The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) is the youth wing of the African National Congress. Its foundation in 1944 by Anton Muziwakhe Lembede (1914-1947), Ashley Peter Mda, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo marked the rise of a new generation of leadership of South Africa's black African population. It developed a manifesto in 1944 and published a program in 1948.
By the end of the 1940s, the Youth League had gained control of the African National Congress. It called for civil disobedience and strikes in protest at the hundreds of laws associated with the new apartheid system. These protests were often met with force by the South African Government. In 1950, 18 blacks were killed during a walkout while protesters including Mandela were jailed and beaten for their opposition to the Government.
Thabo Mbeki became active in the Youth League in 1956 and was expelled from high school in 1959 as a result of participation in a strike. In 1959 many ANCYL members broke away to form the rival Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). In 1960, the PAC, ANC and its associated organisations had been banned. Mbeki organised a stay-at-home in protest at the South African Government's decision to leave the Commonwealth of Nations before leaving South Africa at the suggestion of the ANC.
The Youth League continued its activities underground during the remainder of the apartheid years. In 1990, F. W. de Klerk legalised the ANC and its associated organisations including the Youth League, and Peter Mokaba led the newly unbanned Youth League.
In 2005, Fikile Mbalula became president of the league. Mbalula succeeded the student activist Malusi Gigaga, who went on to become deputy minister of home affairs. Mbalula had served as secretary general of the ANCYL under Gigaba's leadership. It was under Mbalula's leadership that the ANCYL took on a more visible role in defending Jacob Zuma, and publicly lobbying for his election as ANC president.
The election of Julius Malema in April 2008 was initially disputed after a bitterly contested election with Saki Mofeking. [1]
The Youth League generated significant controversy in 2008 when its president publicly declared its willingness to use violence to prevent Jacob Zuma's being prosecuted for corruption charges, stating that the Youth League was "prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma". In further remarks, Julius Malema has called for the elimination of so-called "counter-revolutionary" forces, which include the largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance.[2] These statements have drawn significant public criticism, and the ANC has on occasion distanced itself from Malema's remarks. Further statements made against the DA's leader in 2009, stating that they were "disgusted by remarks attributed to the racist girl Helen Zille, who when failing to defend her stupid and sexist decision to appoint predominantly white males into her Cabinet, attacks the President of the Republic of South Africa. Zille has appointed an all male Cabinet of useless people, majority of whom are her boyfriends and concubines so that she can continue to sleep around with them, yet she claims to have the moral authority to question our President." These statements [3] were in response to a statement by Zille that "Zuma is a self-confessed womaniser with deeply sexist views, who put all his wives at risk by having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman." The ANC Youth League has been widely criticized for these statements, and has thus far been unable to explain their meaning, including during appearances on Talk Radio 702, a national radio station. [4][5]. The spokesperson, Floyd Shivambu kept on saying that their meaning of sleeping around is: sleeping around. He was unable to clarify whether sleeping around means having sex or not having sex.In 2010 Julius Malema Started singing Kill the Boer, kill the farmer {in South African terms meaning killing white farmers}.
