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RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION 1:
IFP YOUTH
MOBILISING FOR IFP VICTORY IN THE 2009 GENERAL ELECTIONS: WHAT WE
NEED TO DO TO ENSURE THE PARTY ONCE AGAIN GOVERNS THE PROVINCE OF
KWAZULU NATAL AND SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASES ITS SUPPORT THROUGHOUT
SOUTH AFRICA
Noting that the
current political landscape of the country is dynamic and
ever-changing offering both challenges and opportunities. The 2009
general elections will provide the party with a never-to-be-repeated
chance to regain the political leadership and governance of the
Province of KwaZulu Natal and to increase its support throughout the
rest of South Africa.
RESOLVES:
1. To
substantially improve our efforts in all of our constituencies to
ensure the maximum possible number of voters are registered,
especially young and first-time voters;
2. To ensure
that identified party agents are properly trained and ready to
diligently serve the party on polling day;
3. To
mobilize further support for the party by visibly and consistently
campaigning and promoting the leadership and policies of the party
and by fund-raising;
4. To rapidly
identify and attempt to put a stop (by appealing to the appropriate
authorities) to the political intolerance and intimidation of voters
by ANC-Alliance members and supporters which we have already
experienced in KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng;
5. To widely
expose such incidents: for example – ANC supporters recently
destroyed an IFP billboard in Umzinto, KwaZulu Natal and assaulted
and intimidated IFP members gathering for a meeting in Tshwane (Soutpan
Sports Ground);
6. To insist
that the IEC and our safety and security services act efficiently
and effectively to ensure that the electoral process is free and
fair and that all parties adhere to the prescribed IEC Code of
Conduct;
7. To ask
members and supporters to, if possible, use their cell phones to
provide video and picture proof of any acts of electoral violence
and intimidation which they may witness and for such evidence to be
immediately forwarded to the party leadership in charge of elections
for appropriate action thereafter.
RESOLUTION 2:
THE CRISIS
FACING SOUTH AFRICA'S YOUTH AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE ANC-LED
GOVERNMENT CONTINUOUSLY PURSUING FAILING NATIONAL EDUCATION
POLICIES: WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AND LESSONS LEARNED
Noting
that even the Minister of Education, The Hon. Naledi Pandor MP, has
publicly stated that "apartheid can no longer be used as an excuse
for SA's education problems…" and, furthermore "that levels of
mediocrity in the education system have reached unacceptably high
levels…."
RESOLVES:
1. To
continue to condemn the bungling of our education system by the ANC
Alliance-led government where low morale and so-called political
"policy overload" affects and afflicts both educators and learners;
2. To applaud
hard working results-orientated educators who should be publicly
acclaimed and richly rewarded;
3. To support
the call by the South African Council of Educators that school
principals must disclose the details of teachers found guilty of
professional misconduct to be included on a data base of "rotten
apples" (an initiative aimed at ridding the education system of
teachers found guilty of sexual and physical abuse of pupils);
4. To deplore
the closing of teacher training colleges by the ANC Alliance as a
catastrophe and to plead that teacher training be prioritized in
tandem with vastly increased remuneration for educators based on
skills and performance;
5. To remind
all South Africans of the outstanding record of the erstwhile
KwaZulu Government (under the leadership of Prince Mangosuthu
Buthelezi) of building huge numbers of academically successful and
well managed schools in close cooperation with communities (to which
thousands of scholars in the then Transvaal fled – and were welcomed
-- following the 1976 uprising);
6. To further
emphasise that while actively opposing apartheid and constrained by
few resources, the KwaZulu Government still managed to build vibrant
multi-faceted educational facilities (in cooperation with community
leadership, parents, educators and learners) which spirit the ANC to
this day has never been able to emulate and has, in fact,
obliterated this community-inspired quest for joint responsibility
for the education of our children through their
communist/socialist-inspired policy of centralization;
7. To
congratulate academic Dr Mamphela Ramphele for proposing what the
IFP has long advocated: that a third tier of education should be
introduced (managed by the state but funded in part by the corporate
world) which would allow for the autonomy of school principals and
teachers;
8. To state
that by pursuing OBE (Outcomes Based Education) the ANC Alliance has
managed (for many well-documented reasons) to further widen the gap
between the children of the rich and the poor and that this
experiment has been a disaster: skills and expertise among teachers
radically differ as do their access to the resources required;
9. To plead
for recognition that one of the major problems facing teachers is
resources, especially in rural communities;
10. To call
for a thorough and independent audit of all SETAs and request that
curricula (for the foreseeable future in these times of a global
economic crisis) must be more focused on enhancing our labour market
and ensuring that skills development compliments employment
creation;
11. To request
IFP leadership to consistently agitate for the reintroduction of
school inspectors as a matter of urgency.
