ANC urged to ensure nationalisation of mines at elective conference

farms at its elective conference.
“Political freedom without economic emancipation is meaningless” in South Africa, the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) said. The ANC should implement policies of favourable redistribution of South Africa’s wealth and push for constitutional amendment that will facilitate nationalisation of land and mines, the ANCYL said in a statement.

The conference will be held in Mangaung from December 16 to 20 to elect the party’s top six leaders and adopt party policies. “As we advance to Mangaung, the ANCYL’s strategic mission is clear, the attainment of economic freedom in our lifetime, as political freedom without economic emancipation is meaningless,” ANCYL Head of Communications Khusela Sangoni-Khawe said.

Sangoni-Khawe said ANCYL delegates would reaffirm the policy positions and continue to call for a radical programme plan of action towards the realisation of “economic freedom in our lifetime. “The ANC is expected to respond to the very urgent demand for the people to share in the country’s wealth, the youth league said.

ANCYL’s cardinal pillars of demands include expropriation of land without compensation for equitable redistribution and the amendment of section 25 of the Constitution of South Africa to give effect to this imperative; nationalisation of mines and other strategic sectors for industrialisation; land restitution and agrarian reform and massive investment in the development of the African economy.

“We will be responding to the call for a definitive input on the minerals to be strategically nationalised by basing this decision on firstly the economic importance of the mineral or sector concerned and secondly, the risk associated with the supply thereof to safeguard our economic and political sovereignty,” Sangoni-Khawe said.

“To this end, we shall be proposing nationalisation of minerals,” Sangoni-Khawe added.The ANCYL said the ruling party must further place greater emphasis on youth development to liberate young people from the structural legacy of apartheid and its triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality. — Xinhua.