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The ANCYL joins the continent of Africa in celebrating democracy. The
election of Comrade Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, following a hotly contested
election, is a demonstration that democracy is alive and well in Africa, and
it is democracy not for imperialist masters but to realise the will of the
people of the continent as a whole.

Comrade Dlamini-Zuma is not only an intellectual but a tried and tested
leader of our times. Repeatedly, she has proven her capacity as a
dependable, reliable and capable leader. We have no doubt therefore that her
election represents a commitment by Africa to deal decisively with the
urgent and pressing challenges facing the continent including remaining
vestiges of colonialism, poverty, underdevelopment and conflict. Within the
ambit of these broad challenges will also be the need to drive youth
development, women emancipation and the integration of the continent as a
whole.

It was Karl Marx in 1845 who said that philosophers have only interpreted
the world in various ways, the point however is to change it. We hope
therefore that as Comrade Dlamini-Zuma joins the esteemed ranks of African
leadership who, beyond geographic boundaries, changed forever the
development trajectory of the continent including amongst them the Former
Presidents of the ANC, Comrade Oliver Tambo and Thabo Mbeki, Former
Presidents of Mozambique, Tanzania, Ghana and Egypt Samora Machel, Julius
Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah and Gamel Nasser and many others; she will know that
her role is to decisively deal with the continued oppression and
marginalisation of Africa through neo-colonial tendencies underpinned by
economic colonisation. We trust that she will resuscitate and breathe new
life into our critically ill African agenda and revive amongst others the
New Partnership for Africa's Development.

The challenges that confront her are numerous and include the continuing
fight for social justice, self-determination and freedom for amongst others
the people of Western Sahara, Swaziland and South Sudan. We have no doubt
Comrade Dlamini-Zuma is up to the task of dealing a decisive blow to
imperialists and monopoly capital that continues to hold Africa at ransom
and pillages her resources. She must take forward the recent call that she
made for Africa to reclaim her mineral wealth and we trust in continuing on
this courageous path, the land question in South Africa and Zimbabwe and
foreign land ownership in the rest of the continent at large will feature
prominently on the agenda of issues that preoccupy the African Union.
Without decisive resolution of such matters, indeed the continental body
would be neglecting its responsibility to promote peace, security and
stability within in the continent. It is our hope too, that the African
Union will now have the courage of its convictions to call for an end to the
continued criminalisation of only Africans by the International Criminal
Court and call for amongst others the charging of Former US President George
W. Bush for crimes against humanity.

As we wish MaDlamini well, we trust that she too, like the founding fathers
of the African Union, will recall "the heroic struggles waged by our peoples
and our countries for political independence, human dignity and economic
emancipation". Indisputably, as the ANC Youth League, we are convinced that
such political independence, human dignity and economic emancipation will
never be achieved while the African remains enslaved and dependent on
colonial masters. If nothing else is achieved during her term, let it only
be the reassertion of human dignity and the return of Africa's mineral
wealth to her people for Economic Freedom in our Lifetime.