*PRESS STATEMENT* *SOWETAN ARTICLE FALSE AND MALICIOUS*
October 27, 2011 The Young Communist League of South Africa rejects with the contempt it deserves the false attribution to our National Secretary, Buti Manamela, in its article on today's edition of Sowetan that he inferred that we cannot be led by "drop-outs" and "corrupt" leaders like Julius Malema. Our National Secretary has never inferred, directly or indirectly, to the name of the President of the ANC Youth League or any other leader of the alliance as being "corrupt" or being a school drop-out and in relation to their leadership. Our National Secretary actually said that “in order for young people to be employed or employable, we need to ensure that they love education. Young people should never prefer the life of glitz, bling and glamour by pursuing tenders and "easy money" but should focus on their education” He further said that “fake role models who don the showbiz section of our newspapers worshipping money, blitz, bling and glamour.” As the YCLSA, we are not aware of any accusations or investigations against Malema for corruption, and calls on The Sowetan to retract its sensationalism and gutter journalism which seeks to misrepresent facts and seek to deviate the objectives of the National Jobs for Youth Summit. We are not interested in the affairs of individuals, but are preoccupied with how to change the lives of young people in the immediate and long term. For the Sowetan to reduce the objectives of 176 organizations represented in this National Jobs for Youth Summit to personalities and seek to fuel tensions is nothing but a reflection of the most terrible standards of journalism. For the record, we are determined to "make education fashionable" and ensure that every young person is accorded that opportunity. Instead of condemning people for their lack of education, we will encourage them to do so. We also believe that everyone is innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law, and not that of The Sowetan. We have telephonically referred the matter to the Editor of Sowetan, but found no joy when he promised to investigate and come back to us, but failed to do so. We call on The Sowetan to retract and publish an apology. Issued by the YCLSA For more information please contact Mafika Mndebele on 0825673557 -- 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] .
