Statement of the African National Congress Youth League on the outcomes of the ANC Policy Conference

Since Tuesday 26th June 2012, the African National Congress has been engaged with the development and consolidation of its policy positions towards the 53rdNational Conference to be held in Mangaung in December 2012. The full complement of the ANCYL delegation attended the ANC Policy Conference armed with and confident of the popular expression of the mandate bestowed upon us by our own 24th National Congress held in June 2011.

The National Policy Conference was characterised by robust and critical discussions. Resolute young people, not only from the ANC Youth League delegation but members and leaders of the ANC, fearlessly drove the charge for the realisation of Economic Freedom in our Lifetime, anchored firmly on the aspirations of the Freedom Charter. We were inspired by the overwhelming support the views of the youth received from the branches, regions and provinces of the ANC. 

We are confident that this generation of young people, once again, took forward the proud heritage of being a critical body of opinion in the ANC. We have no doubt that the fearless self-criticism the ANCYL had driven within the African National Congress towards the National Policy Conference would have set the scene for a radical shift in the policies and posture of the African National Congress moving forward.

We agreed with the Policy Conference that for more than 100 years, the ANC has been involved in an uninterrupted struggle for fundamental political and socio-economic transformation and should therefore reject any mechanical and artificial categorisation into different "transitions". 

The policy proposals on the Strategy and Tactics reaffirmed the centrality of the Freedom Charter and that the preoccupation of the ANC moving forward should be the realisation of the Freedom Charter aspirations. Undoubtedly this means moving forward, the Freedom Charter must indeed be the overarching guiding framework against which policies and programmes of the ANC led government in particular would be measured.

Fundamental and radical economic transformation is firmly on the agenda.  We welcome the Policy Conference's resolve that South Africa's economic vision rests on the demand that people shall in the country's wealth. Reaffirming our strategic orientation therefore demands that the ANC must take bold, transformative and decisive decisions to bring out this reality.

To this end, the ANC Youth League welcomes the resolution for greater strategic ownership and control for strategic sectors of the economy. We commend the ANC for reminding itself of its historical position as encapsulated in various seminal documents including the Freedom Charter and Ready to Govern. We welcome therefore  the resolution for the nationalisation (state ownership) of mines and other strategic sectors of the economy. 

The people of South Africa can take heart that the gains of the last 18 years will now be built upon. We welcome the Policy Conference resolution , in keeping with the spirit of fundamental and radical transformation, to expropriate land without compensation where land has been acquired through unlawful means, a key characteristic of our violent history of dispossession.

In addition to these fundamental economic policies that will undoubtely better the lives of youth, we further welcome the progressive resolutions on youth development including Compulsory Youth Service for the purposes of vocational training, job creation and social cohesion.  We are overjoyed that the ANC finds it correct to implement a Job Seekers' Stipend and rejects the tax credit incentives to capital disguised as assistance to address youth unemployment. Conference expressed itself strongly on the need to prioritise education as a key pillar of our economic transformation agenda, critising government of the textbook debacle in Limpopo. 

At Gallagher Estates, our organisation has emerged victorious. Once again, detractors of the ANC, who continue to write its impending demise, are disappointed and still have not understood our character as a broad church, culture of robust debate and the importance of the autonomy of the Youth League in particular, to champion the interest of youth and the working class within the ANC.

As we emerge from Gallagher Estates, emboldened by the courage of views of the members of the ANC, we call upon all our structures to intensify debate and discussion at all levels and with all sectors of society to build consensus around radical and accelerated transformation to realise the aspirations of our people. No doubt, Manguang will also affirm the Freedom Charter.

Statement issued by Khusela Sangoni-Khawe, ANC Youth League Head of Communications, June 30 2012

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