Utterances from some quarters that the ANC is "purging" a certain generation when exercising organisational discipline cannot go unchallenged. There is a difference between "generational mix" and a group of friends who have personally benefited from our politics of patronage on the ticket of an imagined "unity of a generation".
The truth is that the group supposedly under siege has been bolstered by patronage. It is an elite "boys' club" that often excluded those who didn't have blue lights, were not dating "SlayQueens" (girls hanging out with top politicians and businessmen in nightclubs) or had Cubana or Taboo (nightclubs) platinum lifetime membership and links with celebrities.
We must all account for our misdemeanours and not hide behind collective leadership or erroneously argue, as some have done since Malusi Gigaba's much-publicised political troubles, that there is a purge of a certain generation, as if some were more representative of this generation than others.
Activist and academic Dr David Mohale dismisses this notion that some people are more representative of a generation than others - "generational exceptionalism" - as a lie. In his view, these self-anointed representatives of the generation supposedly being purged were just a select group whose personal friendship was predicated on how ANC membership could be exploited to benefit their created sense of "generational exceptionalism".
But how do we define a generation and who belongs in it?
The starting point for the definition in political terms should be the wider youth constituency.
In other words, the reference to generation must be inspired and informed by the social station, struggles and aspirations of the youth of that era.
And so, any political formation must speak of the generation of youth before it can speak of the generation of the party. After all, we are members of the community before we are anything else.
There is the issue that every generation must define its mission. Three missions are identifiable, especially since 1944, a year noted for the emergence of youth formations in most political parties.
The generation of Anton Lembede and Oliver Tambo, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Albertina Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and others said "freedom in our lifetime". Amadelakufa! (Daredevils).
Then there were the two missions that straddled two generations: the Young Lions and their final push for freedom in the 1970s and 1980s, and the generation that defined their mission as reconstruction and development of the new political reality in the early 1990s.
And today there is a generation that takes economic freedom in our lifetime as its mission. But it does not mean that freedom in our lifetime was devoid of economics. It's a matter of emphasis and the need to define immediate tasks.
All the generations are products of their time. They defined their missions relative to their conditions, exigencies and hopes for the future. And their struggles and contributions are part of one continuum: improving the human condition.
We belong to two generations: the reconstruction and development age and the economic freedom in our lifetime generation. We carry both missions. The moment requires that we do so.
At some point, there was a debate in the early 1990s about the lost generation. The media and other sources of information were trying to characterise the 1980s generation of Young Lions as a lost generation. They were asking: what did the apartheid state, states of emergency and local struggles do to these young people? It was the ANC Youth League, among others, that disproved this fallacious description. Later, researchers such as Jeremy Seekings came to the same conclusion, that the concept of the lost generation was wrong and misleading. His paper can be found online.
So, debate or contestation about the youth or the generation of youths is not new or original.
What then of mixes?
The point is that to renew itself and reclaim the energies of progressive youth, the ANC and parties which are serious about the future of SA must really begin to define what succession is. Our political parties have no succession plans or ideas. Their interest in this subject is very low for obvious reasons. The Chinese do this better.
At present the ANC, more than any other party, needs renewal in the mould of 1944. Our generation is not rising like the one of Lembede to renew, reposition and modernise the ANC and redefine the current political economic epoch.
The point is that succession is not without struggle. The 1944 generation's experience is instructive. They radicalised and modernised the ANC at a time when the older leadership thought the youth were disruptive. Our generation is happy with assimilation into the narrow structures of accumulation and tradition. Hence the social distance between political parties and the millennials.
The point is that political parties exist to inspire and drive change in society. They become irrelevant when they don't do so. A political party must be in sync with the issues of the day. The 2015 experiences of the #FeesMustFall movement are quite instructive.
We must rediscover our mission and ask: what will be our legacy? How much do we love our people? What are we willing to sacrifice? What is the pursuit of happiness in this moment? How will we be remembered? Where are the leaders of these generations today?
They are still with us, leading in every sector of society, including politics, government and the state. They really are. What has happened to the missions? You have the answer to that question. When all else has been said and done, institutions strengthened and political normalcy returned, we might want to talk about the SA we want, not just the one portrayed in glossy magazines, but the one that will continue to embrace the spirit of Lembede, Lillian Ngoyi, Mda and Sisulu to continue with the mission of radicalisation and modernisation.
Those who betrayed this mission must not seek solidarity for their own missteps under the pretext of generational unity. Asizi (Count us out).
• Maimela is a former president of the South African Students Congress. Kota is a former deputy secretary-general of the ANC Youth League..