REFILWE MEKOA
The Youth Communist League in the Free State said many youth leave the province after graduating because they struggle to get employment.
According to YCL’s provincial secretary Life Mokone, they have created a self-driven model where they encourage people and cooperatives to build their own economy and not depend on government for employment. Mokone was speaking at a media briefing in Bloemfontein on Tuesday.
“There are some levels of dependency on government that government must provide everything. You will realise in South Africa which is a capitalist country and you will not find a Capitalist country providing everything for free including education. We thought that we needed to encourage the youth to look into the areas of self-driven economies,” he said.
Mokone explained that the employment status of the youth is on a low scale and the youth has turned more vulnerable. He was speaking ahead of the provincial conference that will take place on 17 till 19 October this year outside Ventersburg. Mokone announced that they hoped the congress will highly focus on the provincial economy.
“With the emergence of the Economic Freedom Fighters, majority of people who joined the political party is young people because the EFF says it can give them economic freedom in their lifetime. So, they want this economic freedom although we know that the EFF will not provide that for them. Hence, we agree with the ANC that this particular phase of transition must be a transition for radical economic transformation,” he said.
Mokone said the conference is important so that those in power can go back to their membership and provide reports to members which they will assess those reports. The highest youth communist league membership in the province is around Mangung Municipality and Thabo Mofutsanyana District.
“The conference will revive what is important in order to respect the space of allowing members to decide who leads,” says Mokone. The YCL is expecting 220 voting delegates from various branches, national and international guests.
