PREMIER'S ADDRESS
Comrade chairperson,
Leaders and members of the ANC Youth Leagues,
Delegates and guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Allow me, first and foremost, to extend my appreciation for having invited me to this auspicious occasion.
Comrades, we meet here bound by our genuine respect and love for our country. Inheriting the legacy of a great party, the African National Congress, which is the best hope for redirecting our nation on a more humane, just and peaceful course.
My right and my privilege to stand here before you has been won, won in my lifetime, by the blood and the sweat of the innocent.
Portia Shabangu, Sithuli Hleza, Nokuthula Simelane, Thomas Mahlangu and many others. Many lives were lost in the streets, in the trenches so that we can have a right to live.
Today those heroes of our struggle must feel good as they look down upon us gathering here today.
As a testament to the struggles of those who have gone
before;
As a legacy for those who will come after;
As a tribute to the endurance, the patience, the courage of our forefathers and
mothers;
As an assurance that their struggles have not been in vain, and that hope is
eternal; we gather here as comrades in partnership and alliance with Sasco. In
alliance with Cosatu and the SACP.
I was asked to speak about the challenges facing the youth in the province. Believe me when I say that the future of our non-racial, non-sexist democratic country depends to a great degree on what the youth of our country themselves do to bring about this result.
Our country faces many problems and challenges. But it also has the advantage of many opportunities to achieve the common objective we all pursue of transforming itself into a common homeland that we can all be proud of.
To transform those opportunities and possibilities into a positive reality requires that all of us, black and white South Africans, the young and the old, act together for the realisation of the goal of a better life for all.
You meet under the banner of : A youth movement in pursuit of total transformation – fighting HIV/AIDS in the African Century.
It is from this that your conference derives its importance. I hope that by the time you conclude your deliberations, you will have agreed on the steps you will take together to contribute to the historic objective of total transformation and nation building.
You will have to undertake a frank and open assessment of the major elements that characterise our society, encompassing both the positives and the negatives.
I will, with your permission, therefore try to make a contribution to your discussions by speaking on some of the issues I believe your conference should consider. Let me hasten to say that I do not expect you to accept, uncritically, all I say to you today. Feel free to argue and debate. That is the essence of democracy.
Comrades, because we are meant to be leaders of the people tomorrow, our challenges cannot be different from those that the people face today.
Foremost amongst our tasks as a nation is to mobilise the people for reconstruction and development. As the people were their own liberators, so should they become active agents in changing their lives for the better.
The victory that we have scored against apartheid has laid the firm basis for all the people of South Africa to unite across colour, language, ethnic and religious barriers. It has launched us on the course of realising our true potential.
Perhaps one of our greatest challenges is how we deal with the HIV/Aids scourge. In partnership with all sectors of society , we must continue to give absolute priority to HIV/AIDS programmes.
We must continue to mobilise popular awareness of the seriousness of the epidemic. All of us must realise that the epidemic is not only a health issue, but also an economic one, which we ignore at our peril.
The other challenge is how we deal with the democratisation of our institutions of learning. Because education is more than ever the key to our children's future, we must make sure all our children have that key. To give our children that key we will need the best-trained teachers in every classroom and school. And real college and tertiary education opportunities for all our children.
We have set higher standards. Learners, educators, parents and all stakeholders have to be more responsible for the education of our children. They have to be more accountable. We must ensure that all teachers know the subjects they teach.
This means we have to give teachers all the training they need. That's the only way open for us to reach the high standards we have set for ourselves. Get talented people into the classroom, reward good teachers for teaching and give all teachers the training they need.
As parents, as members of the community and as proud South Africans we need to ensure that there is learning and teaching going on at schools.
Comrades I agree with you when you say yours is a time-tested organisation born into struggle, nurtured in struggle and forever struggling. This means that there are many things to do and more victories to score. You are correct when you call out that EVERY YOUTH LEAGUE MEMBER AN ORGANISER, A COMMISSAR.
In partnership we have indeed gone along way in creating a better life for all. Our mandate was and still remains the creation of a free, united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society.
We need to build and work for the development of a national consensus on the path towards the creation of a truly democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, united and prosperous country and nation
That is our challenge.
As we reconstruct South Africa and reclaim the whole country for all, we break down all the divisions and attitudes of the past, freeing everyone form the last vestiges of oppression.
It is our task to make the most of our freedom, to entrench it in our new epoch as a fundamental and a permanent feature of our very existence. During this year we should once again mobilise the masses of our people to participate in the local government elections.
