Date: 30/10/2010
Source: The African National Congress
Title: ANC: Zuma: Address by the president, to the 66th anniversary of the ANC Youth League, Stellenbosch

ANC Youth League President, Cde Julius
Malema,
Members of the Executive Committee of the ANC Youth League,
Comrades
and Friends
Young People of South Africa,

We have come to pay tribute to 66
years of the existence of the ANC Youth League, dedicated to a total
transformation of this country from an apartheid state to a democratic,
non-racial, non-sexist and a united South Africa of which all of us are
proud.

Each of these 66 years of the ANCYL has registered irreversible
victories for the socio-political and economic emancipation of our
people.

We continue to applaud the role of young people of this country,
led by the youth league, in always advocating for radical change and
progress of our society towards a better quality of life, particularly for
the poor majority.

When the ANC Youth League was formed in 1944, youth
leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Anton Lembede, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo,
Jordan Ngubane and Robert Sobukwe declared that they were "laying their
services at the disposal of the African National Congress, in the belief,
knowledge and conviction that the cause of Africa must and will
triumph".

The League's first president, Anton Lembede, stated in March
1944:

"The formation of the African National Congress Youth League is an
answer and assurance to the critics of the national movement that the
African Youth will not allow the struggles and sacrifices of their fathers
to have been in vain. Our fathers fought so that we, better equipped when
our time came, should start and continue from where they stopped."

The ANC
therefore took a wise decision to establish the ANC Youth League.
The
movement saw the need for energy and militancy in order to add value to the
organization and make it move forward.

The ANC Youth League has never
disappointed the movement even during the most trying times during the
struggle for liberation. The League was always there, providing ideas and
initiating activities for the ANC in all phases of the struggle.

Among
these was the Programme of Action during the 1950s which outlined the
campaigns to be undertaken by the ANC which contained many important
elements which changed the character of the ANC.

The ANC Youth League was
known for consistency in its manner of doing things, which made the
membership appoint them to key positions including the National Executive
Committee. The enthusiasm and political clarity of the leadership of the
League earned them great respect.

What stood out over the years was the
hard work ethic, dedication and commitment of the League. The ANCYL brought
the culture that has been admired over the years.

They were involved in
all programmes. When the time came to gather views for the drafting of the
Freedom Charter they were in the forefront. When the time came for
underground work they were also not found wanting.

When the armed struggle
was declared it was the youth that swelled the ranks of the uMkhonto Wesizwe
and demonstrated bravery.

In 1976, they led the fight against inferior
education during the Soweto uprisings. They defied the apartheid police and
waged a campaign that became a turning point mobilizing the youth. When we
needed to make the country ungovernable and apartheid unworkable, the youth
was in the forefront of establishing people's power.

The ANC Youth League
has always been the political school of the ANC. Political education was
always prioritized at all material times.The ANC Youth League's historical
task has always been to organize and swell its ranks with young people who
must be schooled in the history and traditions of the ANC.

Given these
strong political foundations, the youth thoroughly learned respect and have
through the years maintained that culture of discipline, respect, humility
and absolute loyalty to the organization and its structures.

It is this
history, successes and the demonstration of heroism that makes us celebrate
the role played by the ANC Youth League.

On this 66th anniversary we urge
the youth not to lose that militancy, bravery and radicalism that
characterized the youth league especially during the struggle for freedom.
Today, in this era of freedom and democracy, the youth must be in the
forefront of current struggles to change the quality of life of our people,
including the attainment of economic liberation for the poor.

We have
attained freedom and democracy but the struggle continues on another realm,
one that requires the same commitment and impetus that was demonstrated by
the youth of 1944 - the struggle of attaining a better life for all.

As we
had announced in the National General Council, indeed last week Cabinet
discussed and approved a new growth path framework, to help us tackle
head-on the creation of jobs and reduction of poverty. The Youth League has
to become involved in unpacking this Growth Path to ensure that it speaks to
the challenges facing the youth.

The growth path is intended to address
unemployment, inequality and poverty in a strategy that is principally
reliant on creating a significant increase in the number of new jobs in the
economy. We have set a new target of creating five million jobs in the next
ten years, most of these for young people.