RESOLUTION 3:
IFP YOUTH
APPLAUD EDUCATIONIST PROF JONATHAN JANSEN FOR EXPOSING OUR "MATRIC
CIRCUS" AS A "CRUEL FARCE"
Noting the
recent newspaper article by esteemed academic, Prof. Jonathan
Jansen, stating unequivocally that the current manner in which
national matriculation results are calculated and assessed is a
"cruel farce".
RESOLVES:
1. To support
his view that it is not fair to subject more than half a million
youths annually to the same terminal examination when they have had
vastly different school experiences;
2. To further
agree that it is indeed "outrageous" that young people in our
country have such completely divergent education experiences in
spite of policies which claim that discrimination is a thing of the
past;
3. To urge
all academics like Prof. Jansen to further expose the reality and
social dangers inherent in that some learners enjoy well-qualified
teachers, excellent science laboratories, internet connectivity and
so on, while the majority of learners suffer derelict township
schools, have mainly unqualified teachers and have never seen a
science laboratory;
4. To call
on all youth to speak out with regard to ANC-Alliance education
policies which are now recognized by academics such as Prof. Jansen
to have reproduced social inequality "according to race and class in
one of the most unequal nations in the world";
5. To
nevertheless offer our best wishes to all matriculants who have
worked so hard this year to succeed in their examinations in spite
of their obvious hardships.
RESOLUTION 4:
IFP YOUTH
CALLING FOR EMERGENCY MEASURES TO ENABLE SOUTH AFRICA'S YOUTH TO
BECOME EMPLOYABLE AND THEREAFTER EMPLOYED: WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
Noting that
there is structural unemployment in South Africa in that there is a
mismatch of labour demand to labour supply. Many South Africans do
not have the skills required for the employment available.
Government tenders and attempts at job creation do not address the
realities of our skills shortage and ongoing employment crisis.
RESOLVES:
1. To call
for emergency measures to be enacted to enable South Africa's youth
to be given the appropriate skills to enable them to be effectively
employed and thereafter self-employed and that these measures must
employ on-the-job training;
2. To urge
that technical training at high school level be immediately
prioritized and resourced and that retired tradespersons be
encouraged and given incentives to teach and assist with skills
transfer in this regard;
3. To state
that many Government attempts to date of large scale job creation
have not enabled effective skills transfer and merely offer paltry
handouts for limited periods of time with no real long-term benefits
for those involved;
4. To support
the suggestion of the National Business Initiative (NBI) for the
need for "strategic engagement" between business and government to
"deepen the understanding of the real challenges facing the
education sector" and for business and government to strengthen
relations and explore solutions.
RESOLUTION 5:
IFP YOUTH
FIGHTING VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS, CRIME AND CORRUPTION: WHAT NEEDS TO
BE DONE
Noting: That
violence in our schools and violence among youths is said to be
increasing at alarming rates;
Noting: That
much has been said and written about the staggering levels of crime
and corruption in South Africa but that little has been accomplished
in spite of the best efforts of many over-worked and under-paid
police officers who regrettably also have to deal with political
manipulation, nepotism, incompetence, indolence and corruption
within their own ranks;
Noting: That the
ANC Alliance Government -- to shield its own corrupt cadres -- is
now determined to dismantle one of our more effective crime-fighting
units, the so-called "Scorpions";
Noting: That the
President of the Republic, in spite of high-level pleas to do so,
has refused to allow a commission to investigate the so-called "arms
deal".
