Last week Julius Malema led thousands of members of his ANC Youth League and an assortment of other South African youth dissidents in what by all accounts may be seen as a successful march against poverty and unemployment a la the Arab Spring andOccupy Wall Street movements. However a number of concurrent developments and suspicions seem to have marred the merits of this otherwise momentous march.
Malema being Malema, issues of a narrower party political context filtered into and contaminated what should arguably have been the broader essence of the march. Unfortunately this caused various commentators to focus on these, instead of the more commendable stated aims of the march.
Some may argue that a golden opportunity to place the plight of South Africa’s youth high on the action agenda of government and civil society was thus squandered, reducing its impact to that of a curiosity show or a publicity stunt.
Many also saw the march as part of the perceived stand-off between Malema and President Jacob Zuma and the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) quest to topple Zuma and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe at the ruling party’s elective national conference next year.
The march has overshadowed many other recent political developments. It certainly took some of the attention away from Malema’s own uncertain future in the ANC pending the conclusion of his disciplinary hearing on charges that he sowed divisions and brought the party into disrepute.
It also took attention off various probes into Malema’s financial affairs and the rags-to-riches tales of his cronies who benefitted from state tenders in his home province of Limpopo.
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The substantial turnout of marchers may have caused unease among those senior leaders in the ANC who hoped to soon be rid of Malema. The perceived show of support for Malema may also make the task of those conducting his disciplinary hearing more complicated if they have been considering expelling him from the ANC.
By politicising the march around narrow ANC Youth League policy positions – on land redistribution and nationalisation of economic assets – large sections of the South African youth were alienated from the march despite the fact that they are equally affected by poverty and unemployment.
Even within the broad ANC Alliance the youth – and their elders – were highly divided with some formations boycotting the march.
Of course it did not much help Malema’s image or the cause of the march – centred within widespread poverty - that leading the march alongside Malema at one stage was none other than the controversial Sushi King Kenny Kunene known for his excessively lavish lifestyle.
And, neither did the fact that two hours after the march ended, as many of the thousands of unemployed, whom Malema had marshalled for the two-day event, were returning to their squatter shacks and a squalid lifestyle, the great economic liberator himself jetted off to the island paradise of Mauritius to attend the R10-million three-day wedding extravaganza of his friend, Limpopo property developer David Mabilu.
This seemed to vindicate the accusation made last week by Buti Manamela, national secretary of the Young Communist League (YCL) – the youth wing of the SA Communist Party (SACP) – that the ANCYL’s march was nothing but a “one-night stand with the poor”.
Nevertheless, despite some initial logistical hiccups and varying figures being given for the number of marchers – ranging from police figures of 2,000 in Johannesburg on day one to 8,000 in Pretoria on day two to the 25,000 marchers claimed by Malema – the march was successful. It did attract thousands, was orderly and disciplined, and took place without incident.
And, it did draw attention to the plight of the youth in an economy that, despite it being the biggest on the African continent and one that recently withstood the ravages of recession better than most others, fails to eradicate massive poverty, or narrow the rampantly growing wealth gap, or provide a decent education and skills for young people, and fails to create the many desperately needed jobs.
The march also emphasised that there is a widely-held belief that the country – and especially the economy – has not transformed sufficiently to provide everyone with a slice of the post-1994 pie.
The misplaced faith in the march of many of the poorer marchers – walking side by side with celebrities and others dressed in expensive designer outfits – is perhaps summed up by Thandi Maseko, 50, from Thembelihle, south of Johannesburg, who was quoted in reports as saying that after living in a shack for many years, she hoped her participation in the march would “make it possible for me to get a house”.
The march divided the broader ANC-led alliance and did not have the support of many other youth formations in the country. Various senior ANC leaders at first questioned the motives of Malema and company in organising it and only after thorough interrogating of the ANCYL leaders did ANC secretary-general Mantashe give it the parent ANC’s official blessing.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) was divided with general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi giving his support in principle and encouraging others to do the same, while Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini rejected it as not making any substantial or principled contribution. The official Cosatu position was not to participate itself. However, while one or two Cosatu-affiliated unions were opposed to the march, others, like the militant National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) enthusiastically supported it.
The SACP opposed the march, as did its junior wing the YCL which, as part of the Jobs for Youth Coalition together with the South African Youth Council (SAYC) and the South African Students Congress (Sasco), staged its own Jobs for Youth Summit to coincide with the dates of the ANCYL march. The summit attracted only 200 delegates and so little media attention that its final press briefing had to be cancelled.
The ANCYL has also divided the umbrella Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA), an alliance of youth structures that includes both the ANCYL and the YCL, as well as Sasco and the Muslim Students Association (MSA).
Sasco itself supported both events, but criticised both the YCL and the ANCYL for holding them on the same days.
The government-funded National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) expressed its support for the march to much criticism from the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) which said it should remain out of party politics.
Many other youth formations like those of the DA, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), and other political parties and organisations outside of the ANC alliance fold, outright rejected the march and its “hidden agenda”.
Despite the many incongruities of the march, it should not be taken lightly and may yet have been a mere dress rehearsal for more serious youth protests to come. It showed that anyone with a little organisational clout or a popular, iconic image can easily prey on the very real grievances of South Africa’s hopeless and marginalised youth. That in turn could easily set off the ticking time bomb of which senior ANC, labour and business leaders have been warning. The question is: what action is going to be instituted, and by whom, to prevent it?
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