Is Africa's Youth Getting the Leadership it Deserves?

15 June 2011

BBC

In South Africa this year's ANC Youth League conference will be dominated by a leadership contest. The controversial incumbent, Julius Malema, is accused of dictatorial tendencies, plundering state resources and dividing the league by the campaign team of his challenger for the top position, Lebong Maile.

The ANC Youth League and its leader are regarded as kingmakers, having backed both former president Thabo Mbeki and President Jacob Zuma. The ANC Youth League was founded by Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu, and every South African president post-apartheid has come through its ranks.

In other countries in Africa, the youth wings of political parties have less historic roots, but they and their leaders also come in for criticism. In Ghana and Uganda, for example, the perception amongst many people is that they are little more than mobs who can be rented by politicians, and are only motivated by a hunger for power and money.

Do the youth wings of political parties wield too much power in your country? Do they actually represent the youth, and their concerns? Are there ways in which these youth wings can be made more effective? Or can real change for young people only come from by-passing existing parties as happened in Egypt and Tunisia?