*Press Statement * July 4, 2011
* * * *** *The Young Communist League of South Africa, Eastern Cape press statement * The Young Communist League of South Africa (Ufasimba) in the Province of Eastern Cape held its ordinary Provincial Executive Committee meeting, at the SACP Provincial Offices. The purpose of the meeting was to look into the state of the organisation, receive reports from Districts and adopt a Program of action. The meeting was attended by Districts and Provincial Leadership of the YCLSA in the Province and National Committee members led by comrade Mafika Mndebele The PEC was meeting for the first time after the Local Government Election, thus would like to congratulate the movement of the people, the African National Congress for the overwhelming victory and call upon all those elected to serve our people with integrity. *Youth unemployment* * * Young people in our country continue to be servitudes of the brutal and inhumane capitalist system. In the discussion paper titled “confronting Youth unemployment: policy option for South Africa” the National Treasury observed that in South Africa about 4.1 million people are unemployed; one in four of those are available to work but do not have a job. About 2.8 million are long-term unemployed and a further 2.2 million are discouraged. South Africa’s unemployment rate of 24 per cent is among the highest in the world and rises to 32.4 per cent if discouraged workers are included. Despite making up just 0.5 per cent of the global labour force, South Africa accounts for 2 per cent of global unemployment. Capitalism had deliberately created an army of unemployed Youth: in the total number of unemployed people in South Africa young people constitute 70% and 80% of them are black youth. As it relates to access to education more than 3 million of young people between the ages of 14 to 25 are neither in an educational institution nor in skills development centres. As the Young Communist League of South Africa, in the Province of Eastern Cape we have thus resolved to host a Provincial Youth for Jobs Summit and form a youth for jobs coalition to challenge this assault of Young people by capitalism, we have also resolved to march in to the Premier’s office and demand an immediate solution and leadership on this matter As the YCL while we note all the challenges confronting young people, which must be immediately addressed, the most painful and dangerous challenge is Youth unemployment. The employment of young people will provide them with the opportunity to contribute productively in the economy. It is a waste for our country to continue having a large army of economically active people excluded from production point. Employment will give the youth a chance to earn an income, it will provide a sense of belonging, independent, dignity, achievement, innovation, skills and experience on young people. Unemployment is also associated with most social-illnesses such as poverty, crime, violence, a loss of morale, social degradation and political disengagement (Kingdon & Knight, 2000; Levinsohn, 2008). It is due to this understanding that YCLSA sees youth unemployment as the biggest threat in our democracy hence it does remain our urgent demand. *CRISIS IN THE Eastern Cape DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION* ** The Young Communist League of South Africa in Eastern Cape is deeply concerned about the intervention by the National Minister of Basic Education in the Eastern Cape Department of Education and Training that seeks to take over the whole Department. The Education Department have been in crisis for a while. As the Young Communist league we fully support the South African Communist Party decision to reject Section 100 (b), where the National Department of Education is totally taking over the administration of Department of Education and Training without briefing the Alliance. As YCLSA we will never accept an intervention that is not owned by the Alliance structures in the Province. Education is a societal issue therefore briefing the Alliance structure is imperative. We therefore call for the revival of the intervention in the Eastern Cape Department of Education and Training; we want an intervention that will be anchored around MEC Makhupula and Superintendent –General Advocate Mannya. We need an intervention that will add value and benefit the people of the Eastern Cape in particular poor learners from deeply rural areas of the Province. Since MEC Mandla Makhupula and Advocate Mannya took over we have witnessed a significant improvement and they must be given a space to lead. We cannot fold our arms when the Department is being changed to be a Breeding ground for tenderpreneurs instead of focussing its core business which is teaching and learning. The YCLSA fully support the leadership of MEC Mandla Makhupula and Superintendent – General Modidima Mannya, they must be given a chance to lead. We also would like to place on record that Mathanzima Mweli is not a solution in the problems facing the Eastern Cape Department of Education and Training as he has been there before in the Department