RESOLVES:
1. To lay
the blame for escalating youth violence and violence in schools
on the growing apathy of many parents and society and
communities in general;
2. To call
for the "family" to be the focus of South Africa's social policy as
this is the key to so-called "moral regeneration";
3. To call
for youth development and violence prevention organizations to
actively intervene within schools with programmes aimed at
perpetrators and youth at risk;
4. To ask
youth to start to critically examine the messages in the music we
listen to and the video's and films we watch: do they reflect the
kind of people we want to be and do they reflect the kind of society
we want to live in?
5. To
vigorously support the contention of party leadership that the
refusal by President Kgalema Motlanthe to establish a commission of
inquiry into the so-called "arms deal" has rendered the ANC
Government "morally corrupt";
6. To call on
all youth to mobilize against crime in their own communities and to
expose criminal behaviour wherever and whenever they can;
7. To ask
youth to interact with the party's elected officials with the
information they have if they fear retribution or inaction from
corrupt and/or inept police officials.
RESOLUTION 6:
IFP YOUTH
DEMAND ACCESSIBLE AND AFFORDABLE INTERNET ACCESS FOR ALL LEARNERS:
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
The so-called
"digital divide" in South Africa is a disgrace. The rich are
connected, the poor are not. Urban areas are connected and rural
areas are not.
Rich schools are
connected and the majority of poor schools are not. Access to
high-speed broadband internet is neither affordable nor accessible
for the majority of South Africans. While ANC Alliance cadres have
become BEE billionaires by being enabled to buy bargain-basement
shareholdings in Telkom, consumers continue to suffer with having to
pay outrageous prices for pathetic internet service from our primary
national service provider. Much-promised competition in the form of
Telkom competitors Neotel and iBurst has yet to show any hope to
ordinary students and average citizens who need to be "connected"
and have a right to be "connected".
RESOLVES:
1. That
access to the internet should be accepted and understood by
Government as an essential learning and social tool in the 21st
century;
2. That the
internet is now also seen as an important element to enhancing
democracy and good governance all around the world and the ANC
Alliance government's abject failure to enable the rapid deployment
of access to the internet -- and to learners in particular --
should be seen as anti-democratic;
3. That in
today's world it is now recognized that the free flow of information
and the exchange of ideas and knowledge via the world wide web is
having a profound impact on billions of lives: the internet is
therefore a global resource actively being denied to the majority of
South Africans;
4. That the
marginalization of the majority of South Africans from access to the
internet can be broadly interpreted as a restriction on the rights
of citizens to freedom of speech, association and learning as well
as inhibiting citizens access to transparent governance, legislative
scrutiny and access to all relevant documentation in all languages;
5. That many
persons with disabilities can be enormously assisted by ICT and it
should be a government priority that all persons with special needs
are "connected" as a matter of policy.
RESOLUTION 7:
IFP YOUTH
ENCOURAGING VOLUNTEERISM AND A VOLUNTEER POLICY IN SOUTH AFRICA
WHICH WILL BE AN IMPORTANT NATIONAL SOCIAL AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
STRATEGY: WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
Noting the need
for our nation's youth to be properly organized to promote positive
citizenship and to assist in community development.
RESOLVES:
1. That
encouraging "volunteerism" will assist youth to learn
self-respect and respect for others while developing community
leadership, learning and social skills;
2. That there
is an urgent need for support for a "volunteer policy" in South
Africa to develop schemes and allocate resources which will
compliment national development objectives;
3. That youth
should be encouraged to study countries in which youth volunteers
play a significant role and active youth participation in society is
organised and valued;
4. That a
"volunteer policy" will only succeed if it is seen as all-inclusive,
if it involves all social and cultural partners and if it is not
politically hi-jacked.
RESOLUTION 8:
IFP YOUTH
CALL FOR THE NEW NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (NYDA) TO PRODUCE
RESULTS AND NOT BECOME YET ANOTHER EMPLOYMENT FRONT FOR ANC ALLIANCE
YOUTH SEEKING PERSONAL ENRICHMENT: WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
Noting
Parliament's recent decision to pass the National Youth Development
Agency Bill and further noting that claims that this new agency is
not a merger of the National Youth Commission and the Umsobomvu
Youth Fund have yet to be tested.
