ANC Today --------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 4, No. 20, 21- 27 May 2004 --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK: * Letter from the President: World Cup decision challenges prejudices about Africa * Public Works: New expanded programme part of broader job creation effort * Public service: Finding the skills to match the country's needs --------------------------------------------------------------------- LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT World Cup decision challenges prejudices about Africa On the day we published last week's edition of ANC TODAY, an eminent African delegation addressed the President and the rest of the Executive Committee of FIFA, requesting them to accede to our request to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The following day millions of our people joined in joyful celebrations to welcome the decision that was taken by the leadership of FIFA. We describe our delegation as eminent because of the way in which it was composed. It included three of Africa's Nobel Peace Prize winners, a rare occurrence about which the President of FIFA, Mr Sepp Blatter, made important remarks. It included three of Africa's most outstanding footballers, Roger Milla from Cameroon, Kalushi Bwalya from Zambia, and Abedi Pele from Ghana. It included the leadership of our Government, the South African Football Association, our broadcasters, and leaders of our corporate sector. Others of our people, representing various sectors of our nation, including sport, business and civil society, accompanied it. It was also privileged to be joined by yet other Bid Ambassadors, coming from Europe, led by the legendary German footballer, Franz Beckenbauer. It brought together all the diverse racial groups that constitute the South African nation, united by the common hope and prayer that FIFA would grant us the privilege to host one of the most prestigious of the global sports festivals, the Soccer World Cup. The work that was done in the years preceding the Zurich presentation and in Zurich on May 14, as well as the celebrations on May 15, showed how decisively we had moved away from the terrible years when our country was painfully fractured into contending racial groups, incapable then, of espousing a common national objective. All these told the simple but moving story that we had made giant strides towards building a common patriotism and a shared sense of nationhood. It dealt a deadly blow against those who still persist in trying to use the racial and ethnic divisions of the past to promote their interests. They also demonstrated how much the concept and practice of African unity and solidarity have become a material factor informing the African mind and African practice. They confirmed the durability of the international bonds of solidarity built during the long years of the struggle against apartheid, and the shared desire of the peoples of the world to see South Africa and Africa succeed in the effort to achieve the renewal of our country and continent. Understandably, much of the public discussion about the consequences and reward of hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup has focused on the economic benefits that will accrue to our country. And naturally, the issue of job creation has been highlighted and emphasised with great insistence. Most unfortunately other interventions in this discussion have been made, to speculate about who voted for South Africa and who against. This was intended to introduce a note of bitter recrimination among us as Africans, at the very moment when all Africa was united in celebrating the fact that by its May 15 decision, the FIFA Executive Committee had translated the promise to allow Africa to host the Soccer World Cup into reality. Both these developments, the focus on the economic benefits of hosting the Soccer World Cup and dangerous, unnecessary guesses about how the African members of the FIFA Executive Committee voted, have, to some extent, served to divert us from celebrating the real significance of the decision take by FIFA in 2001 to bring the World Cup to Africa, and the 2004 decision to bring it to South Africa. The true significance of these decisions lies in what we saw when we celebrated our First Decade of Liberation, less than three weeks before we went to Zurich, which we discussed in the last edition of this publication. In Zurich we said "the historic decision (FIFA) took (to give the peoples of Africa the possibility to host the Soccer World Cup) has made the unequivocal statement that you, the leaders of world soccer, are firmly of the view that Africa's time has come!" We went on to say, "through this decision, you conveyed the message to all Africans, both on the continent and the African Diaspora, that you are ready and willing to accompany us on our journey of hope, and give us the strength and stamina we need to traverse the difficult terrain that separates us from Africa's renaissance. "We pray that thus you will help us fully to restore Africa's dignity, as humanity advances to the year 2010, the end of the first decade of the 21st century and the third millennium, as together we undertake a journey of hope that would be crowned by the joyful festival that will be the 2010 Soccer World Cup." This year FIFA is celebrating its Centenary. It must surely be a matter of historic importance that as it marks its 100 years of existence, FIFA has, at last and for the first time, brought the World Cup to Africa. In its report preparatory to the awarding of the bid for the 2006 World Cup, the FIFA Technical Group said that both Germany and our country had equal technical capacity to host the tournament. It went on to say that the FIFA Executive Committee would have to take a political decision to allocate the games to either one of these two technically equal contenders. And a political decision was taken to award the bid to Germany. Whatever our disappointment