The Maine man speaks
Economic freedom in our lifetime will never be realised without quality education. Speaking to The Times yesterday, the new president of the ANC Youth League, Collen Maine, said education was at the centre of everything.He said one of the primary resolutions at the recent ANC Youth League elective congress was to change the face of the civil service, and one of the ways it aimed to do this was to ensure that 40% of ANC councillors and state employees should be young people.Said Maine: "We are saying that because our population is young, we need young people to take the lead."The other reality is that young people are the future, so the ANC must prepare them now because [the elder members] will not be there forever because of age ."Maine has often been derided as a "messenger boy" who toes the ruling party line - but he vowed that his term in office would be robust and militant, though not arrogant.He said the ANC would no longer abide attacks from the ANC Youth League as happened while Julius Malema headed the organisation.Maine said his immediate mission was to improve support for the ANC as the ruling party had suffered "something of a knock" in recent elections.He said: "As you have seen at the ANC, there has been some knock during the last elections."We want to restore young people's confidence in the ANC."He said too many councillors had a poor understanding of their mandate."Our vision is that we want to see a situation where those councillors who will be coming after the elections understand their role," he said.He said the local government needed to improve service delivery.Maine served as MEC of human settlements and local government in North West before becoming the Youth League president.During that time, the 34-year-old father of three said corruption and maladministration often derailed service delivery.Regarding his detractors - both inside and outside of the ANC Youth League - and the allegation that he once defected and joined COPE, Maine said his record as a loyal member and supporter of the ANC spoke for itself."I was never a member of COPE. I have always been in the ANC," he said.COPE insists he became a member of its North West branch in 2009, though it has yet to produce proof of this...
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