RESOLVES:
1. To
support the need for a well formulated implementing institution
rather than a mere coordinating agency;
2. To regret
that the Bill does not detail how the Agency will operate at
provincial and local levels and to question this omission which
clearly caters yet again to the obsession of the ANC-Alliance to
centralise all power and decision-making;
3. To express
our abject disappointment at the failure of the National Youth
Commission and the Umsobomvu Youth Fund;
4. To state
that the new Agency has no chance of success if it is packed like
its predecessors with deployed ANC-Alliance cadres;
5. To call
once again for a fully-fledged and well-resourced Youth Ministry
enabled to rapidly implement positive youth development and take
responsibility for all youth affairs.
RESOLUTION 9:
IFP YOUTH
CONGRATULATE SADESMO
Noting that
SADESMO has won all 12 seats on the SRC at Durban's Mangosuthu
University of Technology and all 7 seats on the SRC at the
University of Zululand.
RESOLVES:
1. To
congratulate all concerned for their performance in the face of
high levels of intimidation and wish all those elected well in
their quest to be all-inclusive and to set an example of
excellence in service.
RESOLUTION 10:
IFP YOUTH
CONDEMN SADTU'S BIASED ACTIONS: WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO ENSURE
THAT SADTU TEACHERS WHO SUPPORT THE ANC'S ELECTION CAMPAIGN ARE NOT
PERMITTED TO SERVE AS PRESIDING OFFICERS
Noting that the
SA Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU) in KwaZulu Natal has announced
that they will join the ANC's election campaign in the province
ahead of the 2009 elections.
RESOLVES:
1. To ask
how a union such as SADTU can be trusted in a society committed
to multi-party democracy when it is clearly aligned to one
political party?
2. To insist
that the IEC does not allow political office bearers and trade
unionists to act as presiding officers or be employed as electoral
staff in the forthcoming election.
RESOLUTION 11:
IFP YOUTH
SUPPORT THE EXTENSION OF THE CHILD SUPPORT GRANT TO 18 YEARS. WHAT
NEEDS TO BE DONE TO ENSURE THAT ALL CHILDREN WHO QUALIFY FOR SOCIAL
SECURITY CAN ACCESS THE GRANTS AND BENEFITS TO WHICH THEY ARE
ENTITLED
Noting that it
is now a fact that social grants are recognized as the most
effective government response to poverty since 1994 and academics
have now produced research to show that "they have done far more to
change the lives of the poor than any other government programme…"
Further noting: nearly 3 million youth in our country between the
ages of 15 and 18 receive no direct financial support at all.
RESOLVES:
1. To call
for the extension of the Child Support Grant to the age of 18 years;
2. To state
that grants are the only anti-poverty measure which allow poor
people to determine their own needs in the circumstances in which
they find themselves;
3. To request
leadership to fully support the work of the Alliance for Children's
Entitlement to Society Security which has activated more than 1 200
children's sector organizations to motivate for a comprehensive
social security system which will ensure the survival of children
and a standard of living adequate for their development;
4. To ask all
members and branch leaderships to assist children and their families
in obtaining enabling documentation required to access grants;
5. To reject
any notion that the State cannot afford extending the child support
grant when billions are spent on armaments we do not need
(submarines being a classic example) and that research costing the
extension of the child support grant to the age of 18 years is
calculated as being only R5.4 billion which is clearly affordable.
RESOLUTION 12:
IFP YOUTH
CONDEMN THE LACK OF ADEQUATE FUNDING FOR CHILDREN'S HOMES: WHAT
NEEDS TO BE DONE
Noting the huge
numbers of children in our country who need to be given refuge and
care in children's homes for various reasons and yet these homes are
critically under-funded.
