The ANC Youth League marked former president Thabo Mbeki 's 70th birthday on Monday by commending him for his work on the African continent.
Once at the forefront of President Jacob Zuma’s campaign for the ANC presidency in the run-up to the its Polokwane elective conference in 2007, and vocal in calling for Mbeki’s humiliating removal as state president in 2008, the league has since turned against Zuma and is now fiercely opposed to his serving a second term.
On Monday, the league praised Mbeki for leading the “collective charge for the renewed development of the African continent, notably through the African Renaissance and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)”, when he was “president of the ANC”.
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema - who has since been expelled by the ANC - made a point of warmly welcoming Mbeki at the ANC’s centenary celebrations in Mangaung in January.
Youth League spokeswoman Khusela Sangoni-Khawe said its goal of economic freedom meant massive development of the African economy was needed.
This should be “driven by radical and decisive programmes led by the South African government and private sector”.
“It remains our conviction that South Africa’s development is intricately linked to the development and prosperity of Africa and her people as a whole,” Sangoni-Khawe said.
She said there would be no sustainable socio-economic development and stability in South Africa unless the state played an “active role in the economic development of the African continent”.
“This obviously should include the development of trade corridors that link up the entire African continent and capacity to consume the goods and services produced in the continent.”
Since being deposed as state president in 2008, in what former-Mbeki aide Frank Chikane has likened to a coup, Mbeki has continued with extensive work on the continent in peace-brokering, in Sudan among other countries.
“We commend comrade Thabo Mbeki’s continuing commitment to the development of African leadership in particular and the role he continues to play towards the attainment of the Freedom Charter demand that ‘South Africa shall strive to maintain world peace and the settlement of all international disputes by negotiation - not war’,” Sangoni-Khawe said.
Political Bureau