Let the rand fall, says Collen Maine

President Jacob Zuma and ANCYL president Collen Maine Picture: Bonganu Mbatha

President Jacob Zuma and ANCYL president Collen Maine Picture: Bonganu Mbatha

Published Dec 22, 2016

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Durban – If the rand had to fall so that the ANC could be in control of the economy, so be it, ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Collen Maine said on Wednesday.

“We keep on being threatened with junk status. We must take action. If the rand must fall, it must fall. When it rises, it must be us in control,” he said.

Speaking during a Youth League-organised economic freedom lecture at the Olive Convention Centre in Durban on Wednesday, Maine called the currency “problematic” and said the ANC’s “biggest problem” was National Treasury.

“The rand is problematic. During the elections, when it was said that the ANC didn’t do well in Metros, the rand gained strength. Why are we more afraid of rating agencies and markets than the people of South Africa?” he asked.

Zuma was forced in 2015 to reverse the appointment of Des van Rooyen as finance minister, he said. Addressing Zuma, who was on the stage and set to speak after Maine, he said: “Why did you bow to that pressure?”

He said that it was difficult to give a clear answer to whether the national democratic revolution was on track. “I tell people ‘yes and no’. ‘Yes’ because we have achieved a lot, but ‘no’ because the ANC has been infiltrated by those in leadership who are reporting elsewhere.”

The patience of South Africans was “wearing thin”, Maine told the 1500-strong audience.

He said the ANC had to cleanse itself of those within who were “protectors of capital”.

“There are those within ANC leadership who have become comfortable after 1994. They drive German cars and have delayed the [economic] revolution,” he said. “We want our land, we want our minerals back. We want nationalisation of the Reserve Bank.”

Only the young could lead successful revolutions, he said. There were those in the executive structures of the party that were calling for privatisation of State Owned Enterprises (SOE), such as South African Airways. “SOEs must not be privatised. The problem again is Treasury,” he said, while pointing out that he was not talking about Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, but the department.

Addressing Zuma again, he said: “Mr President, we are talking about radical economic transformation, but, with respect, it remains lip service.”

The ANC did not struggle for freedom to hand out food parcels to the poor, he said. “I hate food parcels. Our people want to be owners of the means of production, they can make their own food.”

The key pillar to achieving economic freedom was education, he said.

Again turning to Zuma, Maine said: “Mr President, you brought us BRICS; as part of your legacy, give us free education for the poor.

“There is money in the economy [for free education for the poor]. The governor of the Reserve Bank is not for the people. Where are the former ministers of finance, who are no longer in Treasury working? They got to be captured. Our biggest problem is to correct the department of finance. That department needs to be transformed,” he said.

Maine said he was not able to “name names” of those who were doing the bidding of monopoly capital because the media were present.

“If we don’t address the issues of the economy, the youth must rise to the occasion. We must make the leadership of the ANC uncomfortable. Life is not a bed of roses,” he said.

“We, the jobless, homeless, landless youth, we will at some point be forced to occupy, and we will start with the wine farms in Cape Town,” he said.

Also on stage at the event were ANC National Executive Committee and National Working Committee member Nathi Mthethwa, who is also Minister of Arts and Culture, eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede , the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Super Zuma and others.

South African Airways chairperson Dudu Myeni and Mzwanele (Jimmy) Manyi, president of the Progressive Professionals Forum, sat with other dignitaries in the front row for the duration of the lecture.

African News Agency

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