YCL+on+Home+Affairs+Minister,+response+to+ANC+WL+statement

YCL Press Statement 14 March 2007
=On Home Affairs Minister=

The statement by the African National Congress Women’s League in response to the ‘YCL attack on Home Affairs Minister’, 08 March 2007 is deeply misguided and mischievous.

The YCL will continue to engage vigorously in the public discourse, conscious of its responsibility as a working class youth formation to critique, analyze and understand the positions propagated by various sections of our society, including the ANC WL.

Nqakula is not only a woman, but also a Minister in government
The YCL strongly believes that the statement released by the ANC WL in defence of the Minister of Home Affairs, Cde Nosiviwe Mapisa – Nqakula, unnecessarily ventures into some gender cult and does not responding to the fundamental contradictions and challenges besieging the Department of Home Affairs.

In the statement, the Women’s League projects itself as the only organisation representing women, whilst in the process neglects the plight of the majority of women in defense of Mapisa – Nqakula.

The fact that Mapisa – Nqakula is a woman does not necessarily mean that the problems faced by millions of SA as a result of inefficiencies at Home Affairs should be overlooked; neither will the gender cult perpetrated by the ANCWL automatically wipe out these problems.

Unlike the ANCWL, we do not see Mapisa – Nqakula as a woman, but as a Minister in government, who is bestowed with certain responsibilities and we are confident that she will through dialogue and engagement with various sections in society deals with these.

We were right about the problems at Home Affairs
As an organisation we have been vindicated by both the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs and SCOPA on the underperformance, maladministration and inefficiencies which have found expression in a form of theoretical episodes or nest at the Department of Home Affairs.

Therefore the ANC WL statement is gravitating from these central questions faced by Home Affairs and they are playing a cheap and hallowed gender stereotypes game. The insinuations by the ANC WL that…, ‘the problems of Home Affairs did not start yesterday, they started long ago and people should not behave as if they have not staying in South Africa for the past 12 years’ is in fact a disgrace and regrettable from an organisation that claims to speak on behalf of the victims of poor service delivery in general and the vulnerable section of society in our country in particular.

We call on the ANCWL stop desktop battles from the luxuries of their offices and to join us in the fight to ensure that poor and impoverished women who are deprived of their right to own an ID and thus enjoy the right to democracy.

A new plan has been unveiled
However we welcome the new strategic intervention plan unveiled by the Minister, Cde Nosiviwe Mapisa – Nqakula in addressing the challenges facing her Department. The YCL strongly believes that the new strategic plan needs to be embraced by all stakeholders and those who are concerned with the operations at the Department of Home Affairs.

The YCL leadership is committed in meeting with the Minister of Home Affairs to discuss and find synergies to the challenges facing her Department. Further the YCL will continue to be part of a leading detachment in the fight against gender inequalities and patriarchy wherever it manifest itself. Indeed the ANC WL statement is misguided and mischievous.

When we speak for the poor and destitute, we will not mince our words!

Issued by the Buti Manamela National Secretary Young Communist League

For more information contacts:

YCL Spokesperson Cell: 082 567 3557**
 * Castro Ngobese

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