Youth structures need proper leadership

I’ll tell you why the ANCYL has become a shadow of its former glory: instead of shaping and training young minds, it has become a meal ticket.

Disgruntled members of the ANC Youth League protesting in Pretoria, outside the venue where the party’s national executive committee is meeting, 26 July 2019. Photo: Jonisayi Maromo / ANA

The disbandment of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leaves me sad, not because of any political affiliation but because our generation have killed an organisation of radical change that was for the youth; that served to hone into greatness many astute political minds.

I’ll tell you why the ANCYL has become a shadow of its former glory: instead of shaping and training young minds, it has become a meal ticket – how else do you get to the ivory towers of parliament if you do not make for yourself a name within the youth league?

The youth league has become nothing but a box that one must tick as you prepare for a parliamentary seat or a Cabinet position – nothing but cosmetics.

Access to education, jobs and resources are hard to come by now, no matter your skin colour, gender, creed or station in life.

But political parties are quick to shelve to youth’s problems.

Who then fights the cause of the youth; who guarantees us education, jobs, health services? Not the youth league members positioning themselves for parliament and Cabinet positions.

We are a country under siege from those we have put into power legitimacy – they sold us a dream, we bought the dream and were left with the nightmare of a failing economy, an arrogance of ill-gotten gains and an executive Cabinet that answers to not a single figure of judicial authority.

Which makes me wonder about the risk we take when we place our trust in a government that would lead us to a country better than our yesteryear.

There is nothing wrong with personal ambition, but there is something wrong with the greed and self-serving nature that has permeated our political space.

The dream of the youth to change our society lies with men and women whose morals are exchanged with potbellies, exclusive time pieces and influence at social events.

And when a new league is formed, may it be woven of a fabric that understands the need for people who have morals that cannot be bought, or traded, for the finest whiskey.

Our youth have a vacuum for leadership.

We need to fill it …