Why the ANC Youth League believes the National Dialogue is ineffective without youth voices

The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) said it will only participate in the upcoming National Dialogue if the process includes youth voices and addresses land redress, job creation and economic transformation, adding that anything less is a waste of time.

Those were the words of ANCYL president Collen Malatji.

“That national convention was a tea party for friends,” Malatji said. 

“The President (referring to Cyril Ramaphosa) was misled, invited to a tea party of friends who meet each other over tea and consulate each other into a delegation. What informs that?”

Malatji said civil organisations with constituencies were not included.

“Political youth organisations that have got constituencies were not there. The youth league was not there, whether it’s EFF or all these parties, the civil organisations that we know are out there, or even the foundations that represent integrity, they will not be there.”

“It was clearly a platform created by opportunists to try to present that, for the past eight years, the ANC has done nothing for South Africans,” Malatji added.

“It was a right-wing platform, anti-democracy, set up and programmed by people who are obsessed with removing progressives from power. That’s how we’ve classified it.”

The ANCYL has joined a growing number of political parties, organisations and lobby groups that have criticised the National Dialogue process.

Several prominent individuals and organisations, including the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, civil society groups, and members of the Government of National Unity (GNU), withdrew from the process.

Concerns raised by these foundations included the rushed implementation, lack of transparency around a R740 million budget, and what was perceived as a shift towards government control.

GNU partners such as the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) also pulled out.

Malatji added, “That’s why I’m saying it must be corrected. A real national dialogue must be convened with the right people.”

He criticised the recent National Convention, which was held at UNISA in Pretoria, saying it excluded meaningful youth participation and reduced young people to spectators in discussions about their own future.

“We state firmly: this cannot happen again. Any genuine national dialogue must put the youth at the centre and must produce a clear, outcome-based goal that prioritises the economy, jobs and the creation of education opportunities.

“Without youth, there is no future. The agenda of the national dialogue must re-emphasise the economy - economy, inclusion in the economy, and the economy. Anything else is a joke.”

Meanwhile, ANCYL Secretary-General Mntuwoxolo Ngudle also chipped in, saying that any National Dialogue that fails to address land reform and economic transformation is pointless.

“The national dialogue should focus more on transforming the country’s economy,” Ngudle said.

“We are not going to accept anything that drags us into discussions that are not about transforming this country’s economy, including ensuring the acceleration of land reform. That’s what we are proposing for the national dialogue.

“Any national dialogue that does not resolve the land question and the economy is a mere waste of time because our historic struggle as Africans and black people in this country is a struggle against the dispossession of land and the economy.”

simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za

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