at the time, we congratulated Germany and have ever since maintained and deepened our friendship with Germany and the German people. Happily, the sister African countries that also competed to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup have adopted the same attitude, and conveyed their own congratulations to us and their pledge to work with us to ensure that Africa hosts an excellent 2010 Soccer World Cup. We must, together, extend our deep appreciation to the governments and peoples of Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt for taking positions that cannot but advance the cause of African unity, solidarity and renewal. Africa and Africans have been victims of racism and racial arrogance for many centuries. Throughout this long period, the notion and practice were sustained that as Africans we were sub-human. As a consequence and expression of this, millions were transported out of Africa and settled in other parts of the world as slaves. Even when slavery ended, we did not escape continued domination by others. Our countries were seized and turned into the colonial possessions of those who had transported us across the Atlantic as slaves. We became important to our colonial masters only to the extent that we served their purpose of profiting from our natural resources and our cheap labour. All of us have now liberated ourselves from colonial and imperialist domination. And yet our poverty and underdevelopment, born of the long years of slavery, imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism, have continued to condemn us to subsist in conditions of subservience. In many respects what happened in many parts of our continent and the African Diaspora during the post-colonial years only served to confirm the negative images of Africa and Africans that had developed over many centuries. We stood out as a continent of wars, violent conflicts, permanent instability, and endemic disregard for the right to life. The horrific genocide in Rwanda only 10 years ago served as a stark confirmation of this. Our behaviour communicated the message that we were incapable of establishing successful democratic systems and guaranteeing respect for the most basic of human rights. Our societies spawned such creatures as Idi Amin of Uganda and Jean-Bedell Bokassa of the Central African Republic. Circumstances conspired to tell the story that we were incapable of even feeding ourselves and achieving social progress through our own efforts. The initiative that, among other things, gave birth to the famous song "We are the world", came from artists who decided to give us food, moved by the emaciated bodies of Africans who were dying in their millions, simply from lack of food. All this confirmed that we were forever condemned to survive on charity, objects of noble pity that would forever be the wards of people of conscience, forever condemned to be lesser human beings than those on whom we depended to keep death from hunger at the door. And yet it came about that the same people of conscience who could only interact with us as our charitable benefactors, decided to join us in the struggle to end our oppression by those who continued to entertain the racial belief of white superiority and black inferiority. Thus was born the world anti-apartheid movement, arguably the most powerful international solidarity movement of the 20th century. Its strength and sustained passion derived from universal revulsion at the denial of the humanity of some human beings by others, simply because of their race and colour. Its perpetuation diminished the humanity even of those who shared the same race and colour with those who were our oppressors. The fact that the peoples of the world joined us in the struggle to defeat the apartheid crime against humanity meant that at last, and in action, all humanity had come together to assert the shared humanity of all human beings, regardless of race or colour. The anti-apartheid struggle constituted an historic step away from centuries of a past during which many in the world had accepted the assertion of the sub-humanity of Africans as a self-evident truth. Its significance therefore extended far beyond to single purpose of ending the system of apartheid, whether this was understood or not during the course of our struggle. It signified the universal resolve to end the historical definition of Africans, in word and deed, as being less than human, a peculiar appendage of proper human society. For this reason, all humanity has maintained an intense interest in what we, as Africans, would do with our freedom. The May 20, 2004 edition of "Business Day" carries an article by Bryan Rostron, a freelance writer. In this article, Mr Rostron criticises one Peter Hitchens, a British journalist, in these terms: "Eight years ago.(Hitchens stated) that all African states had slid into corruption and lawlessness within a few years of independence - and boldly concluded: 'there is no reason to suppose SA will be any different, apart from wishful thinking.' " Mr Rostron's comments were occasioned by the fact that Hitchens had returned to this theme, having discovered that our government is becoming 'an increasingly unpleasant and authoritarian regime' and our country a one-party state. He writes of "feature writers (like Hitchens - our addition), combing SA for scare stories to confirm prejudices of folks (or editors) back home." The same edition of "Business Day" carries an article by Kevin Wakeford headed "Days of playing second fiddle to the north are over". Mr Wakeford reports on a meeting of "a group of business leaders representing foreign companies based in SA" which he addressed, communicating a positive image of our country. He then reports that, "I was challenged by a typical neo-colonial ideologue, who found my talk unrealistic and insubordinate to global power relations. I was duly reminded that SA is a poor country with extremely low per capita income