Questions that demand answers

The period of 350 years from the arrival of the Dutch settlers in the Cape in 1652, to our liberation in 1994, was characterised by uninterrupted conflict and permanent uncertainty about the future of our country. During the last few years of the system of white minority rule introduced by the Dutch settlers, our country experienced greatly heightened levels of violence as the apartheid regime did everything it could to retain power.

To some extent, this mirrored the similarly intense violence our country experienced during the long period that began soon after the arrival of the settlers, and stretched to the beginning of the 20th century, with the conclusion of the 1899-1902 South African War and the defeat of the 1906 Bambatha Rebellion. This was the time it took the colonial and imperialist system finally to establish its hold over the whole of our country.

We also know that despite the fact that for 70 years up to 1960, our people used peaceful methods of struggle to achieve their emancipation, the white minority regimes did not hesitate to use force against the unarmed people. Therefore, peaceful struggle on the part of the oppressed did not mean the absence of political violence.

Throughout this period of three-and-a-half-centuries nobody emerged as the winner. The oppressed did not succeed to defeat and overthrow the oppressor regime, thus denying it the possibility to continue to mete out violence against the people. However, the oppressor regime did not succeed to defeat the oppressed, rendering them incapable of continuing the struggle for their liberation.

This unresolved struggle, even in a situation of no-peace-no-war, meant that the political future of our country remained uncertain. The risk remained that the bloodiest conflict could break out, with neither side willing to give up, both determined to fight it out to the bitter end.

In the end, change came about as a result of a settlement negotiated essentially by the historic antagonists that had stood at the barricades for 350 years, each unable to defeat and destroy the other. This peaceful outcome culminated in the equally peaceful general elections of 1994, which surprised the cynics and sceptics, who had convinced themselves that our people, black and white, were incapable of solving their problems peacefully.

Amazed that our first democratic elections were peaceful, these were determined not to abandon their cynicism and scepticism. They thought that the peaceful transition from apartheid to a non-racial democracy was too good to be true. They convinced themselves that sooner or later our country would be consumed by the terrible racial conflagration they had expected in 1994.

As the days of peace accumulated, they said - wait until tomorrow! As tomorrow came, with no sign of an Armageddon, they said - wait until tomorrow! Having frightened themselves about what tomorrow would be like, some among the cynics and the sceptics packed their bags and emigrated to other countries they had convinced themselves were the safest in the world.

But the doomsayers had not understood our people. They had not understood that as the first and principal victims of violence and war, the masses of our people, black and white, would be the first and best guarantors of the peace they won in 1994. The masses would not be easily persuaded or duped to join some violent campaign to solve any of the challenges our country faces.

This has been confirmed by the virtually total disappearance of political violence in our country, even during election periods. In 1994, areas such as KwaZulu-Natal and the present Ekurhuleni (East Rand), had been at the epicentre of the violence that claimed thousands of lives, as the apartheid system approached its demise. As we held our 10th Anniversary elections in 2004, the masses of the people in both these areas would not allow anybody to drag them backwards into a situation of violence and war.

Similarly, some among our white compatriots have continued to harbour false ideas that they could address their problems by engaging in bombing and assassination campaigns. But as they have set off a bomb here and another there, it has been perfectly clear that those who constitute this lunatic fringe have absolutely no support among the white people of our country, and are incapable of inspiring such support.

Our country has never enjoyed the peace it enjoys today. It has never been as stable as it is today. The extent and depth of reconciliation within our diverse nation have never been as pronounced as they are today. Our country has never been as risk-free of unacceptable political conflict as it is today.

Our democratic system is firmly entrenched. No force exists anywhere that has the possibility to undermine it or put it at risk. Despite, and perhaps because of our history, we stand in the front ranks of the group of countries across the globe that are truly peaceful, stable, and not painfully consumed by the threat of terrorist bombs.

None of this means the cynics and the sceptics have ceased to exist. They are still around, and will, undoubtedly, occasionally manufacture one scarecrow or another to frighten the unwary about our country and its future.

