 ANCYL 'doesn't need economic adviser' The African National Congress Youth League and its recently re-elected leader, Julius Malema, have no need for an economic adviser, according to Steven Friedman, director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy. "The youth league and Malema really don't need advice on economic policy as they merely do what they are told by senior figures in the ANC," Friedman said. Earlier this week, BusinessLIVE established that there was no economist behind the youth league's commitment to the nationalisation of mines and the appropriation of land. When asked to whom BusinessLIVE should direct questions on the ANCYL's economic policy, spokesman Floyd Shivambu said: "You can speak to me. You can speak to us about anything. There's no economic adviser in the youth league." Friedman added that the youth league and Malema were being used by these senior ANC figures in a cleverly orchestrated campaign "to try and maximise their leadership in various industries and maximise the share of those industries". According to Friedman, the model of nationalisation that would be touted by the ANCYL was a model presented to a parliamentary portfolio committee last year. "This is an interesting document because what is says it that there should be a state mining company handing out licences and that company would decide which private companies get to mine or don't get to mine in this country. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out what this is about. It means that people who are able to hand out mining licences are in an incredibly good position." Friedman said that both the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Communist Party (SACP) had made it clear that calls for nationalisation had nothing to do with enhancing the power of the poor but everything to do with enhancing the wealth of already wealthy people. "Both Cosatu and the SACP want nothing to do with it," Friedman said. "There was recently some confusion when the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) central committee said it supported the Freedom Charter's clause on mining, but they pointed out that they did not support nationalisation." (The Freedom Charter was a statement adopted in 1955 outlining the core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the ANC and its allies the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats and the Coloured People's Congress. Read the full text of the Freedom Charter) Friedman said Malema - or rather those who told him what to say - had put a particular "spin" on the Freedom Charter. He would not, however, go as far as naming Malema's backers. However, asked to comment on a column in Thursday's edition of BusinessDay by Jacob Dlamini - in which he wrote: "Malema is only too happy to say the kinds of things that Tokyo Sexwale [the minister of human settlements] and Mathews Phosa [the ANC treasurer] would like to say but dare not" - Friedman said he had no reason to believe that Dlamini was wrong. Turning to the idea punted by Malema of the appropriation of land without compensation, Friedman said that, while this notion was also supposed to have its origins in the Freedom Charter, the document was "once again being dragged in as a way to justify certain things". Friedman was adamant that some ANC senior politicians wanted firstly to run the party and secondly enhance their wealth and economic power. "So whenever a call is made for a land grab, don't think of the Freedom Charter. Rather think of internal ANC politics. If Malema goes on about grabbing land without compensation, it's really just another stick with which to beat the present ANC leader Jacob Zuma." Friedman said that those orchestrating Malema's campaign were in a very comfortable position. "If something doesn't fly, they're not implicated as it wasn't their idea but rather the ranting of some loud-mouthed young man." -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . |
- [YCLSA Discussion] ANCYL 'merely do what they are told' - ... Dominic Tweedie
