The Tshwane ANC Youth League has apologised over the disparaging “post menopause” statement it issued on 5 June this year against Gauteng Provincial Legislature Speaker Morakane Mosupye.
The headline/topic of the apologetic statement is as follows:
“FROM ERROR TO ETHICAL CLARITY IN PURSUIT OF PRINCIPLED CORRECTION.”
In essence the statement announces that the Youth League is obedient to the guidance of the ANC national mother body as well as the directive from the national ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji and again in fidelity to the ethical discipline demanded of all the party’s structures by the ANC mother body.
The ANC Youth League has described its apology as an unreserved and ideologically conscious one.
“Though intended as a metaphor for political atavism and reactionary regression, the invocation of menopause a deeply human and biological reality was miscalculated and misguided and has transgressed dialectical boundaries of revolutionary critique and strayed into the realm of personal indignity and betrayed the ANC Youth League’s foundational commitment to gender justice, political integrity and historical responsibility,” read the statement.
The Tshwane ANC Youth League has a result declared the following:
1.The aforementioned paragraph 5 of the original statement (which contains reference to Morakane Mosupye’s menopause status) is hereby retracted in its entirety and unconditionally and commits itself to a comprehensive political rehabilitation, ideological re-education and the building of feminist consciousness.
2.The League accepts the above-mentioned corrective measures with humility and revolutionary maturity and reaffirms its unwavering commitment to advancing a political praxis that is emancipatory, inclusive and rooted in the moral authority of the liberation tradition of the ANC.
As mentioned in this story, the Tshwane ANC Youth League’s apology comes in the wake of the ANC mother body’s directive to the League to withdraw the menopause statement regarding Mosupye.
The media statement issued by the ANC mother body in this regard reads as follows:
“The ANC has made it categorically clear that we don’t agree or appreciate the manner in which our Youth League members in Tshwane have conducted themselves and as such we have requested them to withdraw the unfortunate statement and apologise to Comrade Morakane (Mosupye) and all women of South Africa in general and they have heeded the call (to apologise) and as a result we can’t continue to punish them, but we will instead reprimand them and organise an induction session for them regarding GBV.”
Regarding reports that the ANC Youth League members were teargased and baton-charged outside the City of Tshwane chambers by armed Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) officers, the ANC said it was still waiting for a full report in this regard.
Another statement which comes from concerned individuals who also condemned the Youth League’s original statement reads as follows:
“It is politically disingenuous to insult any comrade regardless of their gender or age because the ANC doesn’t subscribe to any form of violence including gender-based violence and the insult against Comrade Morakane is tantamount to emotional abuse and bullying.”
The apology from Tshwane ANCYL.