A few years ago they tried to scare the people about their future, asking the question - what happens when Mandela goes? They produced all manner of doomsday scenarios, pretending that President Mandela, with his "magic", was the only person capable of guaranteeing the better future for our country, for which so many had sacrificed everything, including their lives.

More recently, these cynics and sceptics sought to frighten the people with unfounded allegations of an intention to amend the constitution, to increase the number of terms a person could serve as President of the Republic. This was part of the scare campaign that sought to suggest that ours was becoming a one-party-state, which would result in the collapse of democracy, our system of human rights and the rule of law, leading to the installation of a dictatorship, and so on.

Undoubtedly, for selfish and narrow partisan and other reasons, the cynics and sceptics in our midst will continue their mischievous campaigns that are based on lies, regardless of what the millions of our people of all races and colours are doing together to build the South Africa of their dreams. As part of this, they will continue to look for opportunities to engage in the popular sport of advancing spurious claims that South Africa is the worst in the world in one negative area or another.

The government document that assesses our First Decade of Democracy, the 10-Year Review, makes an important point about the continuing disjuncture between the political and the business leadership in our country. Correctly, it argues that this matter should be addressed by both leadership echelons, to ensure that during our Second Decade of Freedom, these two sectors, the political and the economic, work together better, to accelerate the pace towards the achievement of the commonly agreed national goal of a better life for all.

Necessarily, because of its size and role in our economy, this discussion must include the leadership of the Anglo American Corporation, or what is now called Anglo American plc. There can be no doubt whatsoever but that we have to treat this corporate citizen as one of the important players within our national system of social partnership.

The Anglo American Corporation was established in our country in 1917. It grew over the decades to become the largest conglomerate in our country, active in many sectors of our economy. It has therefore been an important player in the processes that resulted in the level of development we achieved during the greater part of the 20th century.

Perhaps more than any other, this Corporation stood out as the quintessentially South African and Southern African company. It grew to become the giant it is because of its access both to our natural resources, and to cheap, unskilled labour in South and Southern Africa. Regardless of the wishes of its leadership, and like all other companies, it benefited from the criminally oppressive and exploitative labour, economic and political system instituted and maintained by the colonial and apartheid system in our country.

The company developed and grew in our country, and region, during a period of the highest political risk. Nevertheless it thought that it made good business sense to continue to expand its operations in our country, both before and throughout the years of apartheid rule. Such patently obvious political risk as existed then neither drove it offshore, nor diminished its appetite to expand its operations in our country.

Of course, all this has had a greatly beneficial impact on our country's general level of development and therefore the standard of living of our people. And indeed, Anglo American continues to be a valued corporate citizen, even in the context of its global expansion in the post-apartheid years.

Our defeat of the apartheid system has been a factor of material importance and benefit to Anglo American. It qualitatively expanded the possibilities for this company to become a global player. It now knew that if it expanded to the rest of the world, it would not have to contend with the hostility generated by the universal rejection of the apartheid system. Symbolising the global freedom it has achieved, it is now openly seeking investment opportunities in the People's Republic of China, thanks to the victory of our liberation movement.

In this context, the company sought our government's agreement for it to secure a first listing on the London Stock Exchange. The government accepted the argument advanced by Anglo American that it needed such listing because, unlike London, the South African capital market would not be big enough to finance the large investments visualised by the company in our country and region, and elsewhere in the world.

Over the years, many foreign business people have consistently told us that despite the many benefits they have derived from the defeat of the apartheid system, many South African business people continue to communicate negative messages about our country whenever they travel abroad, or receive visiting business people.

Some have argued against such foreign listings as was done by Anglo American, saying that there was no need to change domicile away from South Africa, to access the global capital markets. And yet others among these foreign business people have remarked about a phenomenon they do not understand, of the unusually high levels of liquid capital held by South African companies, which are not invested in our economy.

