INLSA

Picture: Jennifer Bruce

The ANC Youth League came under fire at a Sadtu provincial conference in Durban on Thursday for organising a march against the ANC-led government.

Speaker after speaker accused ANCYL of playing on the feelings of the unemployed and the poor.

Even ANC songs sung during the conference were modified to show delegates’ anger over ANCYL’s planned protest to the Union Buildings.

“If they march against President Jacob Zuma, there will be a fight,” sang delegates.

They were led by South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary, Mbuyiseni Mathonsi.

The song also stated that there would be a fight if people ridiculed Zuma.

ANC national executive member and police minister, Nathi Mthethwa, raised concerns over the planned march to demand nationalisation and employment for young people.

“These comrades think that they will march to the Union Buildings and things will change. It is a lie that we need to debug,” he told delegates.

He said the ANCYL was playing on the feelings of the people who were really poor.

Sadtu acting chairwoman, Nozipho Mavuso, said the call for nationalisation should not be allowed to confuse people.

“We know that nationalisation is intended to benefit particular individuals,” she said.

“It is driven by tendering systems that benefit particular individuals at the expense of the masses.”

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said ANCYL had requested meetings with Cosatu to discuss the planned march.

“Subject to these discussions, we see no reason why we should not support them when most of their demands are identical to ours,” he said.

He urged the ANCYL to ensure its demonstrations were peaceful to avoid the chaos that broke out when the youth wing demonstrated outside the ANC head office in Johannesburg recently.

“We call on the police to take stern action against anyone fomenting violence and disorder.”

Vavi noted that there had been silence when ministers were implicated in fraud and corruption.

He said they were supposed to issue statements as they did when it was alleged ANCYL president Julius Malema was involved in corruption.

“When the ANCYL president can’t explain how he has suddenly become so rich as to afford to destroy a R3.6 million house and build another one much bigger one costing millions more, all of us issue statements to demand an investigation.”

It was surprising then that there were no statements issued when Public Protector Thuli Madonsela published a report that implicated ministers.

“But when the Public Protector publishes a report, after investigation, implicating ministers who apparently form part of the factions we belong to, there is deafening silence from some of us,” Vavi said.

Madonsela's report on Co-operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka found he had spent R546,864 on an unofficial visit to Switzerland.

She also found the public works department had deviated from the tender process when procuring offices for the police in Pretoria and Durban.

She found national police chief Bheki Cele to be complicit in the leases. - Sapa