ANCYL wants its members in key govt posts

ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Collen Malatji is warning President Cyril Ramaphosa that should he not consider the demands the youth league is making, he might find himself on the wrong side of the ANCYL.

Malatji made the remarks during an interview on Sunday.

He said the ANCYL was demanding that Ramaphosa give them departments such as trade and industry, public enterprises, transport, human settlements, basic education and higher education.

READ: Gordhan demands apology from ANCYL leader Malatji for ‘ill-considered’ comments

Asked if they would settle for the department of women, youth and persons with disabilities, he said the ANCYL’s views was that the youth should be in charge of the economic cluster.

“All that does is lobby for budgets. We don’t want that thing, what are we going do with it?

“We are clear on the recurring effects of the economy and we want to be the driver of that.

“We will sit with the president and tell him these are the youths you must make ministers because we want to drive our agenda,” he said.

Asked whether he thought Ramaphosa would agree to their request, he said the president did not want to find himself on the wrong side of the ANCYL, especially not the one which he was part of leading.

“We are a youth league that is highly supported and we support the president fully.

“We are going to prove to the president that we are going to mobilise the whole of South Africa for the ANC to win,” he said.

“With that, the ANCYL must be affirmed. “The country is young and the mood of the country is the same as youth.

“Any smart president will not want to be on the wrong side of the young people of South Africa.”

The Citizen approached presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya for comment on whether the president would consider giving in to the ANCYL demands, but he had not responded by the time of publication.

Political analyst Sipho Seepe said the youth league was saying this because they needed to show their relevance and they understood that the president’s approach to politics was to create as few enemies as possible.

Seepe said the last time the youth league was seen to be robust and militant was when Julius Malema was ANCYL president.

“At the moment you could say the youth league has been almost nonexistent and the new leadership understands that very well.

“For them to be taken seriously, they need to be raising issues that concern the future of this country because the future of this country is also their mission.

“The issues that they raise are pertinent and those issues are also shared by other stakeholders, for instance the mining fraternity and the unions.

“The unions understand fully that their point of departure is at stake.

“They see the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as being instrumental in the developmental agenda of this country.

“They see people like Pravin (public enterprises minister) and even the president as part of the problems that undermine the role that the SOEs play.”