I was shocked to come across an article in the Business Day in which the ANC Youth League president Collen Maine said: "We are going to boo Ramaphosa back and it won't be nice. We are going to make life difficult for him. We are going to boo him in an ANC meeting before we boo in a rally."
What is potentially interesting here is who he means by 'we'. Is he saying he will stand up alone in the ANC national executive committee or national working committee meetings and boo the Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa? Maine forgets how he was booed at an ANCYL rally as the newly elected President of the ANCYL in 2015 in Soshanguve!
Maine seems not to follow developments in the country. Cosatu has made it well known that it no longer has faith and confidence in President Zuma. Three trade unions were clear that they don't want President Zuma to address the May Day Rally, and the letters to that effect were widely circulated on social and other media platforms. So, when the workers boo President Zuma, how does he now blame Deputy President Ramaphosa?
Maine should go and ask Cosatu President Sdumo Dlamini why President Zuma was booed by the workers and stop being dramatic and thinking that he has monopoly over anarchy.
Currently the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) does not have a board, we have not heard him speak on the issue. The NYDA board is appointed by the President. We know that parliament approved a list of seven names and submitted it to the President. Maine will never ask publicly 'when is President Zuma appointing the NYDA board?"
Maine seems not to care when it comes to issues of youth development. We don't know his views on issues that should build the country. We don't hear him speaking on ways to find lasting solutions to challenges facing the youth of South Africa. Education is very expensive for students. Education is colonial. We have not seen him marching with students on the issue of free, de-colonised education.
Youth unemployment is another challenge that the president of the ANCYL he should be talking about and championing. We can't have so many young people unemployed in this country. He must give himself time to drive around the townships in Gauteng or any other province and even go to the rural areas and get a real sense of the struggles that young people face.
The voice of the Youth League is deafeningly silent. He seems to only speak when it's their turn to defend Zuma or insult people in the name of defending Zuma. He seems to have forgotten that he is not the President of President Zuma but that he is the President of the ANCYL. He should be talking on matters affecting the young people.
Aluta Continua.