ANCYL TO CYRIL RAMAPHOSA: HONOUR MAMA WINNIE BY HALTING INCREMENT IN VAT

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to honour Comrade Nomzamo Winnifred Mandela by revisiting his decision to increase Value Added Tax(VAT) by 1 percent. Winnie Mandela passed on Monday after a protracted ailment. She was 82.

“In memory of this great servant of our people, a dedicated soldier for social justice, we call on the ANC-led government to revisit its decision to increase VAT by 1%. Any increase of VAT is a frontal attack to the working class and the poor, who are seized with the socio-economic burden of taking care of the vast army of the unemployed, especially the rural and urban youth ravaged by poverty, as a result of de-invest strike by Capital”, National Spokesperson, African National Congress Youth League, Mlondolozi Mkhize said in a statement to honour Mama Winnie.

He described as Mother of the Nation, a fearless revolutionary, a dedicated product of mass struggles and an indispensable voice of the marginalized.

“Mam’Winnie Mandela was one of the most decorated figures of our struggle for national liberation, people’s power and democracy. The youth of South Africa identified with her struggles; banishments; torture and detention not because of her 38-year marriage to the colossal and towering figure of our struggle President Nelson Mandela, but identified with her struggles partly because she was an independent leader in her own right, who fearlessly mobilised the masses against the heinous Apartheid regime.

“She became a powerful voice of the exiled African National Congress (ANC) inside the country under hostile conditions. She provided refuge to the many young activists that identified with the ANC when it was not popular to hoist high the colours of the ANC during years of illegality. And she was a Mother of Courage to the many families who lost their loved ones in the hands of the enemy and apartheid regime.

“It was through her tireless struggles, unflinching loyalty to the cause and militancy that earned her the accolade of being the “Mother of the Nation”. She has been a voice of courage and a symbol of daily struggles of poverty, hunger, unemployment and landlessness experienced by the youth and marginalized post the 1994 democratic breakthrough”, he said.