Durban - The Progressive Professionals Forum president said a series of ANC Youth League (ANCYL) lectures will help build on President Jacob Zuma’s efforts towards economic liberation for the poor.
Mzwanele “Jimmy” Manyi said the lectures, which the KwaZulu-Natal ANCYL started last year, were a step in the right direction towards true liberation for black people.
“I am very excited to see that the young people, ANCYL, are very much on track and very clear about what they want.
“They are decisive in bringing about economic transformation, and they are pushing the president that he must make his legacy out of economic transformation,” he said.
Manyi had attended the Economic Freedom Lecture on Wednesday, organised by the KZN ANCYL together with
its eThekwini region counterpart.
Zuma and ANCYL president Collen Maine were the guest speakers at the event.
ANCYL provincial spokesperson Mandla Shange said the aim of the programmes was to help young people, especially members of the ANCYL, to understand the concept of economic freedom.
“Because if they don’t understand it, it would be impossible to include them in finding solutions to the problems we are facing,” he said.
Among people who had previously conducted the lectures were Manyi, SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni and former SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
Shange said Motsoeneng had been included in the programmes because of his bold step in bringing changes at the public broadcaster. “We need people who are going to
talk bravely about taking decisions which deal with transformation.
“The 90 percent music content in SABC radio that Hlaudi has introduced was one of the ways of helping local artists to participate in economic development.”
He said that through Motsoeneng, many journalists who were working on a contract basis for SABC had been employed permanently, “which is part of transformation and growing the country’s economy”.
Motsoeneng conducted similar lectures in Durban and Pietermaritzburg this week.
Shange also said the programmes were aimed at assisting the provincial government to come up with policies to help young people. He said all government departments should establish youth directorate offices.
“There should be a percentage of youth in all departments. All municipalities should also establish youth-directorate officers who will directly talk about youth development in KZN,” he said, adding that the league would take the programmes to deep rural areas of the province.
He said the concept of “economic freedom in our life time” had nothing to do with the EFF because the ANC was the first to adopt it at its 2012 Mangaung congress.
University of KwaZulu-Natal political analyst Bheki Mngomezulu commended the league for its efforts.
However, he said South Africa had enough ideas to drive development programmes, but it lacked implementation.
“If they start implementing what has been agreed on, we can be heading towards a better future,” he said.
By bringing Zuma on board, the league was giving credibility to its programmes, Mngomezulu noted.