YCLSA welcomes Alliance Summit outcomes

16 November 2009

The Young Communist League of South Africa (uFasimba) welcomes the Alliance Summit outcomes and declaration as presented yesterday by the leaders of Cosatu, SACP, SANCO and ANC. The Summit is a representation of a departure from old-school mentality of such gatherings being a platform to further alienate the Alliance partners from the ANC, and shows the determination of our leaders to unite all of South Africa.

The outcomes of the Summit also disproved the prophets of doom whose intentions were to see the Alliance ultimately break in the hands of the current leadership. We are also pleased that those who are in the leadership and were quoted as saying there is an intended left takeover, have come to appreciate and endorse the new spirit of sustaining lifelong relations amongst the allies.

We particularly welcome the determination by our leadership to focus on employment creation as a crisis that affects millions of young people around the country. The youth of our country have been the most hit by the economic recession, which resulted in retrenchments that followed the “last in first out principle”. The hunger for new jobs represents a powder-keg that is waiting to explode, and the sooner this is addressed the better.

We further welcome the commitment by the Alliance leadership to vigorously campaign against HIV/AIDS, again a nemesis for the youth of our country. The statistics presented by the Department of Health on the shocking rate of deaths in relation to the rate of births, and the number of young people infected with HIV/AIDS means that our political leadership should depart from denying the existence of HIV/AIDs and enter a new paradigm of uniting our country against this scourge. The resolutions of the Summit presents hope to our youth that those who are infected will be provided with anti-retroviral drugs and that those who are not, will get adequate health care that will keep them healthy and fit.

We equally welcome the “uncomfortable” attitude of the Alliance leadership towards the 45% tariff increase over the next three years by Eskom. This means that the Alliance takes the impact of the tariffs on our economy and on the working class and the poor seriously. We hope that the leadership of Eskom or Nersa will heed to this call and ensure that they halt their intentions, and raise money elsewhere.

We want to state for the record that we are not surprised that the President of the Republic intervened on the Eskom crisis. Eskom remains a national company and any crisis that happens in that institution should require an intervention from the highest office of the land. The Democratic Alliance would have done the same and even worse, and that they should not use this as a platform to win votes in future elections.

The YCLSA will do everything in its powers to ensure that the Alliance remains united, focused and provide leadership to society. We call on all members of the Alliance structures to ensure that the same spirit as displayed over the weekend at the Summit filters down to provincial, regional and local structures.

Issued by the YCLSA Head office