levels, miniscule national wealth, a growing wealth gap, increasing unemployment, rising crime, the growing AIDS challenge and low levels of foreign direct investment. "I was also reminded about the proverbial African domino that had unfailingly gravitated in a southerly direction. We would therefore eventually follow the misery of Zimbabwe and every nation north of our border." Clearly, Peter Hitchens is not alone in the sport of "combing SA for scare stories to confirm prejudices of folks (or editors) back home"! These are precisely the prejudices we have spoken of, born of many centuries of racism and racial arrogance. But the millions who participated in the struggle against apartheid, who certainly did not include Peter Hitchens and Kevin Wakeford's "typical neo- colonial ideologue", pursue a different purpose in their sustained interest in our country. They are keen to see what we will do to demonstrate that they were right when they decided that we are as human and any other human being. Accordingly they hope that through our actions, we will disprove the prejudices that continue to inspire the likes of Peter Hitchens and other neo-colonial ideologues. On May 15, FIFA made the historic statement that what we have done with our freedom during the past decade has amply demonstrated that the International Federation was right when it joined the anti-apartheid struggle in 1976 by excluding apartheid South Africa from its ranks, thereby joining all those throughout the world who asserted our humanity as Africans. Like those from the rest of the world who participated in our celebrations of our First Decade of Liberation, by its decision, it celebrated the fact that through our actions we had disproved the prejudices of those who still believe that Africans are an inferior species. That is why it made the statement that Africa's time has come! Above all else, this is the reason that Africans everywhere rejoiced so unreservedly at the decision that FIFA took on May 15. Or as Bryan Rostron put it: "The greatest benefits (of hosting the Soccer World Cup), to a country (and continent) that has endured so much, may rather be the intangibles - pride, confidence, and a sense of at last playing a role on the world stage." We can only pray that Bryan Rostron's wishes and ours are fulfilled when he adds "My hope is this will help raise SA out of the clichés of much foreign (and domestic - our addition) reporting." Thabo Mbeki --------------------------------------------------------------------- PUBLIC WORKS New expanded programme part of broader job creation effort The expanded public works programme, which was formally launched this week, is but one of several strategies of the ANC-led government to encourage job creation and skills development. It forms part of government's programme to implement the ANC's 2004 manifesto, and, in particular, to create work and fight poverty. While the expanded public works programme is a substantial and important intervention, it is but one part of a range of measures which are together aimed at growing the economy, developing the country's skills base and encouraging higher levels of employment. Launching the programme at Sekhunyani Village in Limpopo this week, President Thabo Mbeki acknowledged that one of the biggest obstacles to economic and social development in South Africa is that people do not have the kind of skills required in the current economy. "The central challenge we face is that the colonial and apartheid society and economy left us with large number of our people with very little or no education," he said. "Our economy no longer needs cheap and unskilled workers. What our society and economy now need are educated and skilled workers. In addition, today these workers have to compete with workers in other countries." While the expanded public works programme will provide work experience and opportunities for skills development to hundreds of thousands of unemployed people over the next five years, it has always been seen by the ANC and government as part of a broader programme to address the employment challenges the country faces. This programme must therefore necessarily focus on ensuring that South Africans are suitably skilled to meet the demand that currently exists in the economy, as well as what is needed to make the economy grow and compete in a rapidly- changing global environment. This means that further work needs to be done to ensure greater access for all to quality education. A particular focus of this work will be to ensure that children in poor communities are able to benefit from a good education. The development of appropriate skills in greater numbers will be helped by the ongoing transformation of higher education. At the same time, government will work with the private sector to create more learnerships for young people, where they can gain in-service training and practical work experience across all sectors of the economy. Skills development authorities and agencies like the Umsobomvu Youth Fund also have a critical role to play in developing skills. Another area where government can make a difference is encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship. Those who wish to start and sustain small businesses need to have access to credit, through, among other things, dedicated funding to support micro-loan financing, through further reforms to existing support agencies and through changes being introduced in the financial system and institutions. In addition to government's investment in infrastructure - expected to be in the region of R100 billion over the next five years - and programmes to encourage more investment in key economic sectors, government also needs to work to ensure the maintenance of economic stability and an environment which encourages greater direct investment from within the country and abroad. But many of these initiatives will, by their nature, take time to bear fruit, and the benefits may only be felt by