband the ANC NYTT and appoint a task team compromising members under the age of 32. Young people will not agree to be used as political weapons, at the expense of the ANCYL.

KATLEGO MAMABOLO | Johannesburg