In this regard, COSATU has in the past complained about a domestic "investment strike". At the same time, and continuously, "analysts" and others on whose "expertise" we are supposed to rely, have huffed and puffed mightily about our failure to attract larger inflows of foreign direct investment, while remaining perfectly silent about the large volumes of available domestic capital, which is not invested in our real economy.

Other important business organisations, certainly in the United States, have expressed some wonder as to why obviously well-known South African companies, find it necessary to deny their South African origin and identity, thus needlessly undermining their credibility even as possible business partners.

All of us are aware that business in our country has flourished in the last 10 years, our First Decade of Liberation. The reality is that business people in our country have never had it so good. It has therefore been difficult to understand why important business people would continue to hold and communicate negative views about our country, regardless of the actual and real situation in the country, which they know very well, and from which they benefit handsomely.

Earlier this month, on September 7, 'Business Day' reproduced an article on Anglo American that had originally been published in the 'Financial Times'. It was entitled "Anglo American reshapes itself to spread its wings globally".

In the article, Mr Tony Trahar, CEO of Anglo American plc, is quoted as saying: "I think the South African political-risk issue is starting to diminish - although I am not saying it has gone." Mr Trahar is quoted as saying this in the context of a speculative discussion by the 'Financial Times', about the possibility of the transfer of the Anglo American Head Office from Johannesburg to London.

This brings us back to the issue of the disjuncture between our political and business leadership mentioned in the government 10-Year Review. Both the ANC and the government would not know what political risk Mr Trahar is talking about. What is this risk that has started to diminish, but has not gone? Is this the risk that persuaded Anglo American that it should list and re-domicile in London, while speaking to us only about the size of capital markets?

When foreign business people have told us about South African business people "bad mouthing" our country, is this what they were talking about? Have our business people been going around the world talking about a persisting political risk in our country? And what have they said is the cause and nature of this risk?

The poor and the despised who worked for Anglo American and other companies that made it during the years of white minority rule, paid a pittance for their labour, are today's voters. For ten years they have made the point clearly and firmly that they care too deeply about the future of their children to allow their own painful past and the instincts it invokes, to determine that future.

They have chosen reconciliation rather than revenge. Rather than reparations, they have asked for an opportunity to do a decent job for a decent wage. Do they deserve to be computed as a political risk, when everything they have done and said has made the unequivocal statement that they are ready to let the past bury the past?

Is it moral and fair that these, who daily bear the scars of poverty, should suffer from the guilt of their masters, who are fixated by the nightmare of a risky future for our country, which derives not from what the poor have done and will do, but from what the rich fear those they impoverished will do, imagining what they themselves would have done, if they had been the impoverished?

Throughout the colonial and apartheid years, Anglo American did not seek a London listing, and did nothing that would generate speculation about the future of its Johannesburg Head Office. Is it now saying that democratic South Africa presents the business world and our country with higher political risk than did apartheid South Africa?

What information does it have, or projections into the future, that say that there is a persisting political risk in our country, on which Anglo American must base its decisions about its future? Would the company be willing to share this information, or projections, at least with the government, so that steps could be taken to remove the risk?

Is this perhaps the reason that South African companies have unusually high cash or liquid reserves, that they think that such is the level of political risk in our country, that they would be very foolish to tie up all their resources in fixed investments in our country? If this is the case, why has business not raised this matter, despite the institutionalised system of regular interaction that exists between government and business?

Remarkably, but happily, many foreign business people do not have the fears about persisting political risk in our country that Mr Trahar seems to have discovered. That is why, among others, the major automobile companies have made the investments they have made in our country, and established particular exclusive production lines that serve both the domestic and the global markets.

Indeed, even the domestic explosion in real estate demand and prices reflects the confidence of both our people and our foreign guests that there is no danger that the houses they buy or build are likely to go up in flames, because of a persisting political risk.

Perhaps Mr Trahar has better information about the future of our country than all these, and we, have. Will he pass the information to them and us, to empower us to take better-informed decisions in future?

