To my fellow students I am given once again to reflect on the pathetic leadership provided to the students of South Africa by the ANC government, and in this case by the SACP’s former Minister Blade Nzimande, and the ANC’s Youth Militia of COSAS, SASCO, ANCYL, YCL and PYA. I recall that they all promised […]
ANCYL
Posted inNews/Politics
Zille’s itchy Twitter finger dumps her in the poo
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille has caused quite a kerfuffle after her fight with a journalist on social media. Go, Zille! Zille’s supporters argue that since journalists dish it out with glee, we have to accept that in a robust democracy the price to be paid by the media is not to whine about getting […]
Posted inNews/Politics
It’s not easy being an ANCYL member these days
Things are getting very interesting in South African politics. They are confusing too. The emergence of the Economic Freedom Fighters has made things worse. Now, imagine that you are a young person, an active member of the ANCYL and also a young worker participating in a Cosatu-aligned union. At every level of your activism you […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mandela’s youthful creation also in extremis
While Nelson Mandela clings precariously to life in a Pretoria hospital, the organisation he helped birth finds itself similarly in extremis. Mandela, however, would find it difficult to recognise in today’s African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) anything that would make him and his co-founders proud. For not only is the offspring an embarrassment to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
FNB’s Steve the answer to the ANCYL’s PR woes
The election of Pope Francis by a conclave of cardinals in the Vatican, the African National Congress Youth League’s NEC being dissolved by the ANC and the Oscar Pistorius shooting incident have been dwarfed into insignificance again this week as “recordings” of “Steve” from beeb Bank to FNB customers are played and replayed on 94.7 […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Truth and treason
This is not per se another article on the ANCYL’s comments regarding FNB’s new advertising campaign. If it were, it would probably devolve into an angst-filled rant at the ANCYL’s stupidity and FNB’s corporate power, much like the others I have read. Instead I want to focus on just one word, the word that the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zumangaung
After the release of the National Development Plan (NDP) late 2011, the alliterative 2012 seemed to hold much promise. But it became a year of talk shops. For the first time ever, the national policy and elective conferences of the ANC, SACP, and Cosatu all fell in the same year. There was no implementing the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Can we save the ANC?
The ANC is a party at war with itself. A party grappling with the machinations of converting from a liberation movement into a modern political party in government. This has proved to be a huge challenge as it also seeks to balance the fears and stubbornness of the old guard with the militancy and impatience […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
ANCYL has no copyright on economic freedom
The struggle for economic freedom predates us all. It began many years ago. Long before the ANC or the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) ever existed, and even long before the arrival of the employees of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape in 1652. When Nguni tribes, moved south of the African continent in […]
Posted inGeneral
So let’s rewrite the Constitution
According to Thomas Jefferson, we have four years to go. He wrote to James Madison in 1789: “Every constitution then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years.” He had some funny ideas; let’s leave it at that. Constitution writing has improved since the days of America’s “founding fathers”, the process described in […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Zuma should beware the No.10 jersey in the NEC
He is a hard worker, ambitious, charismatic, an intellectual, a prolific spinner and he’s very rich. He can also be a schemer of note. These are the characteristics of member No. 10 in the ruling ANC’s current National Executive Committee. He also has the business acumen of Mitt Romney and presidential aspirations one can liken […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Malema soap opera II
ANC Youth League deputy secretary general Kenetswe Mosenogi today shattered my utmost fantasy. I have always fantasised about her as an intelligent, beautiful, sexy, articulate, sassy and all round attractive young woman. This was shattered all at once (except maybe beautiful) when I heard her on SAfm this afternoon being interviewed by Tshepiso Makwetla. She […]