#OccupyLuthuliHouse organisers won’t back down
The ANC’s senior leaders are dismally failing the youth and are more eager and interested in succession battles as the party loses power, the organisers of the #OccupyLuthuliHouse campaign said on Sunday.
“Friday we saw live evidence that if we don’t act now this is what the future of the ANC will be,” they said in a statement.
A media briefing by the group was disrupted by ANCYL regional leaders in Pretoria on Friday. ANCYL regional chairman Lesego Makhubela and others stormed the hotel venue and told the organisers they were not allowed to speak on behalf of the ANC without the party’s consent.
The group of #OccupyLuthuliHouse campaigners includes former Wits University Students Representative Council (SRC) president Mcebo Dlamini, Johannesburg ANC member Sasa Manganye, and former ANC Youth League national executive committee member Ntibi Modise.
In their statement on Sunday, the organisers said Friday’s disruption was “a blessing in disguise as millions of South Africans saw exactly why we are on this cause”.
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“South Africans witnessed how the ANC has deteriorated… saw a micro reflection of how ordinary members of the ANC are silenced and dealt with in branches. Millions of South Africans saw why we have severely lost our moral high ground and why we are fast losing respect from society and no longer leading it.
“We are fighting against institutional abnormalities, intellectual paucity, and moral deficiency in our ranks. We are fighting to salvage what is left of this revolutionary movement started by dignified, astute, and disciplined Africans. Africans who understood that militancy and radicalism was never tantamount to hooliganism. We are fighting against patriarchy and chauvinism that has seen many women in the ANC and overall society being isolated, labelled, and manhandled because their views were not advancing agendas,” the statement said.
In the most trying times, former president Nelson Mandela never insulted, slandered, or belittled even leaders of apartheid. OR Tambo never manhandled or intimidated those with dissenting views. “We wish to reiterate that no one has ownership or intellectual property over the ANC as ANC belongs to society.”
The organisers apologised to the management and staff of the affected hotel in Pretoria and the National Press Club who hosted Friday’s press briefing, “but more importantly to you South Africans that witnessed a self-proclaimed ANC member and leader rape the Constitution of the Republic of south Africa by undermining and disregarding freedom of speech and expression. We apologise to the veterans that had to witness what YL members have degenerated to. It was embarrassing, humiliating, but more than anything, it was necessary so that society understands why we can no longer introspect but we must take action”.
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“We are in a state of paralysis where ANC processes have been hijacked and manipulated and robust engagement oppressed. We appeal to revolutionary consciousness of NEC [national executive committee] members to do the right thing. Are they really willing to go down in history as those that were hell-bent to protect individual interests over the organisation?
“We reiterate our demands and why we are going to occupy Luthuli House: that the ANC immediately recall President Jacob Gedleyehlekisa Zuma as president of the Republic of South Africa; that NEC members follow suite and resign; we call upon stalwarts of the ANC to take us to a consultative conference by December 2016; the immediate implementation of conference resolutions which will revive the ANC; disbanding the fees commission as it undermines conference resolutions of free and quality education by 2014,” the statement said.
In Johannesburg on Sunday, security was being beefed up outside Luthuli House ahead of the planned march. At least three SA Police Service nyalas were parked in the area around Luthuli House, with barbed-wire on trailers on standby presumably to prevent protesters getting close to the building. Johannesburg metro police had also already closed one of the lanes on Sauer Street which passes outside Luthuli House.