RESOLVES:
1. That
places of safety for children (many of which have been privately
established) play a vital role in our society – most often for
abused children who are wards of the court;
2. To applaud
these homes and their benefactors who need to be recognized for the
wonderful service they provide;
3. To call
for the adequate funding of these homes as some are facing enormous
financial pressure and may have to close their doors;
4. To condemn
the fact that reports in the Western Cape are now revealing that
since the year 2 000 only two increases in the per capita grant have
been given to private children's homes and that next year this
amount will not be increased at all;
5. To state
that it is patently ridiculous that state homes receive a per capita
grant of R5 699 and yet private homes only receive R1 521 per month;
6. To request
leadership to raise this matter at the highest levels of government
and to ask the question these private homes are asking: does the
government want the private children's homes to continue and what
will it do with the children if the private homes close due to lack
of funds?
RESOLUTION 13:
IFP YOUTH
CALL FOR PEOPLE-CENTRED DEVELOPMENT AND AN END TO THE DESTRUCTION OF
RURAL ENVIRONMENTS FOR THE SAKE OF SO-CALLED "DEVELOPMENT": WHAT
NEEDS TO BE DONE
Noting the
alarming frequency in which the rights of rural citizens living in
environmentally pristine areas of the country are being trampled
upon in the name of so-called profit-driven "development" invariably
driven by the ANC Alliance and their BEE cohorts (often in
collaboration with foreign partnerships including mining consortia).
RESOLVES:
1. To
fully support Inkosi Khayelilhle Mathaba and the eMacambini clan
in their determination to resist forced removal to make way for
the ANC-led Amazulu World Theme Park project;
2. To
question what type of "development" forces people off their land
which is not owned by big business and neither is it owned by
government;
3. To call
for a commission of enquiry as to how Dubai-based Ruwaad Holdings
have been given a "memorandum of understanding" between the KwaZulu
Natal provincial government and themselves to plan a 16 500 ha theme
park which will include a shopping centre, a game reserve, six golf
courses, residential facilities, sports fields and a statue of King
Shaka at the Thukela river mouth;
4. To further
insist that this enquiry reveals all contract details and the
identities of all local shareholders – not just the company names
but the names of the actual individuals involved;
5. To urge
the current Premier of the Province of KwaZulu Natal to exercise
extreme caution in his dealings with regard to this matter and to
desist from using the name of His Majesty the King of the Zulu
Nation with regard to this ANC land-grab initiative;
6. To
furthermore support the quest of the communities on the Wild Coast
of the Eastern Cape to also be left alone and to further support
their resistance of a Ministerial decision to throw them off their
ancestral land for the benefit of Australian mining interests
(together with local cohorts who will also be cashing in);
7. To call
for active resistance when decisions are made to destroy South
African land of great beauty and to call for people-centred
development that places the needs of people above the needs of
politicians and business deals that do more harm than good.
RESOLUTION 14:
IFP YOUTH
COUNT THE COST OF THE HIV-AIDS PANDEMIC: WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO
BRING AN END TO THE SUFFERING
Noting that much
has been said over many years about the tragic consequences of the
HIV-AIDS pandemic and that there is little more that can be added
that is new.
RESOLVES:
1. To
continue to plead for South Africa's youth to save their own
lives and those of their loved ones by practicing the ABC
mantra: Abstain, Be Faithful and Condomise;
2. To
continue to call for responsible behaviour and an acute awareness
that the HIV-AIDS virus does not discriminate between black and
white or rich and poor – it strikes when it is given the
opportunity;
3. To
continue to plead for love and care for all who are afflicted and
affected by the virus and an understanding that any of us, if we are
not careful, could fall prey to this terrible disease at any time;
4. To
continue to advise that all persons who are sexually active be
regularly tested so as to ensure they can receive ARV's and that
their partners can also be protected and assisted if necessary.
RESOLUTION 15:
IFP YOUTH
CONDEMN XENOPHOBIA AND THE DISINTEGRATION OF ZIMBABWE: WHAT NEEDS
TO BE DONE
Noting that it
is a little known fact that research has now shown -- and is being
reported by academics -- that the appalling xenophobic attacks in
Gauteng are believed to have started in schools where two weeks
before the attacks flared up in Alexandra, the Gauteng education
department experienced problems in Pretoria where schoolchildren
were reported to be beating up and throwing classmates out of school
for being immigrants. Further noting that unless the dreadful
political and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe dramatically
improves, South Africans must accept that increasing numbers of
Zimbabwe citizens will be forced to seek shelter and medical and
other assistance here in our own country and that they should
therefore whole-heartedly receive assistance and comfort.
