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17 May 2021 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Supplied
Rebone Tau’s new book, The Rise and Fall of the ANC Youth League, provides an account of the inner doings and destruction of a once dominant youth movement.
It is not an explosive book with damning revelations, but The Rise and Fall of the ANC Youth League by Rebone Tau, a former member of the ANC Youth League's National Task Team, provides an insider perspective on this once dominant youth movement.  

The University of the Free State (UFS), together with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southern Africa, hosted a discussion with Prof Chitja Twala, Vice-Dean: Faculty of the Humanities, on 10 May 2021. The book launch coincided with UFS Africa Month commemorations. 

The publication of the book falls within a period in which the African National Congress (ANC) finds itself in the midst of ongoing leadership controversy.  Prof Twala, an expert on liberation movements in Africa, said that the book is in essence a historical account of the ANCYL. “It is important that it comes now as the ANC is in a deep leadership crisis,” he said. Prof Hussein Solomon, Academic Head of the Department of Political Studies and Governance, also praised the publication of the book, saying that “there is much talk about decolonisation, and it is important to have young black writers like Rebone Tau to further the decolonisation agenda”.

Factionalism left Youth League in ruins 

“The Youth League chose to support Zuma during his arms deal and corruption court proceedings. Zuma was implicated in the arms deal and other corruption charges at the time. A new culture emerged after the Mangaung Congress in 2012.  “It was around this time that the opulence in the Youth League started surfacing – the branded clothing and sports cars,” Tau said.  

In 2019, the Youth League was dissolved because it failed to fulfil its role. Tau points out that the Youth League became more focused on internal factionalism and the materialism of the leadership caused it to fall out of favour with the youth. “The current Youth League has no structure, it has no mandate, and basically no agenda,” Tau said.

For the ANCYL, it is a case of still clinging to its former self in the hope of reviving itself. This book is appreciated as it provides an account that is not publicly available. Tau’s final remarks were ؘ– “for the ANC to survive, it needs the Youth League.”

Glorious history of ANCYL

The book looks at the founding of the ANCYL, formed in 1949, and chronicles the movement from its infancy and unbanning to its literal dispossession through exile and the current manifestation of the once dominant movement. “The ANCYL looked at the character of the ANC and seek to involve more young people on the ground to join in the liberation struggle,” Tau said. 

The Youth League has brought new ideas to the fore, influencing the programme of action that the ANC is following. “The ANCYL was pivotal in moving the ANC’s resolutions to include other demographical groups.  The youth voice was a force within the ANC,” Tau said. 

 

Listen to the recording of the discussion here:


Book launch:The Rise and Fall of ANC Youth Leage


News Archive

Central SRC constitution for UFS approved by Council
2005-07-20

University of the Free State Fact Sheet

1. The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) on 10 June 2005 unanimously approved the establishment of a Central Student Representative Council (CSRC)  to constitute a legitimate basis for the democratic participation of students of all three of its campuses in the governance of the university.

2. In a major breakthrough and transformation step for student governance, the Central SRC will include representatives of the main campus in Bloemfontein, the Vista Bloemfontein campus and the Qwaqwa campus of the UFS.

3. The need to establish the Central SRC follows the incorporation of the Qwaqwa campus into the UFS in January 2003 and the incorporation of the Vista campus in Bloemfontein into the UFS in January 2004.

4. The constitution of the Central SRC is the outcome of a consensus reached during a lengthy process of negotiation between the SRCs of the three UFS campuses, indirectly involving diverse student formations such as Sasco, ANCYL, YCL, Pasma, SASO, SADESMO, AZASCO, SCO, HEREXVII, KovsieAlliance, ACDP, etc. Independent constitutional and political experts facilitated key parts of the negotiation process.

5. In this process, the UFS management went out of its way to ensure the participation of all student formations, especially Sasco and the ANC Youth League, as well as the duly elected SRC officials of the three campuses.

6. With the establishment of a Central SRC, the UFS has adopted a federal student governance model whereby the CSRC is the highest representative student body on matters of common concern for all students. The three campuses of the UFS will retain SRC structures for each campus with powers and responsibilities for matters affecting the particular campus.

7. The central SRC will have 12 members made up of delegates of the different campus SRCs, including the presidents of these three SRCs. In total, the main campus will have 5 representatives, the Qwaqwa campus will have 4 representatives and the Vista campus will have 3 representatives. This ratio ensures a strong voice for the smaller campuses in the central SRC.

8. This arrangement will be reviewed after a year to make allowance for the phasing out of undergraduate (pipeline) students at the Vista campus, as was agreed in the negotiations preceding the incorporation of that campus into the UFS.

9. From these 12 members a central SRC president will be chosen on a quarterly basis to represent the general student body at Executive Management, Senate and Council.

10. The historic official inauguration of the first Central SRC is scheduled to take place in early August 2005.

11. This event, like the adoption of a broadly negotiated new constitution for the main campus SRC, represents a  breakthrough in that all three campus SRCs delegations and all relevant student organizations have been part of the process and have accepted the outcome of the process.

20 July 2005

 

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