Every member a new cadre for transformation
On March
8th, we, together with the rest of the international community, will celebrate
International Women's Day. As we celebrate this Day, we will have to focus
on the important issue of the emancipation of the women of our country.
In this regard, we will have to answer a number of questions.
What progress have we made towards the achievement of this goal? What
problems have we experienced? What do we do next?
As at previous conferences, the Stellenbosch 51st National
Conference of our movement addressed the important issue of gender equality.
Our approach was based on the long-standing positions of our movement
that our country's women suffer from triple oppression - race, class and
gender.
The Resolution on Targeted Groups stated that "since
its formation, the African National Congress and its allies have fought
for the equality of all sections of South African society irrespective
of race, sex, culture, religion or physical make up.
"Among the motive forces, there are sectors of
our society who are marginalized, disadvantaged or vulnerable because
of patriarchy, age or being differently-abled. These sectors include women,
youth, the elderly, children and people with disabilities.
"Our protracted struggle for fundamental social
transformation requires a focus on targeted groups. Addressing the specific
needs of these groups stands at the centre of our effort to build a better
life for all. To establish the new South Africa as a caring society, the
empowerment and affirmation of these groups is critical to ensuring a
people-centred and people-driven transformation."
Addressing the issue of gender equality specifically,
the National Conference said we must "design a comprehensive strategy
on our programme to build a non-sexist society and provide a guide for
the integration of gender in all aspects of our policies and programmes."
The occasion of International Women's Day presents us
with the challenge to implement what the 51st National Conference decided
- further to advance and speed up our work to design the comprehensive
strategy for the implementation of our programme to build a non-sexist
society.
The importance of this derives from what National Conference
said, as we have already indicated. To establish the new South Africa
as a caring society, the empowerment and affirmation of the targeted groups,
including women, is critical to ensuring a people-centred and people-driven
transformation. Our government has a direct and immediate responsibility
to work for the realisation of these objectives. But our movement, the
ANC, also has a direct and immediate responsibility to make its own contribution
towards the accomplishment of the same goals.
Accordingly, the structures of the ANC have a responsibility
to implement the decisions of the 51st National Conference. Above all
else, Conference resolved that the biggest challenge facing us is to ensure
the implementation of the policies that we have adopted.
During the struggle to defeat the apartheid regime,
we defined the members of our movement in these terms - every cadre a
combatant for liberation, every combatant a cadre of our movement!
In the period following our historic victory, we defined
the members of our movement in new terms - every cadre a defender of the
democratic revolution, every defender a cadre of our movement!
As we progress through the final year of the Decade
of Liberation, we must define the members of our movement in these terms
- every member a new cadre for transformation, every new cadre a member
of our movement!
This means that all of us, in our hundreds of thousands,
must transform ourselves into new cadres for the transformation of our
country, consistent with the policies we have adopted. It also means that
we have to approach our task in as practical a manner as possible.
For example, in terms of what we have to accomplish
with regard to the task of the emancipation of women, our structures,
from the branch upwards, have to set ourselves specific objectives and
targets, to be achieved within specific timeframes. They must determine
the means and methods we must use to realise our goals.
They must decide who will do what and ensure that they
have the possibility to do what is required of them. They must agree on
the means and methods we will use to supervise and monitor ourselves,
to ensure that we implement our own decisions.
This is the overall approach we will have to adopt towards
our work in general. Accordingly, all our leadership collectives will
have to make a serious effort both to understand our programme of action
for the year and to ensure its implementation. This should involve as
many of our members and supporters as possible. We should also seek to
mobilise the masses of our people into action.
Of particular importance, we will have to familiarise
ourselves with the programme of action of our government. As we know,
at the heart of this programme is the objective to push back the frontiers
of poverty. It seeks to build on the foundations we have laid since 1994,
further to advance our goal of a better life for all.
All our structures will have to determine what they
need to do to contribute to the implementation of this programme.
Last year we used focus months to involve our members
and people in various activities as volunteers. As we plan our own programme
of action, we must determine these areas of focus and, again, seek to
involve as many of our people as possible.
