Friday, February 14, 2025

ANC rebukes ANCYL on Botswana issue

The African National Congress (ANC) has totally rejected and publicly rebuked the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) on its extremely thoughtless and embarrassing pronouncements on “regime change” in Botswana.

This follows ANCYL president Julius Malema’s pronouncement that Botswana’s government was “a serious threat to Africa”.

Malema made the statement on Sunday at a media conference in Boksburg, following the conclusion of the ANCYL’s National Executive Committee meeting.

The ANC said that the statement by the ANCYL that it would establish a “Botswana Command Team which will work towards uniting all opposition forces in Botswana to oppose the puppet regime of Botswana led by the Botswana Democratic Party”, and that “BDP led Botswana is a foot stool of imperialism, a security threat to Africa and always under constant puppetry of the United States”, was a total deviation and an affront to the ANC policies.
According to the ANC, its Youth League had insulted the President (the Honourable Ian Khama), the government and the people of Botswana.

“A threat to destabilize and effect regime change in Botswana is a clear demonstration that the ANCYL’s ill- discipline has clearly crossed the political line.”

Malema on Sunday said that he knew that Botswana was “in discussions to open a military base for the imperialists” and that the present government of Botswana had the potential to co-operate in this matter.

The ANC said it had no policy of effecting regime changes anywhere in the continent and or in the world, and therefore it was totally unimaginable that the Youth League of the ANC could even think of such, let alone lead and put such in the public domain.

“We want to remind the ANCYL leadership and its membership of Article F of the ANCYL constitution, which states that the ANCYL, is a mass organ of the ANC that functions as an autonomous body (not independent) within the overall structure of the ANC of which it is an integral part. The ANCYL’s life and body politic is based on the political and ideological objectives of the ANC.”

On Sunday, Malema also used the briefing to say that he was concerned about “the decline of regional and continental formations, the South African Development Community (SADC), and the African Union, particularly since the departure of President Thabo Mbeki in the space of African leadership”.

According to the ANCYL there was now a vacuum on the ideological and political leadership of Africa and the sub-regions, and this was reflected by how the issues of Libya and Ivory Coast were “mishandled”.

However, the ANC said that contrary to the perception of the ANCYL, the African Union and the SADC were “strong” and continued to discharge their functions with distinction, particularly as it related to advancing the African Agenda.

“Contrary to their observations, these two organisations are not in decline; instead they remain in the forefront of continental peace and security efforts from Zimbabwe and Madagascar, to Somalia and Sudan, as well as Libya and Ivory Coast.”

The ANC added its regret that on Libya and the Ivory Coast, the ANCYL still did not understand the complexity of the situations in the two countries and the differences between them, “as well as the steps that our governments have taken individually and collectively within the United Nations and as part of the African Union”. – I-Net Bridge

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