Or is it that this persisting political risk is only know to a particular political school of thought in our country? Is it revealed only to those who are aware of this as a matter of fact, that, of necessity, our country must and will explode? Or is it simply that, as Africans, we are assumed to be a political risk until we prove that we are not?

Is the statement that is being made that 10 years of government is only just beginning to communicate the message that, as Africans, we are capable of managing a modern society? Was Mr Trahar making the statement that 10 years after our liberation, we have just begun to convince some important people that we are not the barbarians they thought we were?

Was he saying that, nevertheless, we have still some way to go before these eminent persons will determine that we are civilised after all, and no longer necessarily bearers of political risk?

We must, among other things, use the occasion of our 10th Anniversary of Liberation critically to examine how far we have moved away from our racist past, and what we need to do to establish a truly non-racial society. Will it ever happen that the political risk so beloved to some will, in time, diminish in their minds until it ceases to exist? Or will it forever be the case that tomorrow never comes?

Plan breaks new ground in effort to house the nation

Housing delivery in South Africa is set to reach new heights following the adoption of a ground-breaking housing plan for the development of human settlements over the next five years.

The housing plan, which was adopted by cabinet last week, aims to provide access to housing to even greater numbers of South Africans, particularly among the poor and those currently living in informal settlements.

Announcing details of the plan, which is to be implemented from April 2005, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said it would provide a framework for the building of homes "in healthy and secure living environments where everyone will have access to the services and goods produced by society". It provides for a total package of infrastructure such as clinics, schools, police stations, community facilities and clinics within the vicinity of actually built homes.

During the first ten years of democracy, the ANC-led government built an unprecedented 1.6 million new houses, accommodating around six million people, and transferred title deeds to many others. However, there remains a massive housing backlog, partly inherited from the pre-1994 apartheid era and partly a consequence of demographic changes over the last ten years. There has been massive urbanisation, which has resulted in the growth of informal settlements around the country's major urban centre. According to the 2001 census, there are over a million households located in informal settlements, around 16% of all households in the country.

The government has therefore undertaken a great deal of research, interviews and consultations to develop a housing plan which will build on the gains of the first ten years to significantly address the challenges that still remain.

One part of this plan is to reorganise the categorisation of people who qualify for government housing subsidies. It creates a three-tier category of income groups for better targeting. According to this, beneficiaries defined as belong to the "hard-core poor" (with income levels from R0 -R1,500 a month) receive the full housing subsidy of R28,000. Those defined as "poor" (with income levels from R1,500 - R3,500) also receive the full subsidy. A new subsidy band is created for affordable housing targeting the middle-income level (those earning R3,500-R 7,000), for whom government pays a deposit.

The plan goes further, to redefine the role of government in the housing market. The reach of housing policy is broadened to cover the entire residential property market. For each sector of society, the plan delivers new and expanded benefits.

"All South Africans will have an opportunity to access homes in well designed, serviced and located human settlements. For the first-time buyers we will have normalised the market and created the necessary facilitation with the banks. They also will have choice. The hard-core poor, pensioners and the indigent, will access a rental home with no savings requirement," Sisulu said.

People receiving government subsidies will get increased access to credit and a choice of ownership options and top structures. People looking for rental accommodation will receive access to innovative rental options in secure environments, while people living in informal settlements will receive certainty and access to proper services, security, choice and formal houses.

The plan aims to build partnerships between government and the financial sector, and create an enabling environment in which the financial sector is encouraged to lend to poor households. The construction sector will similarly be given incentives to participate actively in housing delivery to the poorest of the poor.

Sisulu said some of the instruments to be used to achieve these benefits will include: using demand to drive housing delivery, involving a great deal of flexibility; enhancing the role of the private sector by collapsing the subsidy bands, removing blockages relating to down-payments for the indigent and pensioners, assessing beneficiaries on spousal income, and developing fixed rate and other new loan products; encouraging employer groups to make their contribution through employer-assisted housing; removing barriers to housing trade by reducing the period during which resale on the private market is prohibited from 8 years to 5 years; replacing informal settlements with more adequate forms of housing.