For example, our government has once more emphasised
the need for us to ensure that all those entitled to social grants should
receive them. We therefore have a continuing responsibility to interact
with the masses of our people to inform them about these grants. This
will have to include giving such assistance as is necessary to ensure
that those concerned have the necessary documentation and know how to
access the grants.
The government has also pointed to the need to ensure
that we have an efficient and effective public service, dedicated to serve
the people in the spirit of batho pele! We have many civil servants in
our ranks who are loyal members of our organisation. We have to take advantage
of this to carry out our own work among those who work in the public service,
to inspire them to respond to the challenge of batho pele!
These patriotic civil servants should be our organisers
within the public service, both to lead by example and to encourage others
to develop and adhere to the culture of service to the people. Many of
these civil servants are also members of public sector trade unions. Accordingly,
they have the possibility and duty to work within the unions to ensure
that these unions also participate in the effort to create an efficient
public service that respects the letter and spirit of batho pele!
The government has also drawn attention to the work
that must be done radically to improve the lives of the poorest of the
poor. Many of these are concentrated in the nodes identified in our Urban
Renewal and Rural Development programmes. As we have pointed out in the
past, it is also in these areas that we find a high incidence of various
types of crimes associated with abject poverty.
Our branches within these areas will have to determine
how they engage all the government programmes being implemented in the
urban and rural nodes. This must include work among the people to fight
against alcohol and drug abuse, against violence against women and children,
against other crimes that involve violence against persons.
With regard to all these matters, it is important that
we also join hands and work with locally-based organisations, including
religious, sport, development and other organisations. Working within
this broad front, we should seek to make a meaningful contribution to
the national effort to change the lives of our people for the better.
The government has also indicated its determination
to build a cadre of community development workers. This is to ensure that
the government works with the people as closely as possible to empower
them to participate in and benefit from the process of reconstruction
and development. This challenging but exciting work will require people
who are truly committed to serve the people. These are not people who
join the public service merely to have a job and earn a salary.
Rather, these are fellow South Africans who are moved
by our common responsibility to ensure that millions of our people break
out of the dehumanising trap of poverty and underdevelopment. They are
committed to the realisation of the goal we have set ourselves, to create
a caring and people-centred society. They understand and have internalised
the call for all of us to adhere to a new patriotism.
We will have to play our role in helping to identify
those among our population who fit this description to encourage them
to take up the challenge of serving as community development workers.
This is because our work among the people gives us the possibility to
get to know and assess many individuals. We will have to use this knowledge
to ensure that the nation gets the right people as it builds the new public
service cadre of community development workers.
All this emphasises the need for us as a movement to
continue to focus on the task of creating the new cadre we spoke about
at the National General Council in the year 2000, the volunteers who did
us proud as we celebrated the year of the 90th anniversary of our organisation.
To implement our programme of action, working as builders of the new society,
requires that we have this kind of cadre.
Sadly, we still have people within our ranks who view
our movement as a ladder to self-enrichment and the pursuit of selfish
goals. This results in the formation of divisive factions that fight against
one another for positions of power within the movement, believing that
this will open the way for them to access public resources for their personal
benefit.
We continue to count on the cadres who represented our
branches at our 51st National Conference in December, and others like
them. These are cadres who understand and accept the enormous challenges
facing our movement and all our members, further to advance the national
democratic revolution. These are cadres who understand that they are part
of the great African National Congress to secure the genuine all-round
emancipation of all our people, including the women towards whose liberation
we recommit ourselves as we observe International Women's Day.
Accordingly, this year we will have to pay particular
attention to the further development of our cadres, the defeat of opportunism
and careerism within our ranks, the further reinforcement of our unity,
and the involvement of our members and people in practical programmes
further to push back the frontiers of poverty.
As we progress through the final year of the Decade
of Liberation, we must define the members of our movement in these terms
- every member a new cadre for transformation, every new cadre a member
of our movement!
|
