YCLSA condemns malicious conduct of individuals attempting to pull stunts towards YCLSA National Congress
7 December 2010
The Young Communist League of South Africa vehemently condemns the unruly behaviour of ill disciplined individuals claiming to be YCL members, who are attempting to cause unnecessary tension in the movement. The Congress period unfortunately is inherently exciting for various reasons; at times bringing out unscrupulous characters from dark corners.
We have noted bogus statements and sms’es which are circulating around implicating names of comrades within the YCLSA.
We denounce this behaviour as it is foreign and will not be tolerated in the YCLSA. There are constitutional structures in place which permit members of the YCL to raise views and issues. However the YCLSA will not tolerate nonsensical conduct of people claiming to be part of the YCL who will rubbish and badmouth leaders and any other members of the YCLSA for that matter.
We urge members of the YCLSA to use the platform of the National Congress to constructively engage on the discussion documents which have been tabled and remain disciplined at all times.
Issued by the YCLSA Head office
Contact
Gugu Ndima
National Spokesperson
076 783 1516
Manamela re-elected at violent YCL congress
MMANALEDI MATABOGE | MAFIKENG, SOUTH AFRICA - Dec 12 2010 01:21
Young Communist League's Buti Manamela was on Saturday re-elected unopposed as the organisation's national secretary. Manamela survived the much talked about contest for the position at a chaotic and violent congress of the South African Communist Party's youth wing.
Four delegates from Mpumalanga were taken to hospital after they were injured by chairs allegedly thrown by disgruntled KwaZulu-Natal delegates. They supported Khaye Nkwanyane, the former deputy general secretary who was contesting Manamela for the national secretary position. KwaZulu-Natal is his home province.
Police fired teargas inside the Great Hall of the University of the North West's Mafikeng campus to disperse the violent crowd. On Saturday the congress was dominated by disagreements ranging from credentials to electoral rules. The Mail & Guardian had earlier learnt from delegates close to the process that the outgoing national committee had reached a deal whereby Manamela would retain his national secretary position and Nkwanyane would be guaranteed the national chairperson position in the name of "unity and ensuring that this process goes on".
The newly-elected top five leadership of the YCL are:
•Chairperson: Yershen Pillay
•Deputy chairperson: Mawethu Rune
•Treasurer: Joyce Tsipa
•National Secretary: Buti Manamela
•Deputy Secretary: Mike Mofutsane
A delegate from KwaZulu-Natal told the M&G that the province appreciated the contribution that Manamela made to the YCL, but did not want him to serve another term in office.
"We are the ones who went to Polokwane and said Thabo Mbeki should not serve the third time. Why should we now allow it in the YCL?" asked the delegate. "He has served his time. We cannot reduce the organisation to one person".
Aggrieved delegates said that Manamela and his supporters "stole" the conference.
"They told us that we are breaking for dinner and once some people left the hall they decided to continue with the nominations," said a delegate from Limpopo.
The congress was so chaotic that delegates did not break into commissions, which normally discuss the state of the organisation and constitutional amendments should they be needed.
It was expected that the YCL's Mafikeng congress would amend the constitution to allow Manamela to serve as both an ANC MP and the young communists' national secretary without being full-time at the SACP's head office.
"Nothing was done since Thursday," a delegate from KwaZulu-Natal said, who added that the province would not recognize the leadership elected on Saturday. He and other delegates, who were outside the congress venue, were prevented from entering the hall by armed police who stood guard after calm was restored.
"There is YCL BM (Young Communist League Buti Manamela) inside that hall and then there is YCL SA (Young Communist League South Africa) outside," the angry delegate said.
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-12-12-manamela-reelected-at-violent-ycl-congress
Vavi: SACP criticism 'informed by love'
MMANALEDI MATABOGE | MAFIKENG, SOUTH AFRICA - Dec 10 2010 19:55
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi apologised to the Young Communist League for tensions caused by the labour federation's call for the South African Communist Party's (SACP) chief Blade Nzimande to resign from government.
However the outspoken leader refused to apologise for making the call.
In his address to the YCL's 3rd national congress in Mafikeng, Vavi said Cosatu stood by its call for Nzimande's return to his full-time communist party position.
Nzimande serves as the Minister of Higher Education and Training in President Jacob Zuma's Cabinet, a position that critics say conflict with his role in the ruling alliance as General Secretary of the SACP.
"Yes Cosatu has made a number of statements that I know did not sit comfortably with many in the SACP, and I want to apologise for that in advance," said Vavi.
Vanguard of the workers
But he added that Cosatu would continue to raise the matter because the labour federation was worried that if the vanguard of the workers -- the SACP -- was weakened, the workers would also be weakened. "For that part we will not apologise to anyone".
Calling the SACP "our buddy" and "our political insurance" Vavi laid out the disadvantages of having full-time communist party leaders concentrating on government work and abandoning party duties.
"The absence of full-time officials, in particular at national and provincial levels in the SACP, will hamper the left's ability to carry through its programme of radical transformation of our society and for socialism. This is an honest view, dear comrades, informed by our love of the SACP not by any newly found hatred or disdain of the SACP".
