ANC Today --------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 2, No. 9, 1 - 7 March 2002 --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK: * Letter from the President: Let's tell the truth about South Africa * Human Rights: Communities mobilise to turn words into action * Mother-to-child HIV transmission: Government confirms unified approach on prevention programme --------------------------------------------------------------------- LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Let's tell the truth about South Africa Over the last weekend we were privileged once more to interact with members of our International Investment Council. As the country is aware, the Council is made up of leading international business leaders drawn from many parts of the world and various sectors of the global economy. Our country and government are indeed very fortunate to have such a distinguished panel of business leaders serving as our voluntary advisers. At its sessions the Council has the opportunity to interact with a delegation of our Ministers and senior officials, led by the President. The meetings address a common agreed agenda but also give the members of the Council the opportunity to raise any matter they may consider relevant. The government undertook at the founding of the Council to make every effort to present the members of Council with as accurate and detailed a picture of the situation in our country as possible, to give the Council the possibility to add value to the national effort for reconstruction and development. From the beginning, one of the agreed ground rules was that members of Council should speak out freely, frankly and critically on any and all matters. The weekend session was the third meeting of the Council and probably its most focused. It was conducted in keeping with the ground rules we have just indicated. It reviewed matters that had been discussed at the last meeting with special emphasis on whether what had been agreed upon was implemented. It considered reports on the state of the economy, the recently presented budget and the short and medium term economic programmes of the government. It also discussed various elements of the state of our nation, including the important question of the fight to push back the frontiers of poverty and expand access to a better life. At the previous meeting, the members of Council had raised serious concerns about some persisting negative perceptions of our country internationally. They had urged that the government should take steps to address this issue as, among other things, it led to unfavourable economic consequences. These included especially the flow of international capital into our country. They gave specific advice based on their own experiences about how we might handle this communication campaign in order to produce the necessary results. They undertook that they would also continue to communicate the positive news coming out of South Africa as frequently as possible. And indeed, they did as they had promised. Because of the strong focus on this matter of the projection of South Africa at the last meeting, it was necessary that the government should inform the Council on what it had done to respond to the concerns and the advice of the Council. The International Marketing Council (IMC) which our government and the private sector co-operated to establish therefore made a presentation to the Council about its work. The Council expressed its appreciation of the work that had been done since it raised the matter of our image internationally. It was also very supportive of the vision, the programme and the work of the IMC which it felt were correctly focused. Further to take this process forward, the members of Council also undertook to make an additional effort to reinforce the work of the IMC so that we actually succeed to address the persisting negative international perceptions about our country. I must here make the point that, of great importance to us, the members of Council are not happy merely to criticise as interested observers. They also go out of their way to participate in the process of helping to find solutions. In addition, they also work to help implement the agreements we reach with them. Voluntarily, they work as ambassadors of our country and people. In this respect, we can truly count them among the mass army of volunteers for the letsema programme, activists of Vuk' uzenzele! At the end of our meeting, the members of Council had the possibility to inform the media and the country of some of their observations. Accordingly, they openly stated their admiration of the work our government and country had done to address the economic and social challenges we face. They explained that they were pleased with the progress that had been made in responding to matters of concern they had raised especially at the previous meeting. They were forthright in stating that, with regard to many aspects of the management of the national economy, South Africa was out-performing even some of the leading countries of the European Union. While not pretending that we had finally solved the problems we inherited from the past, they were also greatly encouraged by the progress being made to change the lives of all our people for the better. They had also noticed the progress made even in such areas as the containment of crime. The serious question they posed both during the meetings of Council and in the comments they made at the press conference was - why was the (negative) international perception of South Africa so much at variance with the (positive) reality of South Africa! Of course, they then went on to say what they think should be done to address this disjuncture between perception and reality. We have already indicated that they resolved to embark on additional steps to reinforce the work of the IMC. It is clear to the members of Council that we, South Africans, are, in good measure, responsible for the creation and sustenance of the negative perception which damages our country and which is at variance with what is actually happening in South Africa. During the meeting, they even cited specific instances of how South Africans encourage this negative attitude towards our country. They are truly puzzled as to why South Africans should bad-mouth a country of which they should be proud. That sense of puzzlement is shared by many of their business colleagues throughout the world. They are amazed that these South Africans seem to be unable to see the real and exciting progress being made in their own country to address problems that exist in all countries of the world, and which progress other people in the world appreciate. In summary, they pointed to three main factors with regard to this issue. These are: * deliberately negative messages communicated by some of our business people; * deliberately negative messages communicated by some within the media; and, * less than optimal effectiveness in government communications. At the press conference at the end of the meeting of Council, we appealed to the media to respond practically to the observations and concerns of the International Investment Council. In this regard, we said that all that was required in reality was that the media should tell the truth about what was happening in our country, without resort to any falsification of our situation. As we have indicated, as