The implementation of this plan will need greater coordination among national, provincial and local government, and among the departments which form the social sector. To this end, an inter-ministerial committee is being established to oversee the implementation of the plan.

The national department would be reviewed to ensure it is adequately staffed and appropriately skilled to implement the plan, and the mandates of the housing institutions evaluated and reviewed to ensure adequate support, Sisulu said.

Other initiatives in the plan include land acquisition through pro-active identification and acquisition of land. The plan aims to encourage inner city regeneration with a number of programmes including rental and 'rent-to-own'.

The plan establishes a special investigative unit to attend to the reported cases of corruption at levels. "Consideration is also being given to ensure that this unit is highly mobile, well-resourced and is able to act speedily to bring those guilty to book," Sisulu said.

The plan will, however, require a great deal of detailed evaluation and monitoring. It therefore provides for a comprehensive housing sector evaluation, monitoring, and reporting system based on key performance indicators. This will cover all housing programmes and institutions and will aim to align the programmes and institutions to the plan to ensure maximum returns on government's investment and the sustainability of that investment.

A monitoring and audit unit will be created to undertake a detailed analysis of funds allocated to projects against units completed and titles transferred. Consideration is been given to the establishment of a management information system that will be able to create an audit trail of housing funds expended at all levels of government on a project by project basis against deeds of transfer or rental contracts.

More Information::

• Department of Housing

Youth League anniversary

Youth League returns to the place of its birth

The ANC Youth League returns to the place it was founded exactly 60 years ago to celebrate the organisation's impressive contribution to the struggle for national liberation.

We reproduce below, the statement of the ANC Youth League on the occasion of the anniversary.

"It is exactly 60 years ago today when that extraordinarily able group in their mid-twenties to early thirties gathered at the Bantu Men's Social Club and brought to life a youth movement that was to become a powerful force behind the ANC.

"As the ANC Youth League celebrates 60 years of its fighting existence, we take a trip down memory lane to remind ourselves of the principal mandate of this glorious youth movement. In so doing we salute its founding fathers, which include Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Anton Lembede, Mxolisi Majombozi, Wilson Conco, Arthur Letele, Bigvai Masekela, Dan Tloome, Peter Mda, Jordan Ngubane, William Nkomo, Congress Mbata, Victor Mbobo and David Bopape.

"We go back to this historic venue and pledge our commitment to those founding ideals that have served as a guiding light to the ANC Youth League throughout the 6 decades of its existence. A vibrant, militant and disciplined youth movement is the Youth League we commit ourselves to. As young people enthusiastically responded to the call to establish the Youth League, we respond to the same call to breathe new life to the Youth League and build the crucial critical mass that will serve to give it a forward momentum.

"The pamphlet that Lembede authored read, 'The hour of youth has struck! As the forces of national liberation gather momentum, the call to youth to close ranks in order to consolidate the national unity front becomes more urgent and imperative'.

"Today, here and now, we reiterate that call to the young people of South Africa. Every corner of our country must hear the young lions roar; every citizen must feel the vibrations of their energy. The hour of youth has once again struck! Close ranks and defend the gains of our revolution and become a driving force in consolidating national unity and the total liberation of our people from the scourge of poverty, disease and unemployment.

"We similarly pay our respects to the leaders who steered the 'young lions' of Oliver Tambo; the death defying youth; the militant youth in the ranks of Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK); the 1976 generation. For us, the present generation, we take our orders from these gallant young fighters. Like them, we are yet to earn our place in history as the young lions of the 21st century.

"We are under no illusion about the challenges facing young people today. These loom large and we remain ready to tackle them head on. We must collectively acknowledge our duty to lead the progressive forces in social and economic transformation of our country and build a South Africa that truly responds to the aspirations of its youth.