those who need them most in the medium to long-term. The expanded public works programme will, by contrast, have a more immediate impact on people's lives, creating work and training opportunities for local residents and bringing much-needed basic infrastructure to some of the country's most needy areas. "The Expanded Public Works Programme is a nation-wide programme that aims to draw significant members of the unemployed into productive employment," Mbeki said at the launch. "Through this programme, we want workers to gain skills while they are employed, and increase their capacity to continue working elsewhere once they leave the programme. The programme aims to focus on workers and the unemployed, particularly those who are marginalised from the mainstream of our economy." An important element of this programme is a large-scale expansion of the use of labour-intensive construction methods to build, upgrade and maintain the social and economic infrastructure in all the underdeveloped rural and urban areas of the country. The programme poses a significant challenge to all levels of government, particularly to provincial and local governments who will be primarily responsible for implementation. It will test the capacity of local municipalities and will require a high level of cooperation among all spheres of government. The programme will also involve the training of local emerging contractors to carry out infrastructure improvement projects. It is planned that there will be around 250 such learner contractors across the country. With the help of the Department of Labour and one of the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), the Department of Public Works will be hiring people to provide learner contractors with mentorship. Provide banks will provide learner contractors with credit and other support. "These learner contractors will form an important cadre of entrepreneurs skilled in labour intensive construction methods, able to take advantage of the public resources that will be dedicated to the improvement of infrastructure in the poor and disadvantaged areas of our country," Mbeki said. "From today, let us stretch a helping hand to one another and roll out the extended public works programme to all corners of the country," he said. --------------------------------------------------------------------- PUBLIC SERVICE [Viewpoint: Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi] Finding the skills to match the country's needs The scarcity of skills in the public service is an issue we need to debate and address. We need to review the competency in our public service if we are to ensure effective service delivery. This entails reskilling, redeployment and, occasionally as a last resort, retrenchment. It must, however, be stated unambiguously that government will not retrench South Africans only to recruit "20,000 foreigners" [as claimed in weekend newspaper reports]. One of the key hurdles crippling service delivery in the public service is the shortage of appropriate skills. Government recognised this and has forged partnerships with other countries to enhance and build the capabilities of the public service in specific areas of need, such as medical services to the most deprived areas of the country. In specific areas, where skills are not available, South Africa may recruit from countries it has bilateral agreements with - for example, India, Cuba and Iran. South Africa also has technical cooperation agreements with the US, Sweden and Germany that provide developmental aid to South Africa to allow workers to focus on specific projects. This contributes to workforce reskilling. Going beyond the borders when in dire need of certain specialists is not a phenomenon unique to South Africa. It is important to note that when government talks of recruitment abroad, it is not a large-scale, long-term recruitment drive in any foreign state, but a plan focusing on targeted specialist needs as a short to medium-term solution. Where there are skills shortages in specific areas, the issue will be looked at case by case, and decisions made to best serve the needs of the people of South Africa. Our focus must remain on building our skills base among South Africans. Numerous studies have pointed out South Africa faces critical shortages in professional and technical occupational categories, while having an oversupply of unskilled and semiskilled workers. The effect of HIV/AIDS and other life- threatening diseases should also be taken note of. Public service and administration department studies have confirmed the public service is especially vulnerable in areas where it relies on scarce skills. This is compounded in rural areas, and marked by high workloads and staff shortages - for example in schools and hospitals in remote areas. Challenges relating to skills mismatches and excess staff are likely to be most acute in the provinces, especially in unskilled and semiskilled categories. A clear picture on staff to be affected by restructuring at national level has not yet emerged. However, it seems unlikely major staff losses will occur. Hence it is amazing some people already have a figure of 20,000 public servants to be retrenched. It is against this backdrop that we need to view the issue of South Africa's skills shortage in the public sector vis-à-vis recruitment abroad. This is not the time to sensationalise the issue but rather treat it with all the sensitivity and focus it deserves. We need a well-equipped, highly skilled professional public service geared to the needs of building a developmental state. ** Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi is an ANC National Executive Committee member and Minister of Public Service and Administration. --------------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of ANC Today is available from the ANC web site at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2004/at20.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