Young and riled: ANC youth task team angry about reshuffled cabinet's old look

The ANC national youth task team has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa for failing to bring young people into his cabinet in this week's reshuffle.

In a statement, the task team said it was disappointing that there was not a single young person in the cabinet despite the youthful age profile of the country.

“In a country with a majority youth population who have ... demonstrated ... the necessary skills and innovative ideas to take this country forward, young people are continuously treated with disdain,” said the statement.

“The lack of inclusion of young people in the executive is in actual fact a motion of no confidence in the youth of this country.”

While the ANC had increased the number of young MPs, this appeared to be a smokescreen because they remained on the backbenches, said the statement, challenging the party to uplift young leaders through its deployment processes.

“The ANC Youth League has adopted the #MoswaPalong campaign to advocate for the maximum inclusion of young people in councils in the upcoming local government elections,” it said.

“We refuse to have a country and an organisation that use youth as labour reserves for electioneering yet excludes them from key positions of power.”

The task team said it was pleased by the increased number of women in the new cabinet.

TimesLIVE