YCL Forum members
I have been reading and observing and it has also arrived in my ears through various mouths, that some comrades and unfortunately I must emphasize; all of them with the exception of one or two I do not know them have been vilifying my name accusing me of all sorts of things attributed to my term as President of SASCO at the time. One of my political mentors who belong in my view, shared by many, to a very rare breed of cadres is the late Provincial Chairperson of ANCYL and SASCO in Mpumalanga, Cde Mthandazo Ngobeni. Hailed and respected by many thus far as an articulate ideologue, servant of the people and firm disciplinarian to mention but a few ways of describing one of the finest revolutionaries produced by our revolution. And now I know he would not call me into order for acknowledging his prowess as an activist, visionary, thinker because; he has passed on. And this praise is rightfully due to him like many of our deserving heroes and heroines. I mention him because; many young and very old comrades aspire even up to date to live a life like Cde Mthandazo's. Never factional, but truthful, factual, scientific and principled and; if you stand on the way of these four things, to him it was like you don't exist and he hated lazy people especially people who do not read and think. I have also learnt a lot from him. As a person entrusted with leading SASCO having accepted the role reluctantly so and many can attest to this truth, I have always known that leadership is burdensome but; today it is not only burdensome but a curse. I say a curse because; whereas leaders before our generation have taken a lot of strain, we today because of the state of our movement due to changing times and conditions that produce a different cadre, we don't take strain but hell itself. But even if that was the case I accepted this curse with a smile and humility. One mathematics teacher Mr. Mlombo at primary school used to say to us in 1993/4: "In life there are three kinds of people. There are those who know and they know that they know" and he said these can be described as teachers. "There are those who know and they don't know that they know" and he said these can be defined as students (always willing to learn and learn correctly, my conclusion). "There are those who don't know and they don't know that they don't know" and he said these can be described as fools. I think there is a lot of truth in this statement and I since then I have continued to see these three sorts of people everywhere I go. I take liberty to introduce myself to those who speak about me and our leadership collective even though they don't know me and do not understand the challenges and difficulties (conditions in general) we led under both subjective and objective. And every leadership leads under certain conditions. For the first time ever I will do something I have always refused to do and; that is; explain my political credentials. I do so under serious strain because; these credentials are not my personal private achievements they are tasks given to me at different levels of my activism and at times under serious sacrifice just like it is the case with everyone else. I have supported and followed the ANC and the broad liberation movement since the release of Mandela. I have been a member for more than a decade. I have been a member and led at various levels of the PYA. I have been in COSAS, YCL, ANCYL and SASCO. I have a fair measure of understanding of what these organisations are. I have been at SRC since high school up to universities. I have sat in various committees ad hoc and otherwise. I have made representations in many a fora across SA dealing with education and youth policy etc. I have done every task one can think of from organizing, to writing, to speaking to media work, strategy and policy formulation etc. And for this I'm grateful to all my organisations. That's the good part about my activism. The bad part is that I have been called names. I have been called a snob, a model C, a Mbekist, and even gay! But these things they do not bother me and those close to me because; in the same way that they came is the say way that they normally go away. They remain just that. The revolution we understand is not of the faint hearted. The worrisome thing is not the swipes directed at me; the worrisome thing is that what happens to me is what generally characterizes most of our organisations today: focus on wrong things. Nobody says substantially what is it that our leadership collective has done wrong except accusing us again on personalities that we did not support the President of the ANC. Something that is utterly wrong and baseless. Many people are jealous of the fact that we have over the years paid more attention to what matters most: the students, education transformation, organization building etc. When the matter relating to President Zuma came up we paid appropriate attention and moved on accepting that the ANC had requested space to lead the matter. And as an MDM component we obliged. And by the way when we were at Luthuli even from the leadership of Claude, Bandile, Mothupi, Mandla the ANC and President Kgalema can attest; SASCO had cordial and respectable relations with the ANC and the ANC itself never complained about our stance on President Zuma neither did they try to censor us. They never said you are now speaking too much; you are now speaking too less. That's the ANC we know. We have always respected resolutions of SASCO. So why does everything have to be reduced to President Zuma? Why do you comrades do that? Do you think that's what needs to be done? SASCO must be assessed holistically not on one issue or individual. Now, I can go on and on, but I do not want to sink into the level of discussing individuals including myself. But we need proof of everything that people say about anything and everything. Not just rumours. Agreed comrades? Everything that I did as SASCO President was either collectively agreed of consulted. Nothing outside this framework. When people speak they must tell facts and truths not lies and rumours. And what is more interesting is that the factory that produces these lies is producing them endlessly with new versions, new models twists and flavours. And some of you comrades know these factories but you allow them to continue to produce to kill our movement and you fold your arms making yourselves equally culpable. It takes only good men and women to keep silent for injustice to thrive. Please let the leadership of SASCO lead now in peace. Its their time. Congress will be the only rightful judge. Its only normal and procedural. For the sake of our revolution, may these factories close down. No matter how profitable. When we say nothing we say something! Kind regards David Maimela Manager: Office of the Chairperson Gauteng Youth Commission Tel: (011) 843 7301 Fax: (011) 333 0727 Disclaimer:<br><br> This message may contain confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secured or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. 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