Cosatu, and recently some of its affiliates, called for Nzimande to resign from his Cabinet position, saying the SACP needed a full-time leader based at its Braamfontein head office to continue building the party.
The YCL will elect new leaders at the December 10 - 12 conference, with the position of a national secretary heavily contested between current secretary Buti Manamela and his deputy Khaye Nkwanyane.
Organisational tension
Lobbying for the two hopefuls has created tension within the communist party youth, and delegates at the congress made their choices known through songs.
Vavi cautioned the YCL against divisions that could harm the organisation.
"There can be no celebrations of your weaknesses today, instead we mourn. A strong vanguard is a must-have if we are to increase the tempo of class struggle and build the momentum for socialism".
Vavi said despite some differences of opinion, Cosatu more than any other time needed the communist party. Cosatu knew that it would be weakened if it allowed differences between itself and its allies to grow, he said.
"A strong SACP and YCL are pillars upon which the progressive trade union movement rests. There is an umbilical cord running through the history of progressive and class conscious unionism in this country and the efforts and labour of the Communist Party".
Marxist-Leninist analysis
Vavi also praised the YCL for being "a breath of fresh air" since its re-establishment seven years ago.
"From the day you were re-launched, you have lived up to the challenge to bring in a breath of fresh air and a refreshing Marxist-Leninist analysis. You have radically transformed the landscape of youth politics," Vavi said.
Vavi said the YCL's current challenge is to reflect the youth's impatience with capitalism and all forms of oppression, which the Cosatu chief said is ten times what it was in 2003 when the YCL was re-launched. "We say this because young people continue to be at the receiving end of the persistence of the apartheid fault-lines and capitalist exploitation".
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-12-10-vavi-sacp-criticism-informed-by-love
Young commies split over Zuma
MMANALEDI MATABOGE | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Sep 10 2010 06:00
Attacks on President Jacob Zuma are continuing to polarise the Young Communist League.
The latest assault came from the YCL's national committee member and former national spokesperson, Castro Ngobese.
In a statement he sent to the Mail & Guardian this week, he warned against "liquidating the YCL into a Zuma Charmers' League".
Ngobese's statement follows YCL national chairperson David Masondo's opinion piece, which appeared in City Press last weekend. In it Masondo slammed Zuma for enabling his family members to score lucrative black economic empowerment deals, saying BEE was increasingly becoming "too narrow, amounting to ZEE, that is, Zuma Economic Empowerment".
On Monday the YCL issued a statement distancing itself from Masondo's views.
But Ngobese's statement criticised the YCL leadership, saying the "attempts to isolate and embarrass" Masondo highlighted the perceived intolerance of different views that has come to characterise the Young Reds. Said Ngobese, who is the first to come out publicly in support of the embattled national chairperson: "Masondo's article offers an honest and refreshing analysis."
The battle is reminiscent of the split that manifested itself prior to the ANC's Polokwane conference. In 2006 the YCL suspended its then-deputy national chairperson, Mazibuko Jara, over a paper he had written that was leaked to the M&G. In it he questioned the communists' support of Zuma.
The Young Reds disowned Jara's paper, titled "What Colour is Our Flag? Red or JZ?", arguing that it had no status as it was not formally presented to the league and did not represent its views.
National secretary and ANC MP Buti Manamela said the league had distanced itself from Masondo's article because the chairperson did not represent the views of the league, but had mentioned his leadership position at the end of the article.
"We should tolerate the fact that he wanted his views to be made public," Manamela told the M&G this week. "We respect his view and whether we share it or not as an organisation, that's neither here nor there. What is important is that we have to make a distinction between people expressing their own views and the views of the organisation."
He denied that the YCL was intolerant of different views, calling the allegation "malicious".
"We have equal opportunity to express ourselves and we then reach an agreement which will be the position of the organisation," Manamela said, pointing out that once the leadership had discussed things and arrived at a particular view "it is our collective responsibility to communicate that view in spite of initially having different views".
In his piece Ngobese did not hold back on his views on the succession battle. In a clear reference to the ANC's leadership contest for 2012, he said the YCL's choice of "which horse to bet on" should be a "tactical consideration".
"Betting on a certain horse should not mean that that horse must have unlimited space to pour dust and grass in the eyes of the working class and the poor in this country," he wrote.
"The working class knows that it is not a matter of coincidence that those who are related to the president of the country have suddenly become instant billionaires.
"The poor know that there is a direct link between the slow pace and poor nature of service delivery and the instant riches of the many tenderpreneurs in the ANC and its leagues."
Manamela denied that there was a reluctance to criticise certain leaders, particularly Zuma. He said those making the allegation were playing the "politics of convenience" and that regardless of suspicions about the leadership's motive, discipline was crucial in the YCL.
One national committee member mentioned that purging leaders not supportive of Zuma ahead of the YCL's elective conference in December was a possible driving force behind Masondo's criticism.
But Manamela said: "The fact that we are going to conference does not mean people should do as they please. Members are expected to behave according to the requirements of the constitution whether there is a congress or not. Even after the congress, there must be an organisation that remains respected by all."
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-09-10-young-commies-split-over-zuma
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