ANCYL Western Cape is appalled by recent ANC PEC press statement 

10 April 2017

As young aspirant revolutionaries commemorate the tragic killing of our hero Comrade Chris Hani, it is with deep concern that we have read the latest press statement issued by our mother-body, the ANC Western Cape Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) following the PEC meeting which took place on 8 April 2017 which the Provincial Chairperson and Provincial Secretary of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) represented us in.  

We have once again as the ANC in the province missed a golden opportunity of re-focussing our collective efforts and energies towards internally building an activist ANC and dealing with our very dire state of organisational performance in the Western Cape. It is no secret that under our current leadership our plans for revitalisation of ANC structures in zones, sub-regions, and regions across our province has not yielded the desired results in the past several months. The PEC collective must take responsibility for this state of paralysis.

The notion of focusing on our core tasks of building the ANC membership and structures and dealing with issues directly facing the working class and poor in the Western Cape have once again been relegated to secondary matters as the current PEC through its latest public utterance drawn from the contested opinions expressed by certain PEC members in the meeting is more focussed on cheap politiking around internal matters that have polarised us which the ANC is attempting to resolve at a national level. It is the latter focus that deviates us from our primary task.  

There is a time and place for ANC provincial structures to deliberate on such national matters as the platform for such was provided for in the extended National Working Committee (NWC) of the ANC held last week. The Acting Provincial Chairperson Comrade Khaya Magaxa and the Provincial Secretary Comrade Faiez Jacobs participated in that particular extended NWC. Sadly the front pages of the newspapers are not the platforms for our internal deliberations as an organisation.

Notwithstanding strong arguments presented in the PEC meeting by the ANCYL and other members of the PEC in support of the extended NWC decision that the President complete his terms both as the President of the ANC and the Republic of South Africa and that there is no basis for him to be referred to the ANC’s Integrity Committee, the PEC has deemed it fit to publically make a call for the President to be investigated by the Integrity Committee. Within the backdrop of our drive for radical socio-economic transformation, the ANCYL and others strongly expressed the view that the President has not brought the ANC into disrepute with the recent cabinet reshuffle which is his prerogative.

The PEC in its statement has clearly taken a public posture to undermine the President of the ANC and the decision of the ANC’s extended NWC. This particular position is all well and good if your primary function is to build an ANC in the image of those calling for President Zuma to resign in support of organisations like the SACP, DA, EFF, Save SA, SA First, SA Chamber of Business, etc. The latter have a common agenda based on personalities and a right wing neo-liberal capture of the State and ownership patterns and not pro-poor ANC policy.

To the SACP of which the ANC’s Acting Provincial Chairperson is the Provincial Secretary and the leadership of the Western Cape ANC PEC we say, "You have decided to take sensitive internal ANC discussions into the realm of public headlines and not ANC structures in the same manner certain ANC leaders do daily via press conferences, tweets and memorials. To this we are reminded of the words of warning echoed by the late ANC President Comrade Oliver Tambo when he said ‘Beware of the wedge driver. Watch his poisonous tongue’”.

As we commit to build maximum unity within the ranks of young people around our generational mission of economic freedom in our lifetime, the ANCYL Western Cape calls on our leaders in the ANC PEC to build maximum unity, focus on rebuilding the organisation, and taking up the plight of the most vulnerable across the Western Cape.

Sadly the PEC statement reserves a poultry paragraph for the DA’s destruction of the people’s needs in this province from the blatant racist that lead the DA government’s agenda of anti-black and anti-poor to its total disregard for people’s housing in the city of Cape Town in the ongoing Tafelberg School land sale. To this end the ANCYL in the province is planning a mass activity in Sea Point to highlight Zille’s and DA’s rejection of people’s housing in white communities coupled with the City and the Province’s ongoing failure to deliver proper basic services to the majority of our poor communities.

As the ANCYL we respect the internal democratic space of the ANC as per the ANC Constitution. If leaders of the ANC in our province and some of those deployed by the NEC to oversee the work the PEC wish to stand on the roof tops by promoting factionalism and an anti-majoritarian agenda, then do so at your peril.

Notwithstanding our internal challenges, our ANC has a long tradition of democratic centralism that has made us the oldest liberation movement on the African continent despite attempts by the apartheid regime and the opponents of our revolution to destroy our unity. They have failed and so will you.

Issued by Andile Mbali, Provincial Chairperson, ANCYL WC, 10 April 2017 

Update: Response by the ANC Western Cape:

RESPONSE TO STATEMENT ISSUED BE YOUTH LEAGUE 

The Western Cape Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) of the ANC has seen a media statement circulating, purportedly to be that of the Youth League in the province.

While the PEC does not wish to respond to its content, certain inaccuracies, misrepresentations and its implications cannot be ignored.

The ANC in the Western Cape therefor wishes to respond as follow:

“The ANC can not, at any stage or time, be prescribed to by its youth formation on what to say, how to think, what to do, what positions to take or how to approach particular matters. While we always value and welcome the contributions made by the Youth League in enriching our outcomes, Rule 19.9.9 clearly stipulates that it is the PEC that will, inter alia, oversee the work of the Youth League in the province and not the other way around.

The recent PEC-meeting discussed matters of national concern for close to 10 hours. The debate was robust and vigorous and after various contributions and arguments were made by various PEC-members and ex-officio members, including the chairperson and secretary of the Youth League, the majority view was as presented in the ANC PEC statement, issued yesterday. 

Singling out the Acting Provincial Chairperson and the Provincial Secretary and the direct attacks on them is therefor not only mischievous and dangerous but such behavior should be condemned in the strongest terms.

Simply because the Youth League could not convince the majority of PEC-members of their view, we consider the Youth League’s statement as disingenuous and a blatant attempt to undermine the authority of the PEC and to divide our membership. 

We will engage the Youth League on this dangerous posture taken and call on them to, instead of trying to divide and fracture the ANC, rather work with the PEC to build, strengthen and unite the organisation in the best interest of society and our membership.”

Statement issued by ANC Western Cape, 10 April 2017