*Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA) * *Linda Jabane District Council Statement *
*27-07-2011* The YCL Linda Jabane District held its ordinary District Council meeting at University of Johannesburg (Soweto Campus) on the 24th July 2011. The purpose of the meeting was to analyse the state of the conditions of young people in the district whose geography is Greater Johannesburg, the state of the organisation, reports from branches and ultimately adopt an informed programme of action. The District Council meeting took place at a time when the SACP celebrates its 90th Anniversary in which we cherish the revolutionary legacy bequeathed to us by the giants of our revolutionary struggle such as Moses Kotane, JB Marks, Moses Mabhida, Josie Mpama, Ruth First, Joe Slovo and Chris Hani, among others. *Unemployment and Labour Brokering* The District Council meeting noted high levels of unemployment among young people in the district and resolved that the crisis of unemployment must be addressed with the vigour it deserves. It is our firm conviction that decent work is not about creating short-term employment “opportunities” which do not offer benefits such as health care, housing, and long-term savings such as pension. It is critical that we pay more attention to strategies for sustainable livelihoods by intensifying the public works programme in which we move progressively to creating full-time work and not just temporary work opportunities. The self-employed sector, co-operatives and other initiatives that enable households to be productively engaged also need more attention. The role Sector Education and Training Authorities play should speedily expand to cover these areas in the form of a widespread training and capacity building programmes. We reiterate the YCLSA’s call for the banning, as opposed to the regulation, of labour brokers as modern day slavery. Many of our youth in the area of Johannesburg suffer from the brutality of these intermediaries who do not create any employment but simply traffic workers between existing jobs in both the public including municipal sector and private sector. We are of the view that supermarkets such as Pick ’n Pay acquire the services of these brokers in order to avoid the rights and entitlements of permanent employees. We resolved to take the call for the banning of labour brokers to the streets in the next coming three months within the programmes directed by our Provincial Executive Committee and National Committee. *On the Burning of Councillors’ Houses* We denounce the burning of councillor’s houses and hope such acts do not continue in our District and elsewhere. We urge YCLSA members to distance themselves from and discourage such activities which are mostly perpetrated with, we believe, the involvement of some opportunist and criminal elements. YCLSA members must ensure that ANC councillors are active agents of transformation on the ground. In the same tone, we call upon all local councillors and the City of Johannesburg Metro to desist from any outsourcing of social services which are mostly turned into a tender system, and which in most cases is the cause of protests due to its corrupt nature. We urge local councillors and the City of Johannesburg Metro to focus on creating full-time, decent employment for the unemployed youth within our communities. *Corruption * We are perturbed by the recent reports by City Press alleging acts of tenderpreneurship corruption by one of the leaders in our ANC-led National Liberation Movement. We reject corruption in all its manifestations and agree that such allegations must be investigated to the core in a fair and credible process so that the truth can come out. *On Swaziland and Palestine* We have noted with concern the plan by the Israeli government to deploy some 27 ‘students’ to, amongst other countries, South Africa, in which most targeted Universities are within our District, mainly to improve the image of the Apartheid Israeli government in the eyes of our youth. It is however claimed by their local media that the concerned students will fund their trip and that government is not involved. The only time we will even think of considering to listen to such ‘students’, who in our view appear to be the ideological missionaries of the apartheid Israel sent off to paint masked image about it, can only be when their Verwoerd-like government gived back Palestinians their land and compensated for the damages they have brought to the Palestinians. In the main time, we will be mobilising all our branches in Institutions of Higher Learning within the District to boycott such ill-intentioned endeavours. *Issued by the YCLSA Linda Jabane* *Richard Mamabolo - Organising Secretary* *079 670 0274* *Musa Mthembu - Media Liaison Officer* *073 152 1319* -- 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] .
