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Speech at the Provincial ANC Youth League Conference
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 EASTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
SPEECH BY PREMIER STOFILE
 AT THE PROVINCIAL ANC YOUTH LEAGUE CONFERENCE
 30 MARCH 2001

Dear Comrades

It is always a great honor and privilege to be afforded the opportunity to share ideas with the Youth League of our glorious movement. For 
me this is like making a birthday speech since the League and I were born on the same year. But it is also a rude reminder that I am fast 
approaching the sunset of my life. So the need to hand over the knowledge, experience and reins continues to be an urgent challenge. An 
urgent anxiety as to the state of readiness of the generation that must lead our country to the middle of the 21st Century. The picture is 
not very blique. In fact it is promising.

At the beginning of the forties the ANC was bedeviled with weakness (organizationally and ideologically). Liberalism was subduing militancy 
and the revolutionary spirit. So prominent members of Provincial and Local Youth Organisations began political discussions of what needed 
to be done to take the aspirations of their communities for freedom forward. Most of these young people were students from Secondary and 
High School, from the University College of Fort Hare and from the working class. In fact comrade Walter Sisulu was the real distinct 
representative of the latter category among these young leaders. The rest came from Colleges and Schools.

The Youth League did not arise as a freak and unguided event. It was born of members of the ANC and was sanctioned officially by the ANC 
Annual Conferences of 1942 and 1943. It is interesting to note that the 1942 ANC resolution specifically authorized "the Executive to 
institute a Youth League of the African National Congress to include students at Fort Hare". That is the Youth League that became a model 
of the role the youth should play in the struggle. It gave birth to such giants as Anton Lembede, A.P. Mda, O.R. Tambo, Walter Sisulu, 
Nelson Mandela, Chris Hani and many more. The current President of the ANC and of South Africa as well as a number of prominent leaders in 
the ANC and the rest of society honed their political and leadership skills via the ANC Youth League. So the League is the pride of the 
Liberation Movement. Its form/focus and content are matters we all watch very closely.

As mentioned right at the beginning, the Youth League was a child of its times and context. So its ideology of Africanism must be 
understood in that context. It was an effort to seal the unity of Africans to sharpen their efforts to free themselves. It was a radical 
departure from a liberal and traditionalist ANC of the time. It was an ideology that expressed popular demands and aspirations. The Youth 
League wanted to educate young men and women "from the Mediterranean Sea in the North to the Indian and Atlantic Oceans in the South 
&#133;." All this to make sure that Africans spoke with one voice. The Youth League wanted to create conditions which could enable Africa 
to make her own contribution to human progress and prosperity.

We must agree, comrades, that this is not different from our President’s idea of an African Renaissance. We see already how this idea 
continues to capture the imagination of African leaders and people in our own time. A few weeks ago we saw the first fruits of this idea. 
Our President was part of a leadership that saw the transformation of the OAU to the AU (African Union). This positions Africa to play a 
coherent and dynamic role in regional and global politics. Subsequently the Windhoek Summit led to an agreement that SADC too must be 
restructured to be properly positioned for the challenges of today in the sub-region. These developments must inform what we do with our 
League henceforth.

We must also accept the challenges posed by hardening racism in our country. The advent of the DA clearly took S.A. backward. The "native 
problem" has become foremost in the DA agenda just, as it had been for whites since the 19th Century. The DA sees itself as the new 
custodian of developing a solution to the "native problem". What makes matters worse for them is that unlike in Colonial and apartheid 
times, the "natives" are in power now. We are in charge of the governance of our country and the determination of our destiny. We are not 
in the mood of abdicating.

The increasing majority our support base reflected in 1999 indicates that our people are at one with the ANC in believing that we should 
not let go of the responsibility to change our lives. From 63% in 1994 we registered 66% in 1999. The Local Government Elections of 
December 2000 gave the ANC the mandate to govern over 84% of the people of S.A. In the Eastern Cape the ANC has the mandate to govern over 
97% of our citizens. This is no small mandate and it must be discharged with wisdom.

The material conditions continue to be hostile to the discharge of our mandate. Poverty levels and unemployment are very high. Political 
consciousness is very low. Our communities must be mobilized to deal with the challenges of crime, moral decay which leads to domestic 
violence and children, women and old people abuse. We cannot be a moral society when we rape, maim, beat and kill women, children and the 
aged. The scourge of HIV/AIDS is probably one of our most fearsome challenges.

