Statement+of+YCL+National+Committee



YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE OF SOUTH AFRICA 3RD FLOOR COSATU HOUSE 1 – 5 LEYDS STREET BRAAMFONTEIN, JOHANNESBURG, 2000 P. O. BOX 1027 JOHANNESBURG 2000 TEL: 011 – 339 3621 FAX: 011- 339 4244 E-MAIL: leslyk@webmail.co.za HEAD OFFICE


 * 15 January 2006**


 * STATEMENT OF THE YCL NATIONAL COMMITTEE**

The YCL supports the communities of Khutsong, Moutse and Matatiele
The YCL has declared February 2006 as the Red Youth Month to mobilise young people to turn out in massive numbers to vote for the ANC in the 1 March local government elections.

The voice of every young person counts and must be heard and recognised in the elections. As young people, we have clear needs and interests from local government. We want effective provision of libraries, sports grounds, good clinics, healthy water, electricity, sanitation, recreation and other basic services where we live. We want a caring government, which listens to us and acts in our interests.

There are just far too many municipalities not delivering services to local communities due to incapacity, corruption, lack of accountability and disregard for basic needs and views of local communities. Local government corruption must be exposed and acted against. Poor service delivery must be challenged. Unaccountable councillors must be replaced.

It is for all these reasons that the YCL supports the communities of Moutse (Mpumalanga), Matatiele (KwaZulu Natal), Merafong (Gauteng) in their struggle to be heard about where they want to be located and how they want service delivery to be improved and how they want to take an effective part in local government. The YCL will use its elections programme to build links and local actions with youth in the affected communities of Moutse, Matatiele and Merafong..

The YCL believes that lack of service delivery and extensive provincialism has sparked the crises in the three areas. There are generally problems related to service delivery and these should not be confined to the cross-border municipalities. The crises in the municipalities have also exposed a situation wherein the Minister of Provincial and Local Government acts with arrogance for arrogance sake towards the people of the affected areas, without advancing clear reasons on why they should fall in this or that province.

We believe that the people and their interests should prevail over and above those of the Minister, especially given the rational nature of such interests. We further call on the ANC to act on its commitment to listen to the people.

The YCL notes the ANC manifesto as a step forward to address some of these problems.

The YCL is extremely concerned that in many cases the ANC list process was not thoroughly representative of all alliance partners. In some notable cases, the democratic process with the full participation of ANC members and alliance structures at grass roots level was not possible. The YCL calls on the ANC at this late stage to address all problems raised. This situation has also meant that many ANC comrades have been forced to consider standing as independent candidates.

The YCL believes that it would be incorrect for the ANC to follow a bureaucratic route with regards to these comrades who are essentially powerless victims. Many of them are genuine ANC members, with skills, with standing in the community, with community support and the right to stand for elections.

But the elections are not the end and will not solve our problems as young people. The new councillors must be held to account fully to their communities and to the alliance that puts them into office. Where they fail they must be recalled. They must be effectively empowered and capacitated. After the elections, the YCL calls on all young people to remain organised where they live and work. Young people must take forward exciting campaigns for implementation of the ANC manifesto, education, employment & other needs.

The YCL will also use its elections programme to mobilise young people in support of the SACP contesting elections in its own right in the future.

YCL calls for free education
We reiterate our congratulation to those who passed their matric examinations last year and wish them luck in their future endeavours. We are however worried over the fact that only 17% of the more than 500 000 matriculants achieved a university entrance.

We are further worried over the fact that our country is obsessed with the outcomes of Matric results, an aura created by the Apartheid education system. We challenge the fact that Matric results are regarded as the alpha and omega of the education system, which puts unnecessary pressure on youth who even goes to the extent of committing suicide because they failed their examination.

We will engage the Ministry of Education on the introduction of diverse exit points, which will include a General Education and Training Certificate and the Further Education and Training Certificates, which should not be based on competition but on outcomes. We call on schools and FET institutions to admit those learners who failed their matric so as their chances are broadened.

We find it disturbing that some institutions of higher learning disregard the University Exemption awarded at a school level through their own point systems. We call on for a standard access points from universities, as these are also used to exclude students.

We reiterate our demand for free education, and are disappointed that government has moved slow and failed in some provinces in introducing the 20% school fees exemption.

On Gautrain
The YCL is of the view that the R20 billion Gautrain Project should be diverted towards a more comprehensive, mass-oriented transport system that will be cheaper and benefit more people in and around Gauteng. This transport system should include an effective bus transportation system, improvement of both the national and regional road system, an affordable, safe and reliable transport system that will benefit the economy more to a far larger scale than Gautrain. Although millions of poor South Africans go on in frustration because of the poor public and private transport system, we find it unacceptable that the Gauteng and National government chose to focus on a transport for the elite.

The YCL is further disappointed that most of the production phase of the train and the rail will take place in Germany and France, or will rely on importation of skills from abroad, which creates the farce at the job creation front. We call on government to scrap the Gautrain project and introduce a (broad impact transport system.)


 * For more information please contact Buti Manamela (National Secretary) @ 082 567 3557 or Mazibuko Jara (Deputy National Secretary) @ 083 651 0271**