WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-03-01 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
Polokwane is all but forgotten. Mangaung in the Free State is where blood will be drawn in just a few weeks when the ANC Youth League holds its conference there to elect a new leader.
At 37, Fikile Mbalula – as much a nemesis of gruff white liberals as of Mbeki supporters – must step down.
Amid indiscriminate panic in some media, three charismatic candidates have emerged for the unquestionably powerful position of president. Two bring considerable controversy with them. Yet even this is perversely in keeping with what the league is threatened with losing: its reputation as an organisation of like-minded and politically fastidious young revolutionaries.
ANCYL national executive committee member Songezo Mjongile’s name evokes sensationalism, reminders of a rich hinterland of naked girls cavorting by the poolside, extravagant parties, mansions and other rumoured perks of the vast political capital allegedly engendered by murdered magnate Brett Kebble.
Mbalula has not a good word to say about the outspoken 34-year-old entrepreneur from the Western Cape, his former comrade. Their enmity dates back to the shimmer and taint of the Kebble era.
Others in the league have the relief of taking the more diplomatic route: they say Mjongile is simply too old to hold office for any length of time. Members have to be aged between 14 and 35.
Mbalula, the kingmaker who is widely credited with lobbying Jacob Zuma into power in Polokwane, has put his muscle behind the ANCYL’s Limpopo provincial secretary, Julius Malema.
Another controversial candidate, Malema already appears to have the support of at least two provinces other than his own: Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape. But rare mention is made, except by detractors, of an apparent lapse in leadership when, as president of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), he lost control of the notorious Johannesburg street rampage by thousands of pupils in 2002.
The Cosas members were on an unauthorised protest march on the Gauteng department of education offices after its instruction that school gates remain shut during classes to protect the pupils. The worst fears of Joburg’s city managers, who had refused permission for the march, came true when the teenagers ran amok, looting from hawkers’ meagre stalls, stealing from people on the streets and smashing car windows.
Malema still insists thugs infiltrated the march, but Education Department spokesperson Lebelo Maloka was having none of that. He stated at the time that “the current leadership of Cosas clearly does not come close to emulating the generations of Ephraim Mogale, Shepard Mati, Lulu Johnson and others. The culture, values and discipline of Cosas are disgraced”.
Malema, who amiably agreed a few times to being interviewed for this piece and then did not reply to calls, is certainly not lacking in confidence. His spiky exchanges with pro-Mbeki Limpopo premier Sello Moloto are legendary; his view of a couple of years ago that there was nothing wrong with the appointment of sex pest Norman Mashabane as political adviser to Moloto is infamous. He dubbed the appointment a “revolutionary move”.
Once ridiculed for apparently trying to influence learners to refuse to do mathematics, the undeniably affable Malema was quoted as confessing he had failed grades 8 and 9 “because (at the time) I could not contain my excitement about joining Cosas”.
Should it be that neither Mjongile or Malema accede to the post of president, it is likely ANCYL members would make do with the next best option: the leadership of forthright Saki Mofokeng, NEC member from the Free State.
Even Mbalula has not yet given Mofokeng the cold shoulder, and Mofokeng apparently has support not only from his own province, but also Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. The ANCYL’s KwaZulu-Natal chairman, Nhlakanipho Ntombela, has been quoted as saying that province would also endorse Mofokeng, while the man himself has said he is “available”.
The ANCYL leadership stand-off is at least partly about pure politics. On the one flank, there’s a seemingly despised Mbeki acolyte in Mjongile, on the other are Zuma’s champions, who are mostly backing Malema. The propaganda war, with Mbalula its outgoing general, could gain in ferocity.
But this will certainly be his last battle on this field. At Polokwane, Mbalula was elected to the ANC’s national executive committee and national working committee where he previously served as a youth representative, so his political future is virtually assured.
Still, he knows the sting of succession. He was once a dilettante himself. Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba, his predecessor in the role of ANCYL president, was popular and articulate. Mbalula has had to face ridicule for some incomprehensible statements.
Gigaba, in turn, had the more onerous task of helping to flesh out the shadow of the uncompromising Peter Mokaba, after being heralded as one of Mokaba’s so-called young turks. Mokaba died in 2002, long after stepping down from running the league and following turbulence in his varied political career.
But he, Gigaba and Mbalula are praised players in a lauded political tradition in which the role of the ANCYL in the larger ANC leadership struggles and real politik is assured.
As always, today’s Youth League has the edge.
True heroes and founder members like Anton Lembede, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela determined its future when they were young men. It all began at the 1943 ANC conference in Bloemfontein when a verbose, but sincere statement of policy had it that “the white man regards the universe as a gigantic machine hurtling through time and space to its final destruction: individuals in it are but tiny organisms with private lives that lead to private deaths”.
The converse, said the statement, was “the African … (who) regards the universe as a composite whole … progressively driving towards greater harmony”. The establishment of the ANCYL in 1944 was described as “an answer to critics of the national movement that African youth will not allow the sacrifices of their fathers to have been in vain”.
Yet even at that time, there were schisms. Some had broken away from the ANC. But the greater struggle was enormous. Today’s struggles are more universal, exemplified perhaps by Mbalula’s recent proposal of a ban on Sunday liquor sales .
“There is nothing sexy or fashionable about drinking from six to six,” he said. Later, Mail & Guardian columnist Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya couldn’t resist pointing out that league presidental candidate Mjongile can clearly be seen in a photograph drinking with Tony Yengeni at a time when Yengeni was under strict orders on his weekend parole.
If Mbalula was somewhat maligned for his proposal at a time when there are many causes to fight, it is worth remarking that some studies indicate around one in four young South Africans under the age of 20 is getting some kind of treatment for addiction, often to alcohol. So it is indeed a major issue for the league’s membership.
It was Gigaba’s issue too, back in 2002 before he left the presidency. Interestingly, he sent Mjongile – and another senior ANCYL leader, Themba Nobatana – to the Netherlands to examine their substance abuse policies “and to help us craft ours”. No record could be found of their experiences there.
The ANCYL’s foray into the business world began more than a decade ago, when leaders signed founding documents for their company, the National Youth Trade and Investments Corporation, bolstered by millionaire businessman Robert Gumede’s technology group Gijima.
Mjongile’s past drifts into the miasma. Six charges of tax fraud were once laid against him, and although he claimed little or no income, a SA Revenue Service investigation was said to reveal that millions were allegedly deposited by Kebble into Mjongile’s accounts, so it imposed a 200% penalty on him, claiming up to R5.4-million.
His name has long been linked to money allegedly stolen from various companies by Kebble, and around this time last year, Mjongile was said to have been raided by the Scorpions in connection with an investigation into Kebble’s alleged criminal dealings. Almost certainly, his relationship with Kebble will torment him for some time to come.
Soon before he moved into government, Gigaba expressed concern for the organisation which had reared him: “Unfortunately, some among the youth mistook the achievement of democracy to mean that the struggle was over, that they did not themselves need to be social and political activists.”
Still, he tried to blame the media, saying it indulged in “make-believe that youth are not interested in politics anymore and having created paper idols and celebrities as role models”.
The tale of who among the three men – Mjongile, Mofokeng or Malema – can most artfully negotiate the paper idols and new struggles, will soon unravel.