South Africa braced for ANCYL long march
26/10/2011 00:00:00
by Sapa
SECURITY will be stepped up on Thursday ahead of what is expected to be one of the biggest anti-poverty protests since democracy came to South Africa in 1994.
The ruling party's youth wing says it has mobilised 5,000 young people to march from South Africa's economic capital, Johannesburg, to the presidential headquarters in Pretoria.
"On Thursday and Friday the ANC (African National Congress) Youth League will lead mass protests of the underemployed and unemployed youth, the landless, the homeless, informal settlement dwellers and those aspiring to quality education and decent lives," ANC Youth League president Julius Malema wrote in an open letter.
According to the government's national planning commission, South Africa has witnessed a rise in unemployment since the political transition in 1994. The national unemployment rate is 25.7% and according to a survey conducted by the South African Institute of Race Relations, youth unemployment is double that, at 51%.
The marchers will walk from Beyers Naude Square to the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in Sandton, and then to Pretoria.
A spokesman for South African President Jacob Zuma said he had granted permission for the march, provided the ANCYL took full responsibility for the actions of participants.
"The presidency will be available to accept the memorandum from the leaders of the march on Friday," spokesperson Harold Maloka said.
The Youth League said there would be 1,000 marshals, 500 police officers as well as private security company members to ensure the march was peaceful.
The mass action could test the support base of ANCYL president Julius Malema, analysts said on Wednesday.
Malema has denied the "economic freedom youth mass action" march was meant to undermine the African National Congress, but not everyone agrees.
"What we have in this situation is someone like [Tokyo] Sexwale testing his support for next year," said political analyst Steven Friedman.
"If it [support for Malema] all goes wrong, he can very easily distance himself from it, and he won't get identified. But if it goes right, it will help him."
Sexwale has testified in Malema's defence at an ANC disciplinary hearing where Malema and other ANC Youth League leaders face charges of bringing the ruling party into disrepute.
Aubrey Matshiqi, political analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies, said he would not go as far as to say that this was a make-or-break week for Malema.
However, he said he did not doubt that the ANCYL march was motivated by a multiplicity of political motivations.
Malema had taken his battle against the ruling party's leadership outside of the ANC, which could have implications on his strategy, said Matshiqi.
Political issues were being turned into national issues.
"The fact that the SACP [SA Communist Party] have called on people to boycott the marches has also turned it into a contest between the ANCYL and the SACP, and Blade Nzimande and Julius Malema," said Matshiqi.
"The size of the march will determine who has the most support, Nzimande or Malema."
Last week, Nzimande urged members of the ANCYL not to participate saying that the protest was being used to undermine the authority of the ANC and government.
"Do not allow yourselves to be used by people with agendas that are not in your interest," he said.
Malema has insisted that the ANC did not see the march as an attack on its top brass.
"The leadership doesn't see it like that and they say that nothing is wrong with the march, as long as it is successful and peaceful," he told reporters in Johannesburg this week.
The ANC said on Wednesday it supported the rights of the ANCYL to march for economic freedom.
Secretary general Gwede Mantashe told reporters in Johannesburg the march was not against the ANC government and it was not linking it to the party's 2012 elective conference.
Ebrahim Fakir, another political analyst, said he felt that Malema's political motivations were a side issue.
"This [the marches] being a test of support is probably true but what is the substance of the issues the ANC Youth League are talking about?" he said.
“This may well be a test... in view of the succession battle but the real test is the test of the appetite of society and especially the wealthy, influential and the socially powerful sectors of society and what their appetite is for serious thinking and rethinking about an inclusive economy and a more transformed economy," said Fakir.
He said the ANCYL were standing for the right thing, but he did not think the nationalisation of mines and land expropriation without compensation would necessarily work.
Fakir said the youth league had missed the mark because there was no such thing as "economic freedom".
"You can't wake up tomorrow and decide you want a flat in Camps Bay [affluent area in Cape Town]... that is economic freedom and no one has that," said Fakir.
"We talking about economic empowerment... The issues are real and substantial and we need to look at it as that," he said.
"Yes, 2012 is the only game in town politically but if we just reduce everything to 2012 we are going to lose the real debate."
Support for the mass action has been divided.