So the Youth League of the ANC, in order to make a qualitative contribution to our movement attaining its strategic objective, must look at 
how best to structure itself to meet these challenges. It must do so in the full knowledge of the fact that S.A. is not an island. 
Globalisation is influencing countries of the world more than ever before. The easy but wrong question is whether globalisation is a good 
thing or not. The more correct but difficult question is how to redirect the liberal agenda of globalisation. Put in other words: how do we 
ensure that globalisation offers great opportunities to developing countries and communities. We, as South Africans or even African 
countries must face this challenge together with like-minded countries. This way we shall have attained one of the founding principles of 
the ANC Youth League, viz: Unity in Action for freedom.

DISUNITED WITHOUT A COMMON WILL, THE OPPRESSED WILL REMAIN VICTIMS OF EXPLOITATION.

Comrades, this is what President Mbeki was trying to say at the recent UN Millenium Summit, at the OAU Summit in Libya and at the SADC 
Summit in Windhoek. In fact this is what he is saying to S.A. and the world all the time. Talking of the poor at the UN Millenium Summit 
the President had this to say:

"The poor of the world stand at the comfortable mansions occupied by every King and Queen, President, Prime Minister and Minister 
privileged to attend this unique meeting. The question these billions ask is what are you doing &#133;.. to end the deliberate and savage 
violence against us that, everyday, sentences many of us to a degrading and unnecessary death!"

This is a question, which seeks to change the liberal and exploitative agenda of globalisation as it stands.

You must agree by now that the objective as well as subjective challenges that faced the ANC and young people in the 1940’s is 
substantively similar to those facing us today. The lack of political maturity that was creating rifts and splits on the national unity 
front are as rife now as they were then. The ANC still believes (as the Youth League declared then) "that practical leadership must be 
given to capable men (and women) whatever their status in society". Of course we saw how everyone scrambled to be on the Election Lists in 
1999 and 2000. The opportunism, corruption and political cannibalism and assassinations that started then continue to plague our work to 
this day. We hope this conference will develop strategies to deal with these poisonous developments. A Better Life For All is hampered by 
these things.

In its present state the ANC Youth League may not be able to deal with the challenges of mobilizing and educating of the people of S.A. The 
focus seems to be on the theory only. The rich mix of the young people of our communities is alienated from the Youth League. They swell 
the ranks of religious, cultural, sports and other formations. They are not in the Youth League. The ANC Youth League cannot even claim 
hegemony over COSAS or SASCO. What about the unemployed youth, youth in Model C schools and unemployed and semi-literate or illiterate 
young people? What programme do we have for them?

The mobilization and political education of our people cannot be abstract theory. It must be through interaction in development programmes. 
Theory must develop out of experience. Not vice versa. To understand all this, the leadership of the Youth League must be imbued with 
ideological clarity. This will unite the Youth League and the ANC as well as our people. Above all, ideological clarity will help us 
withstand opposing ideologies. It will also protect us against factionalism and infantile revolutionary tendencies. It protects the 
fundamentals of our struggle.

We also need ideological consistency. This will guide us through the rigors of change. It will also assist us to tell the simple truth to 
our people. We shall be able to inform them of our gains. But we shall also be able to explain truthfully to our people why their needs 
cannot and have not been fulfilled at one go. We must avoid behaving as if nothing has improved since 1994.

Comrades, you are all leaders from your individual branches. In 1875 Engels had this to say about leaders:

"It will be the duty of all leaders to gain an even clear insight into all theoretical questions &#133;. The task will be to spread with 
increasing zeal among the masses of the workers the ever more clarified understanding thus acquired."

Engels was writing about the need to LISTEN, ANALYSE AND ORGANISE. The ANC Youth League is challenged to find the best structure, strategy 
and tactics for doing this. If you look at the history of the ANC Youth League, you will discover that there was a time when the Youth 
League was central body for all specialized youth formations. Maybe we should revisit that.

Our biggest challenge is to build a strong ANC/Youth League. Our cadres must be prepared to learn, and learn and learn again. This does not 
mean memorizing dead letters and fashionable catch phrases. They must learn to understand, analyze and interpret society. They must learn 
to evolve and develop appropriate strategies and tactics for a given situation. We must develop a common strategy of dealing with 
disruptive internal and external forces, which continue to want to derail our programmes. The anarchy which is showing its ugly head among 
our forces must be dealt with.

Let me close in the words of Marx writing to Bracke in 1875:

"Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes".

May the Conference be fruitful.

FORWARD TO TOTAL EMANCIPATION!!!

REV. M A STOFILE
 PREMIER: PROVINCE OF THE EASTERN CAPE

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