Viewpoint | by Bandile Masuku Towards the ANCYL 25th National Congress:Strategic Questions on ‘Rebuilding’ and Radical Economic Transformation Viewpoint by Bandile MasukuThe ANCYL is going towards its 25th National Congress that is scheduled to take place from 24-28 September 2014. The last time the ANCYL held a national congress was 3 years ago, in 2011. This suggests that the constitutional 3 years for which an NEC is elected into office has lapsed and the organisations is constitutionally due for its congress. However, the 25th National Congress will convene under special circumstances with that congress being convened by a National Task Team and not the NEC elected at the 24th National Congress. This owes to the inordinate decision of the ANC NEC in 2013to disband the NEC of the ANCYL for having been responsible for the collapse of organisational systems, purging of dissenting views, institutionalizing factionalism and conducting itself in an oppositional manner to the ANC. Thus, the discussion documents to the 25th National Congress have at their core the task of engineering organisational debates that will grapple with the present situation. We have structured them to provide reflections on the long-term political connotations that the decision of the ANC has for the ANCYL going into the future. Another curious question that must be engaged is whether or not the disbandment of the ANCYL took place because of the exceptional role of individuals or that it was an explosive revelation of existential tensions that have always constituted the relationship between the ANC and the ANCYL. The discussion document titled ‘The Nature, Character and Role of the ANCYL’ attempts to break the ice on the questions outlined above. It revisits the very concept of the ANCYL and locates it within the general framework of how youth formations emerge in history and the seemingly tension-ridden relationship that naturally exists between different generations existing within the same political space. It also traces the history of two strong theoretical strands that have always battled out to define the permits and limits of the autonomous relationship of the ANCYL to its parent organisation, the ANC. Contained in that discussion document, and three other documents that complement it, is also a critique of the organisational systems of the ANC and its leagues. This critique suggests that some of the degenerate practices, organisational weaknesses and political tensions that eventually the ANCYL are actually borne of organisational systems that were evolved in a different era and are incapable of sustaining the organisation within the demands of the present political environment. At the same time we recognize that the ANCYL is a political organisation that is obliged to discharge strategic political programmes of social transformation. The 24thNational Congress summarized all of these programmes under the theme of Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime. In the discussion document titled ‘The NDR and Social Transformation’, we outline the strategic perspectives of the ANCYL on matters of social and economic transformation. It proceeds to initiate a discussion on a systematic policy platform that will unbundle the slogans that the 24thNational Congress adopted. The reader will quickly notice that the document in question is unlike the usual social transformation documents that recent congresses have interfaced with. This edition locates social transformation within the broad narrative of the National Democratic Revolution and infuses economic and political choices that should be made that would serve as catalysts for a progressive wave of social transformation. Amongst other things, we reiterate our stance on the nationalization of mines and proceed to state the case that this is critical as part of acquiring the industrial inputs necessary for initiating the much needed reindustrialization of our economy. We also make an argument for the establishment of a State Bank. Because of its organisational infrastructure, its proximity to the masses of our people, the Post Bank becomes an ideal institution to be transformed towards this State Bank. This is a critical pillar of the agrarian and land reform strategy that the ANCYL is proposing. Access to cheap credit and ‘incubatory markets’, using the state is crucial in developing a broad class of black industrialists, commercial farmers and traders. In the ‘political and economic transformation’ cluster we also have two documents that deal with ‘Gender Relations and women empowerment’ and ‘Youth Development’. The paper on the transformation of gender relations reflects on the progress made in these 20years of democracy. Its central thrust is a critique of the nature of the progress made; suggesting that whilst institutional laws have been progressive they continue to be punctuated by a regressive social culture that undermines women’s rights and emancipation. The increased frequency of cases of rape,murder and general violence against women bears testimony to the contradictory discourses between the enactment of progressive legislation and the cultural inertia of society against this progressive value system envisioned by law. Similarly, the transformation of economic relations within the context of transformed gender relations has had challenges. Like it is with BEE, the transformation of the ownership of industrial assets is seemingly limited to equity schemes. There is a huge deficit with respect to the access to industrial finance by women. Young women are greatly affected by these rigid parameters of transformation. An internal critique of cultural discourses within the ANC also arises. 20 years into democracy the ANC has not had a female provincial chairperson. Even at a regional level there are very few instances where women have been political heads. Although the ANC has a progressive political tradition of gender empowerment, with a constitution that prescribes the election of not less than50% of females, there seems to be a resilience of a masculine undertone of power notions. The question then is asked if it is unimaginable for the 2015 ANC NGC to debate a constitutional amendment to that will enforce the election of in one of the two positions of Chairperson and Secretary. This does not discount the principle of collective leadership but raises the point of how some senior positions seem to be dominated by masculine notions of power. The ANCYL for awhile enjoyed significant dominance on our public discourse. The organisational challenges that emerged recently have affected this hegemony. Our discussion document on Communications and the Battle of Ideas analyses the modern communications platform in South Africa and the ideological tendencies that play themselves out in that space. This it does with an intention of affording our members an opportunity to conduct self-reflections on what exactly should the organisation do to properly navigate this terrain and accrue advantage to the movement. Recent events in Africa have necessitated a self-critical discourse about the extent to which the continent, marshaled by its leadership, and through its institutions of political and economic cooperation, has succeeded in achieving its rebirth. The central conversation surrounding the so-called ‘African agenda’ is about building the capacity of the continent to be truly free of external control;harnessing its political and economic capital to achieve the total liberation of her people and the setting in motion of a renaissance project that would achieve the economic emancipation of all Africans. How far have we gone in this regard; is up for discussion. It is our hope that the road to the National Congress will now be steeped in the culture of rigorous ideological and intellectual reflections, forcing each one of us to ask the necessary questions to ask, as a commitment to enriching the political life of the ANCYL. >> Dr Bandile Masuku is the ANCYL Head of Policy & Communications.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 13:25:44 +0000
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