The National Youth Development Agency, the Congress of SA Trade Unions, the SA Municipal Workers' Union, the SA Students' Congress, Congress of the People Youth Movement and National Union of Metalworkers of SA were supporting the ANCYL's march.
Not supporting the action, was lobby group AfriForum, the Young Communist League, the SA Communist Party and the Communication Workers Union.
Malema: Keep walking, comrades
NICKOLAUS BAUER AND SAPA JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Oct 27 2011 17:04
The ANC Youth League march for economic freedom has made slow progress towards the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in Sandton.
After departing the Chamber of Mines at 12.30pm the approximately 3 000-strong crowd had only reached Rosebank by 4pm.
The march has been a sombre one, barring some tempers flaring as supporters fought over bottled water lined up along the road by the league.
Malema calmed the crowd on several occassions, encouraging them to remain patient.
"We will get there, comrades, we are marching to the home of white monopoly capital and we will get there," he said.
Demonstrators have remained steadfast as many declared their toil and sweat spent on the march signified their push for economic freedom.
"We know it's not going to be given to us on a silver platter -- this is what its all about. If we want change, it's going to be a long struggle," a marcher identifying himself only as Tshepang told the Mail & Guardian.
Several marchers engaged with journalists along the way, with Tshipa Sithole telling the M&G the march epitomises how he feels.
"You see we must make things equal -- this is about sharing 50/50. I don't want everything, I just want to be able to live a life like everyone else. We must work together to make South Africa a better place," he said.
Emergency services were yet to report any incidences of serious injury barring several cases of heat stroke as marchers made their way from the Johannesburg city centre to Sandton.
Malema seemed remarkably reserved in his handling of tense situations during the march. As the procession stopped to rest on Empire Road earlier in the day, he scolded a group of schoolchildren who attempted joined the march.
"Comrades and police: Tell those children to go home, they don't belong here. They must go home and study," he said.
Tired
The marchers' spirits started flagging just after 2pm as they entered Oxford Road in Killarney.
They stopped to wait for a water tanker as several people were dehydrated and at least five people had fainted.
The marchers were no longer singing and dancing, but shuffling along in the heat.
Some of the placards carried by marchers read: "The real freedom is economic not parliamentary. Free my people."
Another with slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's picture read: "We salute anti-imperialist martyr Gaddafi".
Others read: "90% of the economy is still in the hands of the minority" and "Malema we must stand by you through thick and thin".
Juice and water was handed out as marchers reached the Rosebank Zone, and supporters resumed singing and dancing.
Gauteng police spokesperson Lt-Col Lungelo Dlamini said the march had been peaceful so far.
"There have been no disruptions since the march started. Everything is peaceful."
Police and a private security company hired by the youth league were monitoring the situation.
Hundreds of spectators littered the route to catch a peek of Malema and other youth league leaders.
"This is so cool! I never saw something like this before, thse guys are marching for their freedom it's so awesome," said 17-year-old Lindsay Thorpe, as she snapped images of the procession with her cell phone.
Even comedian Joey Rasdien came out to see what all the fuss was about, but was turned away from the march when he tried to join.
"Ja man I wanted to jump in but they wouldn't let me come in with my bike. It's a laugh this thing, these guys take so many hours to walk from Johannesburg, but it's good," he told reporters, as he cradled his scooter helmet.
Prepared
Meanwhile, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in Gwen Lane in Sandton was prepared with railing gates wrapped in black plastic sealing off its underground parking entrances.
Police in bakkies waited at the end of Gwen Lane, which was blocked at one end.
Once marchers had handed over a memorandum to the JSE, the plan was for them to be bussed to Pretoria where a night vigil was to be held prior to a march on the Union Buildings on Friday.
The JSE closes at 5pm, but a woman on the premises told reporters they would wait to receive the memorandum from the league.
The last mass action by ANCYL members happened outside Luthuli House in central Johannesburg at the start of Malema's disciplinary hearing last month.
Youth league members threw rocks, bottles and bricks at journalists and police, and burnt ANC flags and t-shirts with pictures of President Jacob Zuma printed on them.
The march was taking place a day after testimony in Malema's disciplinary hearing was concluded. He and several co-leaders face charges of bringing the ruling party into disrepute.
Earlier, the SABC reported that members of the Congress of SA Students (Cosas) had forced pupils from Alexandra and Soweto schools to join the march.
-- Additional reporting by Sapa
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