The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) held its Policy
Workshop, in preparation for the African National Congress (ANC) Policy
Conference, from the 1 -3 June 2012 at the St Georges Hotel in Pretoria.
The Policy workshop was attended by structures of the ANCYL including the
NEC, PEC and RECs. Alliance Partners addressed the workshop and
participated in the vibrant political engagements.

The Policy Workshop sought to consolidate the Youth League’s perspective
towards the Policy Conference of the African National Congress and below
are the major areas that flowed from the discussions that will contribute
to the policy submissions of the ANCYL.

Given that it is youth month, the policy workshop engaged and looked into
the militant role that was played by young people in the execution of the
struggle. We were inspired by the generations of Solomon Mahlangu, Nelson
Mandela, Patrick Mbulawa and many other young people who defied death in
pursuit of our struggle for national liberation. The policy workshop
concluded that young people of South Africa must therefore also never
surrender in their fight for economic freedom.

The ANCYL moves to the Policy conference of the ANC with the
understanding that the ANC is a radical force of the left, committed to
the struggle for the emancipation of our black people in general and
African people in particular. Its strategic allies are the national
liberation movements on the African continent, socialist internationalist
organisations.

It is our understanding that Economic Freedom in our Lifetime will and
must characterize this period of radical transformation. The National
Democratic Revolution, particularly the resolution of the national and
class questions, continues to drive our outlook. Now is the time for the
ANC to return to these fundamental questions and move away from the
permanent detours that were taken during the CODESA negotiations.
Accordingly, the ANCYL maintains that 1994 was a political breakthrough
and its attainment has not yet delivered the freedom that we envisaged;
freedom whose content should have been both political and economic.

The ANCYL National Policy Workshop further observed that the current
policy discussions of the ANC are instructed by the diagnostic report of
the National Planning Commission and this negates the spirit and letter
of the Polokwane Resolutions. Polokwane was about reasserting the
centrality of the organisation and a clear statement that the ANC must
provide the ideological outlook and directives to government and not vice
versa.

Our Policy Workshop was further taking place within a global environment
where developed and developing countries the world over, including
advanced capitalist countries, are playing a direct role in strategic
sectors of their economies. Amongst these we noted the development in
Malaysia, China, India, Germany and even Britain which has recently
nationalized the Scottish Bank of England. Our position therefore is
that the time has now come for a meaningful and radical economic
transformation policy. All discussions on the transformation of the
economy and the state should have as their fundamental basis the
attainment of the Freedom Charter objectives.

We reaffirm our resolutions of the 24th National Congress as part of our
submissions and the generational programme of action to Economic Freedom
in Our Life with its clarion call of the seven (7) cardinal pillars for
economic transformation.

The radical economic transformation policy the ANC should drive must,
unapologetically, be about redistributing the land and mineral wealth of
South Africa to the people as a whole.

It should be premised by amending section 25 of the Constitution of SA as
it is a stumbling block towards real redistribution of wealth. The
willing buyer willing seller principle has failed and we cannot continue
to give effect to a policy that has not delivered on the aspirations of
our people 18 years into democracy. The ANC must unequivocally proclaim
the need to expropriate land without compensation. All land must be owned
by the state and leased to private individuals.

The mineral wealth beneath the soil must be returned to people as a
whole. South Africa can never attain its objective of being a
developmental and interventionist state, where there is no state
ownership and control of the strategic levers of the economy, being the
banks, monopoly industry and the mines.

We remain resolute on the need for a state bank. Such a State Bank will
not only ensure that the interests of the majority are considered as a
priority but shall also be a progressive institution to drive
government’s infrastructural projects. To date, the ANC continues to
expect financial institutions that are driven by a profit motive and
capitalistic greed to implement, on our behalf, developmental
socio-economic transformation.

Government institutions and portfolios must be aligned to the aspirations
of the Freedom Charter to ensure that the mandate is clear and
unambiguous. Each of the clauses of the Freedom Charter must be clearly
located within the state apparatus and have a political figure head at
the helm accountable for its delivery. There should therefore be a
Ministry on each of the clauses with specific deliverables to be attained
including a Ministry of Free Basic Education to deliver free basic
education by end of 2013, and Ministry of Nationalisation.

Our international relations perspective is driven by the understanding
that the ANC is anti-imperialistic and internationalist in character. We
will continue to give solidarity to the organisations and peoples of
Cuba, Western Sahara, Palestine and Burma. We call for the lifting of the
illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe and call for the speedy conclusion of
the Global Political Agreement.

On Youth Development

We reaffirm the 24th National Congress Resolutions on Youth Development
and call for government to resource the National Youth Development Agency
appropriately. We call for the implementation of compulsory National
Youth Service across all government departments and the dissolution of
all SETAs. One institution must be established to consolidate all of
government’s skills development initiatives. We further reject the notion
of a Youth Wage Subsidy as this will create an unsustainable and
undesirable two tier labour market whose sole beneficiaries shall be
business. Various options need to be considered including a Job Search
Subsidy as implemented in Brazil. Such subsidy, instead of relegating
young people, to lowly paid, unsecured workers at the whim of capital,
shall support young people, discouraged and otherwise, in their quest to
find employment.

ANCYL YOUTH MONTH PROGRAMME

As part of the commemoration of the 36th Anniversary of the June 16
uprising, the ANC Youth League will be intensifying our call for Economic
Freedom in our Lifetime.

A Youth Land Rally will be convened in the Daggaskraal community in
Mpumalanga to mark the successful achievement of land ownership by
indigenous people as called for by Cde Pixley Isa Ka Seme

We will host its National ANCYL Youth Month rally in the Bethlehem in the
Free State. The rally will be preceded by build up political schools and
youth cafes throughout the country.