government, we also observe this same principle as we interact with the International Investment Council. I should say that we follow the same principle in our work with the International Council on Information and Communication Technology. We tell the members the truth, so that they can form an objective opinion about our situation and therefore help us with quality advice that is as accurate and responsive to our real situation as possible. The question remains to be answered whether people working in the media and other South Africans are ready to join the campaign to tell the truth about South Africa. None of us have to pay anything in order to tell the truth and therefore cannot plead that there is an unaffordable cost attached to telling the truth about country. The researchers at the University of Stellenbosch that we cited in the State of the Nation Address made the point that information was easily available with regard to the performance of government. They have made the point that because our democracy respects the principles of transparency and accountability, it is fairly easy to get the data that enables anyone to see what is happening in the country. Members of the International Investment Council have made the same point. They assess this is one of the strengths of our country. Thus all economic actors interested in our country have the possibility to take actions based on concrete reality that is presented in an open and accessible manner. It is partly for this reason that the members of Council are concerned at the way this positive factor is undermined by what South Africans say and do, negatively influencing other people who assume that, because they are South African, they know best about what the future holds for our country. One of our problems as a country and a people is that we have not yet fully overcome the limitations imposed on us by many years of international isolation. Many of our people know very little about what is happening in the rest of the world. In some instances this results in the belief that some problems are only specific to ourselves while the rest of especially the developed world has rid itself of the problems we experience. All this is true, for instance, with regard to the issue of crime. Some among our own people seem quite happy to communicate the most horrible image of our country in the belief that we are the worst in the world and somewhat an ugly aberration in terms of global human society. These people are therefore proud to proclaim things they would never be able to substantiate, such as that - South Africa is the crime capital of the world! To illustrate how wrong these views are, let us now cite just a few instances of the incidence of crime in the world, as reflected in international police and criminal justice literature. An article published by the UK Ministry of Defence on Russian Organised Crime by R.W. Dellow says: "In (the Russian Federation) it is estimated that there are 5-8,000 (crime) gangs with 100,000 members. 80% of businesses pay protection money and criminally controlled enterprises account for 40% of Russia's GNP. Further figures state that between 10 and 30 billion US dollars are transferred abroad each year." The January 2001 issue of "Police Magazine" carries a speech given by David Griffin, Executive Officer of the Canadian Police Association. Among other things he said that: "There is growing concern within police and international enforcement communities that Canada is haven for organised criminals. The Criminal Intelligence Services Canada has stated that virtually every major criminal group in the world is active in this country.Over a 24 hour period in Canada, $6 million worth of heroin will be imported into Canada; 21 to 43 illegal aliens will arrive; $14 million will be obtained through tele-fraud; 500 vehicles will be stolen." The French Interior Ministry reports that "the central criminal investigation directorate is in charge of dealing with organised crime in its various forms, every year bringing more than 24,000 legal proceedings." During December 2001, the British press published a report prepared by the British Association of Chief Police Officers. In this report they said that "most senior police officers believe that the battle against organised crime is being lost. Over the past five years, the number of the most serious offenders has grown by an average of 33% each year, despite a quarter of these being the subject of live intelligence and operational activity during that five year period." Clearly, all these countries, by their own admission, are experiencing serious problems of crime escalation. Undoubtedly their governments and law enforcement agencies are working to respond to this situation, as we are doing. But these governments and countries have no people who believe they have a mission to trumpet to the world how bad their own countries are, being happy to do so. We do. The members of our International Investment Council are puzzled as to why some among us seem happy to proclaim failure, which nobody else in the world does, and avoid telling the truth of success, which everybody else in the world does. The honest among us know why we seem to depart in such a grotesque manner from what is the norm globally. Thabo Mbeki --------------------------------------------------------------------- HUMAN RIGHTS Communities mobilise to turn words into action Volunteer activities which give practical meaning to human rights will be the focus of the ANC's letsema campaign for the month of March. Following the month-long focus on safety and security, the human rights focus will involve community members in providing support to the justice system in particular. It will also raise awareness of human rights issues and the work being done to safeguard the rights of all South Africans. This month's activities, part of the volunteer campaign marking the 90th anniversary of the ANC, will also see ANC leaders and members raising money for vulnerable children by washing cars and engaging in other fundraising work. The campaign will focus on building and supporting community-based maintenance forums. It will include the mobilisation of skills and resources to provide additional support to the justice system through the 'adopt-a-court' programme. The focus for March coincides with Human Rights Day on 21 March, which marks the day in 1960 when 69 anti-pass protesters were killed by police at Sharpeville. Human Rights Day is a tribute to all those South Africans whose most basic human right, the right to life, was violated by the government of the day. At the same time it is a celebration of the progress made in building a human rights culture in South Africa, and a rallying point for the work that still needs to be done in making these rights an enduring reality for all the people of the country. It is fitting that human rights forms part of the ANC's anniversary programme. The struggle for fundamental human rights has been prominent in the ninety year history of the ANC. The organisation was the first in the country to develop a bill of rights, and was the foremost proponent of equal rights for all South Africans over several decades, laying the basis for the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in the country's democratic constitution. In May 1923, the annual convention of the ANC adopted the African