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Putting the Y in the YL
08/04/2008 12:16 - (SA)
David Moseley
There is much in South Africa to induce a wry smile. Just right now I got up to make myself a delicious cup of coffee, not the freeze-dried stuff, but the gourmet stuff and - naturally - the power was off.
Eskom can't supply us with the only thing they're on this planet to provide, but they're quite happy and seemingly serious when asking us to pay more for something we don't get. Petrol goes up by 60c every week - and to add the cherry to the motoring cake the government wants to put a toll-road on every highway, freeway and gated-community cul-de-sac to "improve" the roads they say. Sure.
You have to laugh, otherwise you'd be the next one out on a Qantas flight to Australia (where the only news of late has involved a man rescuing his wife from the jaws of crocodile - s'truth - or the story of the happy couple who've been living in bliss for 30 years, only to tell the world recently that they're father and daughter - blimey) or, at the very least, crying yourself to sleep with your gun nestled snugly under your pillow.
Never discount the propensity of this land to provide good humour - particularly when the ANC Youth League is involved. No here is a comedy troupe that could put Monty Python to shame. First of all, their initials (ANC YL) sound like a fabulous rejoinder to the classic YMCA disco hit.
Further, their activities are shrouded in mystery. They're like the secret, shadowy organisation that we've never had - just with a helluva lot more front page exposure. What do they do, where do they come from and do I qualify automatically for selection to the Youth League if I'm already in the ANC Under-19 Division?
These guys know how to ride the gravy train. They even have their own conductor. Such is their absolute and resolute ambition to be useless that they even kept Jacob Zuma waiting three hours on the weekend before the big man could talk. That's right readers, the all-singing, all-dancing marrying man of the ANC barely managed to get a decent struggle song in at the ANC Youth League conference over the weekend. Oh the shame.
Delegates having a barney
Why, I hear you ask in muted tones of mirth? Because the delegates (another fine word to describe 'people who are mostly kak at what they do and so end up becoming politicians') at the conference where having a barney - water bottles were allegedly sent flying to and fro - for three days to actually determine who should be at the conference and who was gate-crashing the austere event. Bless their little souls.
I imagine during the struggle the Youth League played a pivotal role in providing the Senior League with wise leaders who promoted universal suffrage and peace in our land (Nelson, in fact, was a founding member along with legends Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo). I imagine this now because I can't really think of what else the bunch of clowns ruining their good work could possibly come up with if takes just three days to realise a heap of strangers are attending their conference.
Personally, I'd like to see more Youth Leagues. Wouldn't it be great to watch a whole bunch of English-speaking white kids in cardigans demanding more booms in the suburbs for the DA YL, or how about little Afrikaans kids re-enacting highlights from the Great Trek for the FF+ YL, better yet, why not turn Zimbabwe into Little South Africa and let the various Youth Leagues flex their political pecs there before mucking everything up here.
At least they won't have bottled water to fling at each other north of the border.
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