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Today, the 2nd of February 2010 represents exactly 20 years of the announcement by F.W. De Klerk of the release of political prisoners and unbanning of Political parties by the apartheid regime. The ANC YL's considered, concrete and correct view is that the release of political prisoners and unbanning of political parties 20 years ago represented the political defeat of the repressive apartheid regime. The courage, focus and militancy of young activists, particularly the 1985 young lions, who committed to make apartheid South Africa ungovernable, brought the apartheid regime to its knees.

The ANC YL rejects the notion that F.W. De Klerk was solely responsible for the release of political prisoners and should because of that be celebrated. F.W. De Klerk's address to Parliament 20 years ago was never a result of his individual brilliance, but a capitulation to the revolutionary forces in and outside South Africa, who had exposed apartheid's murderous, immoral and repressive practices of the black majority and Africans in particular. The address by De Klerk was a demonstration of the reality that no unjust system can rule over people forever.

The political freedom attained in South Africa is not as a result of the generosity of F.W. De Klerk, but apartheid regime's capitulation to the progressive forces of change led by the African National Congress. The continued State sponsored violence by the apartheid regime bears testimony to the reality that the State had wished to cling to political power through repression and violence. The oppressed people of South Africa liberated themselves; they were never liberated by De Klerk.

We celebrate the 20th anniversary of this announcement of political prisoners' release and unbanning of political power, because since then the ANC has been able to lead the whole society in development and reconstruction of South Africa's value systems. The ANC has with excellence put in place mechanisms and systems to democratise society and build sustainable livelihoods for all our people. The reality that the ANC is on track in the battle against poverty and unemployment inspires hopes that we can move with the necessary speed to realise all the aims and objectives of the Freedom Charter and total economic freedom in our lifetime.