DURBAN, April 9 (ANA) – Calls for “high discipline” at the KwaZulu-Natal leg of the Ahmed Kathrada memorial programme came to nought on Sunday as African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) members disrupted the Durban event.
Hundreds of ANCYL members dressed in party regalia were bused in to Sastri College in Greyville where they joined citizens and activists at what was intended to be a time of reflection on the life of the late struggle icon.
But some of the youth league members – visibly drunk and reeking of alcohol – would not heed ANC provincial chairman Sihle Zikalala as he tried to calm then down during former finance minister Pravin Gordhan’s address.
Clad in an ANC T-shirt, Gordhan took to the podium under conditions of relative calm. Speaking to the 1600-strong crowd, he said Kathrada wanted a country that was governed by the people.
“I advise the younger comrades to study comrade Kathrada’s kind of activism and the activism of other comrades. You must understand what kind of activism and democracy it takes to keep the ANC alive,” said Gordhan.
He said no other organisation in the country could be trusted with the welfare of 55 million South Africans. The ANC needed unity, but it had to be “principled unity”, the kind that leaders such as Kathrada and Mandela and others stood for.
“Principled unity is important… it can’t be based on money or brown bags moving around. We want an ANC that commits to a government where young people have jobs, training, and business opportunities,” he said.
“We must work together to accomplish what comrade Kathrada wanted for our country…” he said, but was interrupted by a youth league member shouting from the audience “It is my time to talk and your turn to listen”. Gordhan told the young man, to booing from ANCYL members but cheers from other audience members, “Let us live our principles.”
Kathrada had wanted radical economic transformation for all South Africans, particularly African families, but he was not in favour of economic transformation for “just a handful of people”, Gordhan said.
At this stage, ANCYL members started chanting “Zuma, Zuma, Zuma”, and Gordhan urged the young people to sit down. He said that in order for families to not transfer poverty from father to child, South Africa needed a “different economy” to the one it had now. “To those of us who have some wealth, some assets, let us find out how we can help,” Gordhan said.
But youth league members, who started clapping, chanting, and heckling him, soon drowned out his words. Provincial youth league secretary Thanduxulo Sabelo left the stage to try and calm members but achieved little.
Zikalala eventually took to the podium, with Gordhan standing next to him, and urged the ANCYL members to sit down and calm down. He also asked journalists to return to the front of the stage.
Police tried to intervene and the youth league members started booing and heckling them, leading Zikalala to address the police from the stage, saying no intervention was needed.
Gordhan eventually returned to the podium but appeared to cut short his speech. Zikalala tried to calm the ANCYL members, but even announcing that ANC treasurer general Zweli Mkhize was to offer an address made little difference.
Audience members started leaving the event in droves, telling ANA they feared for their safety and were disappointed with the turn of events.
– African News Agency (ANA)