Bill of Rights, and urged "the great European races of the Union to take the whole question into consideration". The bill asserted that human rights should be universal, that all South Africans had a god-given right to ownership of land, that there should be equality before the law and equal political rights, and that all should be able to have an equal share in government. The declaration made it clear that the African people were a full, integral and central part of South African society entitled to all the rights and freedoms of citizens anywhere in the world. The principles contained in the 1923 Bill of Rights were not new, having been expressed right from the formation of the ANC. The concept of rights had already become part of the political discourse of the time. Addressing the founding congress in 1912, Pixley ka Isaka Seme told "Chiefs of royal blood and gentlemen of our race" that the congress had been called to form a national union "for the purpose of creating national unity and defending our rights and privileges". In a petition directed to members of the British parliament and public in 1914, the ANC objected to provisions of the 1913 Land Act, which "interfere with rights the Natives have exercised for generations". In 1943, at the height of the war against nazism and fascism, the ANC leadership adopted a full and detailed Bill of Rights. It claimed for the people of South Africa all the rights and freedoms referred to in the Atlantic Charter signed by Roosevelt and Churchill. The document was notable in that its language was non-racial and non-sexist, envisaging full citizenship rights for all men and women of all races in South Africa. The Bill of Rights demonstrates the interconnection between political and economic oppression in South Africa, particularly in so far as disenfranchisement, lack of freedom and dispossession from the land were intertwined. The 1943 Bill of Rights laid the foundation of the struggles for the next decade. Its broad approach coincided with a broadening of the base of the ANC, the establishment of an alliance with the Natal and Indian Congresses and the beginning of mass campaigns. In 1955 the ANC produced its third major 'human rights' document, the Freedom Charter. Adopted by the Congress of the People at Kliptown in 1955, the document became the beacon for millions of South Africans uniting in a common struggle for dignity, equality and social justice. It was the foundation of the prosecutions' case in the notorious treason trial of 1956-1961. It circulated in the underground and in exile. The Freedom Charter became the foundation of the non-racial vision which now finds expression in the country's new constitution. The Freedom Charter anticipated by a decade the two great international conventions on human rights adopted by the United Nations - the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights. In keeping with the nature of oppression in South Africa and the actual yearnings for freedom of the people denied their human rights, the Freedom Charter stresses the indivisibility of political, social and economic rights. In 1987, the National Executive Committee of the ANC formally accepted the need for South Africa to have a justiciable Bill of Rights enshrining universally accepted fundamental rights and freedoms. This was the organisation's answer to those who were insisting on racial group rights as the foundation of constitutional development. The ANC was able to draw on half a century of campaigning for human rights as the foundation for its claim for equal citizenship in a united country. As the country entered the negotiations phase, the ANC's constitutional committee pioneered the debate on the role and functioning of a constitutional court. In a landmark conference held early in 1991, the first serious proposals were made on the composition, role and functioning of a constitutional court in South Africa. The ANC also pioneered the call for the establishment of a human rights commission to work in liaison with the courts and the legislature in defending and promoting human rights. Both the interim constitution, adopted in 1993, and the final constitution, adopted in 1996, drew heavily on this long tradition. The Bill of Rights in the Constitution is testimony to the commitment of the South African people to freedom, equality and justice. The local activities taking place over the next month, and the ongoing work for years to come, will determine just how successfully these rights can be exercised in practice by all South Africans. More Information: South African Bill of Rights http://www.sahrc.org.za/bill_of_rights.htm Human Rights Commission http: http://www.sahrc.org.za/ Department of Justice http: http://www.doj.gov.za/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- MOTHER-TO-CHILD HIV TRANSMISSION Government confirms unified approach on prevention programme Reported differences between the national government and Gauteng province on the programme to prevent the mother-to-child transmission of HIV, which occupied the media for much of last week, were laid to rest last Friday following a meeting between Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa. Beginning in May 2001, government has been running 18 national research sites, which now involves around 215 clinics and hospitals, using the drug Nevirapine as part of a comprehensive programme to reduce HIV transmission to babies. The meeting reaffirmed government's comprehensive approach to the campaign against HIV/AIDS, and emphasised that all elements of this programme should form part of public discourse on this matter. It confirmed the decisions taken by the health MINMEC, where the health minister and MECs met earlier this year, that provinces were meant to consider the experiences of the current pilot sites, and make recommendations to the next MINMEC meeting about the way forward. In a statement released after the meeting, government said: "This approach proceeds from the premise that these pilot sites are for purposes of research. Some clarity has emerged on issues of capacity and resources required to take care of baby and mother even after administration of the drug. This has made it possible for government to consider extending sites where such capacity exists. "However, more time and work is required to establish the long-term impact of the administration of Nevirapine. These include resistance, possibilities of relapse and whether there are any other negative consequences for both mother and baby. This process will take a year and more from the beginning of operation of the pilot sites. It is only on this basis, and depending on the outcome of this research, that consideration would then be given to whether it is advisable to introduce universal access." The Gauteng Province would continue with preparations to extend the research sites, in line with national guidelines and protocols. Go to http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/docs/bd020301.html for an ANC Today Briefing Document on Government's programme to reduce HIV infection in babies --------------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of ANC Today is available from the ANC web site at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2002/at09.htm To receive ANC Today free of charge by e-mail each week go to: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/subscribe.html