 Youth agencies abound — and demand to be fed PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma finally got around to acting, er, presidential the other week. He defended Gwede Mantashe, secretary-general of the African National Congress (ANC), and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan from attacks by Julius Malema and the ANC Youth League. Zuma said an attack on Mantashe was an attack on the ANC and that the denigration of Gordhan amounted to a denigration of Zuma himself. It was stirring stuff, the kind of intervention that made one think about the lack of principled leadership in SA. Zuma did not say anything about the attacks themselves or why they were taking place. To do that would have upset the false but comforting fiction of a principled ANC united behind his leadership. The president spoke out against the attacks because he could not do anything else to cut Malema down to size. He had to sound presidential because, well, that was all he could do. He could not do more because, quite frankly, he does not have the power to herd the feral cats that make up the Zuma ANC. So what then is the source of the attacks on Mantashe and Gordhan? Why has the youth league been so unrelenting in its attacks on the two men? There are two separate but interconnected explanations. The first, involving Mantashe, has been canvassed in public by the youth league and sections of the media. The second, involving Gordhan, has been hinted at in several reports but not fully laid out. However, both explanations are linked not just to each other but also to the political project that Malema was putting together until his recent derailment by scandal. In the case of Mantashe, Malema has said explicitly that he wants to topple Mantashe as ANC secretary-general so that Fikile Mbalula, the man whose support Malema bought, can take over the position. You control the office of the secretary-general, you control the engine room of the ANC. This is the office that handles membership lists, is responsible for “deployments” and the overall health of the organisation. It is the most important position in the ANC, more important than the position of president, even. Malema often complains about Mantashe’s allegedly divided loyalties as ANC secretary-general and South African Communist Party chairman. But that is simply cover for what is essentially a grubby self- serving enrichment scheme intended to benefit Malema and a number of cronies. If successful, this scheme would destroy the ANC more than it would the state. In the case of the attacks on Gordhan, though, we have a project that would, if successful, destroy the state. On the face of it, Malema and the youth league have been attacking Gordhan and, by extension, the Treasury for the latter’s refusal to allocate R1bn to the National Youth Development Agency. The reason for this is that the agency has become another trough at which Malema and others are feeding. Malema and his allies have packed the agency and its provincial and municipal variants with cronies. They need the agency well funded so they can make it an attractive “deployment” destination for the minions who need it as a reward for supporting Malema. The reason why Malema and the youth league wanted R1bn for the agency is that there are more minions to deploy than there is money to throw their way. This would not be a problem if the agency were designed to be self-funding and to pay its own way over time. But that is not the case. The agency is intended to benefit Malema and his associates and it is meant to do so by siphoning money from the state. However, do not think that central government is the only source of funding for this trough. Take Gauteng. In addition to the National Youth Development Agency (with its own staff and offices in Midrand), there is also a Gauteng provincial youth development agency, with its own staff and offices in Johannesburg. But it does not end there. There is also a municipal youth unit within the City of Johannesburg with , you guessed it, its own staff and offices. It is the same in Ekurhuleni, the metro in which my township falls. There too we have a youth unit. All these agencies and units are staffed by youth league apparatchiks who owe their positions to their membership of the league (don’t bother asking what it is exactly that these agencies and units do). If the youth league is the ANC youth at play, the youth agencies and units are the league at “work”. It is classic party political machine stuff. But the youth league’s political machine can only work if it is constantly well oiled by things such as a R1bn endowment from the Treasury. To its credit, the Treasury has not played along with the youth league or even succumbed to Malema’s threats. In truth, Malema’s attacks on Gordhan are as much a display of frustration over Malema’s inability to browbeat Gordhan into submission as they are a threat. Malema’s bombast and his political project have been checked by the scrutiny to which he has been subjected since late last year. However, this does not mean that the beast that is Malema’s tender networks has had its appetite satiated. His cronies still expect to be fed. They still look to the youth agencies to finance their lifestyles. Zuma might have quietened Malema for now. But expect Malema to go on the attack again as soon as his cronies start demanding their share. Will Zuma have it in him then to act presidential again?
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