By Subry Govender
The ANC Youth League, which has come out in open support of Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to oust President Jacob Zuma as leader of the party, wants the party's one-week elective conference at Manguang starting on Sunday to adopt radical economic policies that would lead to the "economic freedom in our lifetime".
The Youth League has made its views crystal clear in a statement issued on Friday, Dec 14, only two days before the start of the conference.
Confiscate land without compensation
Some of the radical policies it will demand be adopted at the conference include:
* Expropriation of land without compensation for equitable redistribution and the amendment of section 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa to give effect to this imperative.
* Nationalisation of mines and other strategic sectors for Industrialisation.
Other policies it will demand are:
* Inclusive and Decentralised Economic Growth and Development.
* Land Restitution and agrarian reform.
* Building of a Strong Developmental State and Public Service.
* Massive investment in the development of the African economy.
* Provision of quality education, skills and expertise to the people.
The Youth League, even without its pompous leader Julius Malema, appears to be adopting a stance that would create a great deal of debate at the conference. It says that Manguang should put into practice a very important pillar of the Freedom Charter that calls for "economic transformation".
The demand states: "The national wealth of our country, the heritage of all South Africans, shall be restored to the people; the mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole; all other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the well-being of the people; all people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions."
As far as that nationalisation of the mines, the Youth League says that it will call for "a definitive input on the minerals to be strategically nationalised by basing this decision on firstly the economic importance of the mineral or sector concerned and secondly the risk associated with the supply thereof to safeguard our economic and political sovereignty".
Platinum, iron ore and magnesium
"To this end, we shall be proposing nationalisation of the following minerals: iron ore, magnesium, platinum group minerals, vanadium, manganese, coal and zinc. We will further call for the renationalisation of SASOL, Acelor Mittal And Kumba Irone ore as strategic assets that should be under the stewardship of the state for the broader benefit of all south South Africans.
"The African National Congress must further place greater emphasis on youth development to liberate young people from the structural legacy
of apartheid and its triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
"Compulsory Youth Service for the purposes of vocational training, job creation and social cohesion as well as the implementation of the Job Stipend are proposals that we shall be advancing to enlarge the security net for youth whilst providing them the necessary skills and support to play a meaningful role in the economy.
"The 53rd National Conference must, of necessity, represent a break with the past 18 years and an ushering of new ways of doing things.
"The Conference must also set in motion the process to review the micro economic policy framework and set a redistribution strategy that will redistribute the wealth of the country for the benefit of all South
Africans.
Stakeholders must comply
"Interested stakeholders, including the recently vocal banking and business sectors would do well to engage these policy proposals to define how they will be implemented rather than whether they will be implemented."
The ANC Youth League's latest call for nationalisation and land re-distribution without compensation is bound to raise the level of debate at the conference. Many ANC leaders, who have gone into business, would find the call difficult to swallow while those with a social tendency would be attracted to some of the policy suggestions.
It seems that the ANC leaders would have to come up with a middle ground policy to save the country from continuing social and service delivery protests.
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