RESOLVES:
1. To
applaud the outstanding example set by the President of the IFP
in immediately visiting areas where attacks on immigrants had
taken place and his efforts to comfort victims and to
continually thereafter call for tolerance and behaviour
consistent with the African culture of Ubuthu-Botho;
2. To
formally request all education departments to teach learners the
reasons why persons all over the world are often forced to leave
their countries to seek refuge elsewhere and why these persons have
rights which must be respected by us all;
3. To condemn
the disintegration of our once great neighbour, Zimbabwe, which is
now clearly a "failed state", and to finally admit that our combined
cry for "African solutions to African problems" has not produced any
desired results and that Africans, in the words of the President of
the IFP, "should be expected to adhere to the same standards as
everyone else all over the world…";
4. To now
call for SADC, the African Union and the United Nations to
immediately ensure that the starving and cholera-stricken people of
Zimbabwe receive emergency food and medical assistance.
RESOLUTION 16:
IFP YOUTH
SEEK WAYS TO DISCOURAGE TEENAGE PREGNANCIES: WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
Noting reports
of huge numbers of teenage pregnancies and statistics revealing that
more than 20 000 learners throughout South Africa fell pregnant last
year with figures expected to have risen this year. Further noting
that this often curtails or ends the educational careers of the
young women and places huge financial burdens on already
poverty-stricken families.
RESOLVES:
1. To
call for schools and community outreach programmes to teach
learners the "real cost" of single parenthood and of raising a
child and to use the Child Support Grant as a basis for showing
that properly caring for a child does, in fact, cost far more
than the minimal monthly grant payment;
2. To express
despair that a recent World Bank report paints a picture of a
"typical" African being an 18-year-old woman living in poverty – who
dropped out of school "and will probably have six or seven children
of her own";
3. To
disseminate the reality of the report which further states that "in
sub-Saharan Africa, three in five of the total unemployed are youth
and, on average, 72 percent of the youth population live on less
than $2 a day…";
4. To
therefore encourage IFP members and supporters to actively plan and
promote appropriate programmes within our communities to attempt to
get young women (and their partners if possible) to tell their
stories and to give their first-hand experiences of early parenthood
so as to enable young people to hear the truth and realities from
persons their own age;
5. To
acknowledge that teenage pregnancies and a lack of parenting skills
most often has dire family and wider social consequences which
issues should also be exposed to learners;
6. To express
concern with regard to claims that some teenagers are encouraged to
have babies so they can qualify for the Child Support Grant while
research has shown that this is not, in fact, the norm;
7. To
continue to spread the message of the IFP that expanding work and
educational opportunities in rural areas is absolutely critical in
the quest to give teenagers hope and a better chance in life than
they have now.
RESOLUTION 17:
IFP YOUTH
THANK THEIR PRESIDENT, PRINCE MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI MP, FOR HIS
LIFETIME OF COMMITMENT TO THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH AFRICA AND FOR
STEADFASTLY PROMOTING THE PRINCIPLES OF OUR PARTY WHICH ARE AS
RELEVANT NOW AS THEY WERE AT OUR INCEPTION IN 1975
The IFP Youth
Brigade membership here today at our 30th Annual General Conference,
and all the former youth who have been in the Brigade before us,
have much to thank our President for.
Conference
therefore:
1. EXPRESSES
its profound gratitude to our President for his patience which we
have no doubt sorely tested time and again and for his forbearance
in promoting our best interests while also attempting to protect us
from our mistakes;
2. OFFERS
him, as always, our respect and admiration for his tireless
dedication to promoting the rights of all South Africans and, in
particular, highlighting the centrality of our families and our
communities in building a South Africa in which there is decency,
democracy and prosperity for all;
3. FURTHER
ACKNOWLEDGES that while our sincere expressions of support for our
President are well meant they are, nevertheless, just words and the
best way in which we can truly thank our leader is by hard work on
the ground -- day after day and night after night -- and by doing
our utmost to ensure that the party is victorious in next year's
general election.
Contact: Liezl
van der Merwe, 083 611 7470. |