"Private capital continues to resist change and is advancing its agenda of exploiting the masses of our land. They perceive economic transformation as a threat to their wealth, which they have amassed at the expense of our people. They continue to shamelessly denounce affirmative action, black economic empowerment and other progressive policies of the ANC, which seek to correct the wrongs of the past. It is wrong for the wealth of the country to be concentrated on the hands of a tiny minority who have no interest in the prosperity of the vast majority who live below the bread line.

"Private capital still represents the white elite who have positioned themselves as the alternate ruling class that has continued to sustain remnants of apartheid under the guise of free market. This is the enemy we must fight at all costs. All citizens of this beautiful land must share in the wealth of our country. It is our task to encourage the steps that government has taken to create the environment for a meaningful social and economic transformation. We must therefore seize the moment and force that transformation. Those who stand on our way, be warned, you will be crushed.

"Ten years into our democracy, we still live in a society that is racially polarised. A young black man walking through the suburbs of Sunnyside in Pretoria at night is much more likely to be searched and manhandled by police than his white counterpart in the same neighbourhood.

"As we fly our banners in half-mast in paying our respects to the passing of Dr Beyers Naude, a great man who rose above racial stereotypes and embraced his South Africanness before his Afrikanerness, we must remember the ideals that he stood for and pursue them as our own.

"We will never defeat the scourge of racism unless we break down the walls that keep us apart from our white counterparts. Similarly they must also make a real effort to reach out and be an integral part of this vibrant nation. We therefore challenge white youth out there to become active champions of building a non-racial society where all its people are equal citizens of the world.

"Groupings such as the boeremag and mercenaries who thrive on sowing conflict and destabilising nations represent a dying breed of a political dinosaur whose time has long passed. There is no place for such people in our nation, and we must shun them and alienate them.

"Education, culture and sports remain the fundamental platforms for youth emancipation, and the nation's development. As we continue to advance our struggles to open the doors of learning and culture, the Freedom Charter remains our principal authority. As we return to the birthplace of the ANC Youth League those 60 years ago, we recommit ourselves to the spirit and the letter of the Freedom Charter.

"We have indeed made tangible progress as a nation in advancing and realizing the ideals embodied in the Freedom Charter. More needs to be done for us to get to a point where we can say we have achieved a truly free, compulsory, universal and equal education for all children of school-going age. The Youth League remains the champion of the advancement of these ideals that impact on the lives of our nation's youth. For as long as the child in a township school in Alexandra does not have access to the facilities that a child in a Sandton suburb has, then our education remains unequal. Free education is an objective that the Youth League will fight for through progressive interaction with the state and other stakeholders.

"There are still those determined to preserve the historically white institutions as their sole property that cannot be shared with others, and this manifests itself in the use of language as a tool to exclude others. This practice must be brought to an end, and an equitable system that respects every language, especially African languages must be put in place. Culture and language can never be used as instruments to divide people.

"In advancing the development of young people and preparing them for a meaningful contribution to the country's national discourse as full participants in the mainstream economy, learnerships and internships become a crucial step forward. But this is not enough. We must work to ensure that those who emerge from those learnerships and internships are absorbed into the economy and are not left idle.

"Sports is a strategic terrain that needs to be harnessed as a driver of deracialisation of our nation. Quotas are a necessary instrument to drive that process. It will be foolhardy of us to pretend that we have achieved our strategic objectives in this regard and abandon our efforts to intervene and enable such transformation. A message must be sent loud and clear to all those administrators who are hell bent on resisting change, quotas are here to stay!

"Let us celebrate our democracy and 60 years of struggle through music. Let us sing about our achievements, our suffering, and the fundamental lessons we want future generations to learn. Kwaito has a major role to play which we must all embrace and support. We must not only sing about things that discriminate against young women, sexual assault and other ills of our society. Let every one of us support and protect our mothers and children against abuse and discrimination."

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