We must work to ensure that the people exercise their right and duty to choose their representatives in this sphere of government, in the same way that they freely chose their provincial and national representatives last year.
As you did last year, you must again work to ensure that the people renew the democratic mandate of our movement by electing our candidates to lead the municipal governments throughout our country. We are not a perfect party. We are not a perfect people.
Yet, we are called to a perfect mission: our mission to feed the hungry; to clothe the naked; to house the homeless; to teach the illiterate; to provide jobs for the jobless. With courage and initiative, leaders can change things.
No generation can choose the age or circumstance in which it is born. But through leadership it can choose to make the age in which it is born, an age of enlightenment, an age of jobs and peace and justice.
The leadership can mitigate the misery of our nation. Leadership can part the waters and lead our nation in the direction of a better life for all. The challenge facing us is to seize the opportunity by the forelock and wring every vestige of hope, inspiration and ultimately glory from the next century.
Given the choice, our people could ask for no firmer base than our province and our country to launch recharged ambition and new resolve.
All we have to do is respond to the new century's call and to forge, for both ourselves and the future generations, a peaceful, productive and prosperous environment in our province.
Faith and integrity must be our trusty companions on this road to progress and economic empowerment. Let us embrace the new millennium with courage, optimism and an iron resolve in the inherent values of the South African people. We need to join hands to achieve this South African dream – a people-centered country.
We must assist our people to reach those deep pools of resources, resilience and dedication and in so doing, find the key that will create a better life for all.
We should spare no effort in focusing on the tasks of achieving the objectives of the African Renaissance and ensuring that the next century evolves as the African century.
As President Thabo Mbeki said the ANC's cadre development programme would need to develop the economic understanding of cadres as part of their overall political understanding. Economic theory could not replace political theory, but would enrich and deepen it.
This understanding among cadres of the movement was crucial if the ANC was to be an effective agent of democratic change. As an agent of change, the ANC needs to discharge its responsibilities both as a movement for national liberation and a governing party.
These responsibilities include working for the construction of a caring society, sensitive to the needs of the most vulnerable, including children, the youth and the disabled.
This society must be distinguished, among other things, by the prevalence of a new patriotism, respect for the cultural and linguistic diversity of our nation, and a new social morality radically different from the morality we have inherited from centuries of colonialism and apartheid.
Something else. New morality starts with the ANC. The ANC must act against corruption in its own ranks and in society by, among other things, promoting cadre development and a new morality.
'We have attracted into and continue to retain careerists and opportunists within our ranks. These are people who join the movement not because they respect or support any of the strategic objectives [of the ANC].
They join with the sole aim of furthering their personal careers and using access to the state power we have as a ruling party, to enrich themselves,' he said.
The President was right when he said corruption is able to flourish in society through social factors, such as the scramble for access to scarce resources; the absence of a truly popular political movement loyal to the interests of the working people.
And the demobilisation of the masses so that they become passive objects of policy rather than activists for their own social emancipation.
As Youth League members we need to get actively involved in the building of strong ANC and Youth League branches
The branch is the most important unit of the ANC, with the critical responsibility to mobilise people into action aimed at changing the immediate circumstances of the poorest of the poor.
Strong branches can only be built through a consistent political programme, strong and united leadership, and an active and politically developed membership.
Although the ANC has a rich tradition of being rooted among the masses, the organisation has not been consistent in finding ways to mobilise people against problems. We need to re-assert the strategic importance and build the ANC's capacity to use mass-based campaigning as a vehicle for social mobilisation and transformation.
We need therefore to place greater emphasis at all levels of the organisation on cadre development and political education, internal communication, effective organisational administration and policy coordination.
We must admit that the Youth League has experienced organisational problems such as poor mass activism, low levels of political consciousness, distance between the leadership and membership, disunity and a lack of cohesion at leadership level.
Let us not use the League to settle old scores. Let us use it for the advancement of the people of Mpumalanga and and the country.
When I leave here you will debate; differ, deliberate; agree to agree, agree to disagree. You will argue and disagree because as Comrades you care and you care deeply. But you must disagree and argue without calling each other liars and thieves in any naked struggles for power.
Without despoiling the best traditions of a youth movement that has as one of its former members Comrades Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Duma Nokwe.
A youth league Comrades Pixley ka Seme, Moses Mabhida, Moses Kotane and JB Marks are truly proud of.
A youth league that Lele Mohlala, Maurice Manzini, Philip Radebe and Solly Moroape can be proud of.
We wish you well in your deliberations.
I thank you.