ANC Today --------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 3, No. 9, 7 - 13 March 2003 --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK: * Letter from the President: Every member a new cadre for transformation * Telkom IPO: Listing a boost for transformation * Schools: Making education affordable for all --------------------------------------------------------------------- LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 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! Thabo Mbeki --------------------------------------------------------------------- TELKOM IPO Listing a boost for transformation The listing of Telkom on the JSE Securities and New York Stock Exchanges this week is a significant step in making the telecommunications sector more responsive to the needs of all South Africans in a time of significant technological change. It is one of a number of changes in this sector over the last few years. These include the sale of a 30 percent stake in Telkom to Thintata Communications in 1997 and the entry into the market of three cellular phone operators. It will be followed by the licensing of a second fixed-line telephone operator, now that Telkom's period of exclusive rights has ended. Perhaps more than any other sector, telecommunications has seen major global change as a result of new technologies. The role of telecommunications in economic growth and social development has also become even more pronounced with the advances in information and communications technology. As a country pursuing higher levels of economic growth while working to redress the massive backlogs in meeting the basic needs of our people, it is critical that our telecommunications sector is able to keep pace with global advances while expanding its reach to provide reliable and affordable services to the people of South Africa. Restructuring state assets These changes in the telecommunications sector, and Telkom specifically, form part of a broader programme to restructure and reorient state-owned enterprises to meet the country's developmental needs. The state-owned enterprises inherited by the democratic government in 1994 were established largely to serve the goals of apartheid. Few were in a ready position to help meet the challenges facing the majority of South Africans - poverty, unemployment and under-development. To be of any use to the programme of the new democratic state, these enterprises needed to have their management, financial, investment and cultural environments overhauled. This was recognised in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), which was adopted in 1994. It said the public sector would need to be restructured to carry out national goals. "The balance of evidence will guide the decision for or against various economic policy measures," it said. This could include increasing the public sector in strategic areas, through, for example, nationalisation, buying shares in companies or establishing new public companies. It could also include reducing the public sector in certain areas in ways that "enhance efficiency, advance affirmative action and empower the historically disadvantaged, while ensuring the protection of both consumers and the rights and employment of workers". Based on this understanding, much work has been done over the last few years to examine each area of the public sector and determine what steps should be taken to make it a more effective vehicle for meeting the goals of development in a sustainable development. This resulted in a policy framework document which outlined the broad character of restructuring of state enterprises, and a programme in key sectors like telecommunications, energy, transport and arms production. This framework recognised that 'restructuring' covers a broad range of activities. These can include changes within an enterprise to improve efficiency and effectiveness and enhance service delivery. They can include mobilising private sector capital and expertise, and accessing new technologies. It can also involve encouraging greater competition in sectors dominated by state enterprises. Management, maintenance or other general functions can be outsourced where appropriate. Activities that are common to a number of different public entities can be consolidated to improve efficiency, as has been done with the IT capabilities of Eskom, Denel and Transnet. Redefining telecommunications A combination of a number of restructuring instruments have been undertaken in the telecommunications and information technology sector. The introduction of a strategic equity partner in 1997 - in which Telkom Malaysia and SBC, a US firm, bought a joint 30 percent stake in Telkom South Africa - brought important benefits in the form of private capital and global expertise. The public listing of a further 25 percent of Telkom this week promises a further injection of private capital into the development of telecommunications in the country. In addition to being the established fixed-line operator, Telkom also holds a 50 percent share of Vodacom, one of the country's three cellular phone operators. The listing has also resulted in broadening the ownership of Telkom, bring in tens of thousands of new investors. Over 127,000 small investors have taken up the share offer, which amounts to about 10 percent of the value of the deal. About 60 percent of these came through the special Khulisa offer, which was aimed at historically disadvantaged individuals. The government will remain with a stake in Telkom of about 42 percent. This listing takes place as government is preparing to licence a second fixed- line operator. This is will increase competition in the telephone market, resulting in improved service and lower prices for consumers. The state will have an indirect stake in the second operator through Eskom and Transtel. The expansion of private ownership of the telecommunications sector does not remove the need for effective regulation by the state, to ensure, among other things, that this sector is indeed meeting its developmental objectives. At the time of the introduction of its strategic equity partner, for example, Telkom agreed to meet a number of strategic licence conditions. These included the installation of 2.7 million new telephone lines, the digitisation of 1.25 million analogue lines and the installation of 120,000 new pay phones. Speaking at the listing ceremony earlier this week, Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri confirmed that Telkom had met most of its targets. The expansion of its network has connected almost 2,700 villages for the very first time. It has installed more than 130,000 new payphones, and its modernisation programme has ensured that its network is now 99.8 percent digitised. In the area of skills development, it has spent over R2.4 billion on training over the past five years. Almost half of Telkom's expenditure on procurement went in support of black economic empowerment. It provided training to 273 black-owned companies. This is in addition to other job creation initiatives within Telkom's social plan agreed to by organised labour, which has seen 1,084 sustainable jobs created through the awarding of contracts worth R41 million. Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe said the listing of Telkom is consistent with government's broad restructuring programme and an integral part of economic reforms, "which are aimed at ensuring that South Africa continues to build its global competitiveness ratings". MORE INFORMATION: Telkom Share Offer http://www.telkomshareoffer.co.za/ Department of Public Enterprises http://www.dpe.gov.za/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- SCHOOLS Making education affordable for all The ongoing effort to provide access to quality education for all South Africans - and especially the poor - has been given new impetus by a report released by the Department of Education this week. Released for public comment, the Review of the Financing, Resourcing and Costs of Education makes a number of recommendations to improve the funding of public schools and reduce the cost of schooling for poorer families. The review was prompted by Education Minister Kader Asmal's concern about the level of resourcing in some schools across the country and the high financial burden to some parents arising from school fees, the costs of uniforms, traveling and textbooks. The report noted the significant advances that have been made in access, funding and equity in the schooling system since the ANC entered government in 1994. The state has managed to extend education service delivery to a greater number of learners, and to a greater proportion of the school-aged population, since 1994. It has achieved this without lowering the amount of money spent on each learner. The system has become more equitable since 1994 because of a shift of resources towards poorer provinces. This has resulted in the reduction of a key index of inequality by around 60 percent. However, inequality in expenditure persists both within provinces and between provinces. The report also notes shortcomings in the levels of non-personnel funding to schools and the provision of infrastructure. According to the report, pupils who are equally poor receive considerably different public funding simply because they live in different provinces. The situation is worse for learners in provinces where the large proportion of the population is poor. Poor provinces have tended to budget less for education than provinces with lower levels of poverty. The report recommends a system of national targeting of poor learners to be achieved through changes to the present funding mechanisms, so that pupils who are equally poor receive the same levels of non-personnel funding. The report recommends establishing an education budget monitoring and support office to improve the quality of decisions made in the education system. This will actively support and improve the monitoring and decision-making processes at school level and at provincial level so that resources can be effectively targeted to where they are most needed. The report also examines teaching in schools, and the utilisation of teachers to ensure maximum value from the money spent on this important resource. In most provinces, personnel expenditure accounts for over 90 percent of ordinary public school spending. "A major part of the success of public schooling hinges on the effective translation of personnel budgets into effective and sustainable teaching and learning," the report notes. It therefore recommends the development of more efficient and practical teacher utilisation techniques. This includes recommendations to improve and monitor the flow of teaching resources to classes with poor learners and strengthening current initiatives to develop teacher capacity and reward professional excellence. One of the obstacles to access for poorer learners to effective schooling are practices in schools which marginalise those learners without access to resources. The report notes that some poor learners whose parents could not pay school fees have been turned away from the school, placed in separate rooms, forced to sit on the floor, and named and 'shamed' in the school assembly. These practices are illegal and in violation of the country's Bill of Rights. The report says this is both a problem of non-compliance with policy and a serious cultural and attitudinal problem. It is recommended that the education department engage in campaigns, awareness raising and ultimately, if necessary, legal action to reduce the marginalisation of poor learners. Those who seek to erode the dignity of poor learners must be stopped, the report says. The report also highlights the need to expand and improve the school feeding scheme. The provision of nutrition for poor learners not only supports the physical development of children, but also contributes to improved learning. The department is setting up poverty-targeted and procurement systems to ensure that every poor learner gets a solid meal every day. There are a number of recommendations in the report to lower the costs to the state, schools and parents of things like equipment, stationery, textbooks and school uniforms. These include negotiations with relevant role-players to lower the prices or improve the supply of affordable 'education inputs'. The cost of uniforms and textbooks in particular contribute significantly to the cost of education for learners. A significant improvement in the supply of affordable uniforms and textbooks is needed to help eradicate and reduce the hardships many families face. There also needs to be improved asset management systems in schools, coupled with better decision making by school governing bodies, aimed at improving accountability for public resources paid for or maintained by the state. The intention is to dramatically reduce wastage, leaving more of the non-personnel, non-capital expenditure for quality improvement inputs at school level. The cost of transport to school for some learners ­- as well as some of the distances they need to travel - acts as an additional financial burden for many poor families. While some schools operate school buses, these can still be costly and generally require that learners live in a relatively concentrated area. "Transport assistance is widely recognised as one of the most difficult services to administer and finance in a public schooling system," the report says. It recommends that the education department, together with provincial departments and the transport department, investigate a more comprehensive and equitable system of transport assistance to poor learners. The report recommends better-informed fee setting processes at school level and stringent monitoring of fee setting and exemption procedures at schools to identify non-compliance with policy. Legal action in respect of non-compliance is suggested. This should be linked to the development of fairer and more effective ways of determining which parents are exempt from paying school fees. These processes should be fully integrated into government's poverty alleviation programmes. The aim should be to reduce the need for exemptions in poor schools, through the progressive raising of the school allocation and a reduction in the need for fees. "School fees, if charged at all in poor schools, should be very low," the report says. Members of the public and interested parties have been invited to comment on the findings and recommendations in the report before 21 April. MORE INFORMATION: Review of the financing, resourcing and costs of education in public schools, 3 March 2003 http://education.pwv.gov.za/Policies%20and%20Reports/2003_reports/Report_cos ts%20of%20education.pdf --------------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of ANC Today is available from the ANC web site at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2003/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 To unsubscribe yourself from the ANC Today mailing list go to: http://lists.anc.org.za/mailman/listinfo/anctoday