ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji set the cat amongst the pigeons last week when he roared at a youth rally that President Cyril Ramaphosa should be South Africa’s last pensioner president.
He spoke of a despondent youth which was battling with social ills such as drugs and alcoholism, while pensioners, like Ramaphosa, filed the benches of Parliament.
“Everything important in this country must be run by the youth,” said Malatji.
He did not stop there, he added: “You can’t say people aged 65 must go to pension, but the one who makes the laws, aged 65, is still working,” he said.
“Even those in Parliament must go home when they are 65. President Ramaphosa must be the last president who is a pensioner.”
In previous years, such comments by a youth leader, could land one in hotwater with the mother body, but there are little signs that Malatji will face any rebuke.
Infact, thousands of IOL readers agree with him.
Stemming from Malatji’s comments, the IOL Team ran a poll on WhatsApp, X and Facebook, asking readers what age they preferred their next president to be.
The overwhelming majority said they wished for their next president to be between the ages of 41-50, however, they also shared with us that age was not the only metric that they were interested in.
We received thousands of comments across the platforms, but leadership, experience, education, honesty, integrity, ethical and moral values were some of the qualities that the IOL readers said they were looking for.
“Should not be a Novice , and here I'm not advocating that the person should not be young in age. A President irrespective of skin colour must be well educated and versed with all the the criteria required to govern with integrity, accountability, transparency and always putting the country above everything else including preferred political party interest.
“Yes, the time has come for the younger generation to take up the baton. Remember we are in a generation of High Technology and we have also have a generation of highly qualified younger responsible individuals,” said IOL reader Dennis Wood.
“It's not about age. We need someone with leadership skills,” said IOL reader Sbu ka Zulu.
“Apart from age, the person should have great ethical and moral values together with exceptional leadership qualities. The amount of corruption that we witness daily in SA is extremely concerning,” said IOL reader Salim Khan.
"Age doesn't really matter, what matters is how effective you are delivering on the promises you campaigned on,” said IOL reader Sihange Anele.
"I don’t think age is the problem how about IQ?” said IOL reader Graeme Selvin.
"I don’t think age is the problem howThe next president can be of any age, as long as he has what it takes to move this country forward. If we say he or she should be under a particular age, we would be promoting ageism. More youths with necessary capabilities can be included in senior leadership, but we should guard against the employment age discrimination that the current government gradually introduces,” said Elias Kobo.
"How about level of honesty, fair practice, educated, intelligence and common sense?” remarked reader Eldaleen Diesel.
IOL
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