(SWAPO) Ngurare wants economic freedom fighters

(SWAPO) Ngurare wants economic freedom fighters
By Staff Reporter

SWAPO Party Youth League Secretary, Cde Elijah Ngurare, has called on ruling parties in Southern Africa to urgently work out strategies to fight unemployment and poverty which continue to haunt many people in the region, decades after political independence.

He says that the solution now lies with fearless economic fighters who should be trained to fearlessly wage that war and set the people free from the bondage of soaring unemployment and biting poverty Addressing a rally organized by the African National Congress Youth League, ANCYL, in Limpopo, South Africa, this week, Dr Ngurare said that the ruling parties in southern Africa had nobody but themselves to blame for having failed to win the war for economic freedom and independence.

Dr Ngurare said that people in the Southern African Development Community, SADC, could proudly say that they had achieved political freedom and independence, which had been won through the militancy, bravery and fearlessness of the youth of yester years.

But economically, he added, the people were still not free, decades after the ruling parties in southern Africa had been at the helm of political power. He said that the ANC in South Africa, SWAPO Party in Namibia, ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe, MPLA in Angola, Chama ChaMapinduzi, CCM, in Tanzania and Frelimo in Mozambique should draw up strategies to bring about economic independence.

"Who should the electorates in these countries blame for the failure of realizing economic independence?" he asked. "Shall the blame got to the youth or to the elders who are ruling? "It therefore requires that we train economic freedom fighters with vigor, determination and the energy and stamina commensurate to the liberation struggle in order to win this war just as we won the political freedom war."

The rally was attended by ANC Deputy President, Cde Kgalema Motlante, who is also the Deputy President of South Africa, ANCYL President Julius Malema and other leading figures in the ANC and its youth wing.

Dr Ngurare described Malema as an example of the economic freedom fighters the region should train, saying that Malema and millions of South Africans should be the weapons in the arsenal of the ANC to wage the economic war. He appealed to the ANC government leadership to focus on real issues such as economic independence, and not to destroy the political careers of those they did not like, adding that Malema was not the one who created unemployment, poverty and hunger in South Africa.

This was a rare moment when a senior ANC leader has comfortably shared a platform with Malema since the latter's expulsion from the ANC. The ANC will hold an elective congress later this year. Malema has appealed his expulsion, which has yet to be heard.

"Comrade Motlante," said Dr Ngurare, "I wish, through you, to appeal to you and the leadership of the ANC, to understand that the youth are not your enemies and must not be your enemies. They are the revolutionary offspring of the ideals of the Party. "There is no need for elders to be allergic to the youth but rather allow them space to be active, vigilant and militant in line with the Constitution and relevant documents of the Party.

"I come from Namibia under SWAPO Party. The majority of our elders are youth friendly, only a few ones who are not. But we are happy that the generational mix is an irreversible and irrevocably reality. "We shall ensure that the ideals of the revolution in the realm of economic freedom is neither betrayed nor compromised, neither by the elders nor by the youth. We should join hands to triumphantly succeed.

"We must at all times never betray the historic mission for which our ruling parties were founded, namely to be in solidarity with the downtrodden, aspire for freedom for the oppressed and for social justice for the disadvantaged by delivering, without fail, to the expectations and hopes of the people."

Dr Ngurare and Lt-General, (rtd) Martin Shali, were in Angola last week, where they attended the 24th Anniversary of the 1988 Battle of Quito Quanavale in Luanda. The anniversary was graced with impressive lectures by battle-tested veterans of FAPLA, (Angola's National Defence Force,) who waged the war for Angola's independence, and who also took part in the Battle of Quito Quanavale, which paved the way for Namibia's independence and the release of Nelson Mandela.

"They said this was possible at the prime years of their lives, and they said it themselves that they were able to execute this historic battle because of their energy and stamina of youth," said Dr Ngurare.