This target is projected to
reduce unemployment from 25% to 15%. We are certain that working together
with labour, business, community sector, women, youth and other social
partners, we will achieve this critical target by addressing key structural
challenges in our economy.

Comrades,

Other than economic transformation,
another task for us is to continue protecting the rights of the poor and
marginalized in our country. We have noted trends where certain people think
they can lecture the ANC about human rights. Even people and organizations
with no track record of fighting for human rights now appear to feel they
know better and have to protect this country and its people from the ANC,
the very organization that has fought since 1912 to bring about society
where the rights of every South African would be protected and
respected.

The ANC formulated a Bill of Rights long before even the United
Nations. The 1923 and 1943 ANC Bill of Rights were ground-breaking
documents.

The ANC Bill of Rights demonstrated the foresight of this
organization that has always been driven by the quest for justice, human
rights and a better life for all the people of South Africa.
Some of the
rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic are not being respected
and some of the citizens, especially the poor, suffer because of inability
to fight for their rights in the courts of law.
One of these rights is
access to the media and the protection of the rights and dignity of ordinary
citizens who cannot afford to employ lawyers when their human rights have
been violated by the media. It is for this reason that the ANC in its
wisdom, calls for the exploration of the need for a media tribunal.

The
National General Council meeting in Durban, acting on the directive of the
52nd national conference in Polokwane, took us a step further in this
regard.

The organization will continue processing the resolutions of both
Polokwane and Durban in this regard. We have indicated that the process will
be undertaken through parliament and that all affected stakeholders,
including the media industry, will have a role to play.

We resent the
lectures that we are given currently, that the ANC is hell-bent on violating
freedom of the media.

Some people even compare the ANC government to the
apartheid government which is offensive and extremely ridiculous. The ANC
fought for media freedom and will always protect it and promote it. Any
society without a free media is a dangerous society as it allows an
opportunity for the violation of human rights and other social ills. We
know this from the apartheid days, which is why we fought for media freedom.

At the same time, we need to define media freedom properly in our context.
It should mean a media that is free from commercial or political interests,
whose sole motive is the good of the country.
It is also freedom of the
media for every citizen, not just media workers and practitioners, which is
why issues of diversity of ownership and staffing are important, as well as
access to the media for the poor and marginalized.

The stories of the poor
hardly make news, except when defined through the eyes of those who are
powerful. Once the majority in the country starts believing that the media
has a sinister agenda or does not share the vision of building a truly
non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa and a better
life for all, the media is in trouble.

We therefore need to have a
continuous debate about the freedom of the media and what it means for a
developing society like ours. Fortunately the media is also keen to have
this continuous debate.
The ANC Youth League should also engage in this
debate within its own structures and contribute to the building of a diverse
media, with which all South Africans can identify, whether urban or rural,
rich or poor, black or white.

Comrades,

We congratulate the ANC Youth
League on this milestone of celebrating 66 years in 2010. The League has a
critical responsibility of taking forward the wonderful work of the founding
fathers and mothers. Let us not let these heroes and heroines down.

Let
us build the ANC, swell its ranks, and ensure that it continues to lead this
country to true emancipation. Over the coming months and towards our
Centenary in 2012, all members of the ANC in branches and at deployments
will work harder to ensure we reach our goal of a million registered members
by 2012.

In particular, we will rely on our youth to lead both the
Imvuselelo Campaign and our recruitment drive ahead of the hundred years
milestone since our organisation was formed in Bloemfontein in 1912.

Your
work has only just begun, to serve the mission and purpose for which the
League was founded, which was to organize young people and contribute to
strengthening the mother body.
We trust that the League will build its
structures here in the Western Cape, and set a target that by this time next
year, much progress would have been made to build the ANC on the ground in
this province.

There must be no part of South Africa where the ANC does not
lead our people towards a better life.

Let us build the ANC, the ANC Youth
League, the Alliance and the entire mass democratic movement, for us to take
the national democratic revolution forward.

The ANC Lives, the ANC
Leads!

Amandla!