Response to Idols fan, hip-hop lyricist Khaya Dlanga
I normally ignore ventilations of self-proclaimed public intellectuals, who have no tested and academically reviewed work to show their intellectual stature. I ignore these ventilations because I in most instances laugh off the youthful exuberance displayed in the manner in which they write about subjects they know nothing about.
It reminds me of my high school days when we, as Majita would sit and talk about powerful cars and argue on which one is the fastest, whilst none of us had no drivers' licence, and most hadn't even been within 10 meters of the vehicles we spoke about.
This defines one Khaya Dlanga who, because he is the kind who laughs at his own jokes, wrote about the ANC Youth League and said it is a fake of a fake (see here). To use his own words, "Today the ANC Youth League is a fake version of a fake. It is not even a copy of the original thing". What's that? I don't know and I am sure that he does not know either because that's confusion reserved for amateur hip-hop lyricists who feel like it's a rhyme..... "yeah man, fake of a fake, in a flake from a flat head...." kind of stuff.
That's the kind, but because as revolutionaries, we carry the obligation to at all times, educate and guide even the most unassuming members of society, particularly those who accept the basic fact that what we are advocating as economic freedom fighters, and did as the ANC Youth League, is 'truth'. Since the ANC Youth League 23rd National Congress in 2008, the ANC Youth League reshaped and radicalized South Africa's political discourse in a manner never seen before, and only comparable to the ANC YL Founding generation.
With the clarion call for economic freedom in our lifetime, symbolized through our call for Nationalisation of Mines, we commenced and stayed of top of a national, continental, and global debate on resource nationalism never seen before on the history of youth political activism.
Our call for economic freedom in our lifetime is articulated in the ANC Youth League's adopted Programme of Action for Economic Freedom in Our Lifetime (see here or here) which is a clearest expression of the ideals and aspirations of an absolute majority of South Africans.
The ANC Youth League's ORIGINAL diagnoses of South Africa's socio-economic problems and provision of coherent solutions is more coherent, clearer and correct that the National Planning Commission's diagnoses report and National Development Plan. Am sure that Khaya Dlanga has not read these perspectives, and drowns his head in lousy newspaper reports, which he proudly recites as if they're some intellectual discovery. Am sure he won't read even after his attention is brought to this seminal work of thorough youth intellectual diagnoses of our problems and definite determination of what is to be done.
Like many other ignorant newspaper intellectuals, he will ask what have we done as the ANC Youth League to uplift youth. We didn't blow our own horns, but as an organization and as individual leaders of the ANC Youth League, we enrolled and ensured the enrolment of many students in the post secondary education and training fraternity - second only to government within the four years of our leadership of the Youth League.
We helped thousands of kids with books, shoes and many other learning and teaching support materials - more than any other private company in South Africa. We helped orphans and orphanages in Soweto, Tembisa, Midrand, Mthatha, Overberg, Karroo, which amounted to more than R3 million of the money we had sourced from caring South Africans.
We got South Africa talking about necessary challenges confronting society. The list of the actual developmental work we did is profound and the aim was not to impress newspaper reporters, but to meaningfully impact on the lives of ordinary South Africans. What is fake about that? Or to rhyme we should ask what is fake of a fake about that?
Now back to real politics, the ANC Youth League persuaded a properly constituted National General Council of the ANC to adopt "greater consensus on Nationalisation of Mines and other strategic sectors of the economy" (see here - PDF).
Only ignorant people will claim no knowledge of what we said are the benefits of Nationalisation of Mines. Over a period of three years, the ANC Youth League produced volumes of coherent perspectives and views around this question, including a Parliamentary submission which we made the Parliamentary portfolio committee of Minerals and Energy. We also undertook thoroughgoing research, study tours and discussions on Nationalisation of Mines.
The ANC, COSATU, Free Market Foundation, honourable Authors, private corporations, students across all Universities, Professors and respectable academics did profound research on Nationalisation of Mines in response to the ANC Youth League's perspective.
There currently is no University in South Africa which does not have a postgraduate student focusing on Nationalisation of Mines or the programme for economic freedom in our lifetime. I know this because in the process of their research, postgraduate students have contacted the leadership of the ANC Youth League to seek further information and guidance from Economic Freedom Fighters.
I won't degenerate to discuss petty issues Khaya raises around what he says are weaknesses of the leadership of the ANC Youth League because none of those distorted the message for economic freedom in our lifetime and those who had to receive the gospel received it correctly. Well I thought that in the process of recollection of quotes and references, Khaya Dlanga will also reflect on the rather disapproving observations of other media outside South Africa:
1. Forbes ranked Julius Malema as amongst the 10 youngest power men in Africa in 2011, and amongst the 10, he was the youngest.
2. Disapproving of his politics, The Economist says of Julius Malema that "Despite his famed "G"-a dismally low grade-for his woodwork exam in his school-leaving matriculation, Mr Malema is no fool. He has proved himself a master at politics and at tapping into the anger of his young black audiences".
3. Struggling to ignore his leadership of the economic freedom struggle, and acknowledging that be exists, Time Magazine listed him as amongst the 100 Least Influential People in the World... NB: "Least" in the sense that Time Magazine disagreed with his politics.
4. During his tenure as leadership of the ANC YL, Malema was everyday asked for his opinions and views by almost all Media house in the world, including CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, SKY, Reuters, and any other media institution you can think of.
5. Youth formations and structures from the African continent begged for his leadership and appreciated the role he played in South Africa.
6. The youth in the ANC and whole of society approve of Julius Malema's leadership.
Due to this reality and many others which will be mentioned elsewhere, Julius Malema was banished, criminalized, and bastardized by authorities like they did with Gramci, Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Che Guevara, and many other revolutionaries. For Khaya Dlanga to reduce a revolutionary to the level of petty, disguting rhymes tells a lot about who he is, than the revolutionary himself.
Well I think Season 8 of Idols on Mnet is on its way and Khaya should focus there and will possibly develop another meaningless rhyme for the aspirant musicians, because he thinks he is funny. We are very busy, but had to wave off slight irritations.
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