without any improvement. His presence in the Eastern Cape Department of Education and Training is a disaster for the poor learners and students in the Province and it’s not in the interests over 2 Million Eastern Cape learners. We therefore make a clarion call to the Eastern Cape Cabinet to act quickly on the “self –proclaimed” Accounting Officer Mr Mweli Mathanzima and he must be told to leave the Department for the sake of the poor working class learners of the Province. We do not want failures in this Department. We will organize a march against Mr Mathanzima Mweli if he remains employed in the Department, in defence of our Province and its education. *On health * * * On health, young people are the most affected and infected by HIV and AIDS. As per the HSRC, young woman affected with the HIV constitutes 32.7% between the ages of 25 and 29, and at 29.1% between 30 and 34. Furthermore about 15.7% of males aged 25 to 29 and 25.8% of females aged between 30 and 34 are affected. The Province of Eastern Cape is one of the most affected in this regard given immense poverty in our Province. These and many other social-illness such as the abuse of drugs and alcohol, high levels of crime and corruption, lack of proper co-ordination between rural and urban development (which have led to amongst, other things, emergence of informal settlements despite government building 3.1 million houses against about 3 million housing backlog in the 1994 RDP estimate) lack of amenities in black townships, such as sport facilities and so on, are the main challenges identified by our PEC and our program of action will seek to address them. *The SACP MVT Program * * * The Young Communist League in Eastern Cape is taken aback by the accusation on *Mail and Guardian* that the SACP is not active, these accusations are said to come from COSATU, needless to say, the is an agreement with COSATU and the SACP to close ranks. As the YCLSA in the Province we would like to assure everyone that the SACP in the Province is one of the most active, campaigning and ideologically grounded organisation. The MTV vision of the Party, the frame work with in which six terrains of the struggle, i.e. state, economy, workplace, community, and ideological struggle is persuaded is what guides the SACP. We want to categorically state that the Party is not its General Secretary Cde Blade Nzimande, but its branches. *Political accumulators * * * The Young Communist League in the Province of Eastern Cape is of the view that unemployment in our country and the harsh conditions created by Apartheid Capitalism had made young people to be vulnerable to demagogic and narrow chauvinist utterances. This is so through the mobilization of young people around economic freedom and at times progressive expressions of the Freedom Charter, which is sold out by the naked class interests of trying to use the state to bail out dependent BEE capital. Those who are on top of the mountains shouting nationalization are on the other hands seen on business meetings; they are linked to corruption and irregular tender processes. They call for economic empowerment but do not realize that most funds which are aimed on developing our country end up in their pocket through PPP (Pick, Pocketing, Politicians). Like movie stars, they present themselves as heroes of our people while they live in opulence. There is no connection between their utterances and their bank balance. It is no surprises that to them good communists are only those who are dead (and whose role in the communist struggle is frequently distorted by slogan-mongers [like they normally do to comrade Chris Hani], thus can not fight corruption and threaten their wealth. Let us defeat the ‘animal farm Youth leadership,’ those who play race card to cover their naked class interest, king masters of crass materialism who had been turned into front page superstars by media and projected as king-makers instead of becoming young revolutionaries fighting for the realization of the non racial, non sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. *Socialism is the only alternative * * * To combat all challenges faced by young people we must intensify our struggle against capitalist greed and fight for a socialist state. At the heart of smashing capitalism and capitalist social relations is the struggle for altering the capitalist accumulation regime. This is the line between the struggle for capitalism and socialism. One of the greatest fault-line in the post-apartheid capitalist path is the perpetuation of class and racial inequalities in economy. The slum still belongs to the blacks and suburbs to the whites (with a sprinkle of blacks). This must be challenge; as it’s had been used by black political accumulators to further divide our people along racial lines, while they also live in Sandton along opulence. Issued by YCLSA Eastern Cape Province For more information please contact Mluleki Dlelanga: YCLSA Provincial Secretary at: *Cell*: 078 6429004 *E-mail*: [email protected] *Website*: www.ycl.org.za -- Venceremos -- Venceremos -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
