The ANC lives! The ANC leads!

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC, the highest organ of the ANC between our National Conferences, held an important three-day regular meeting on 18-20 November 2005. The meeting discussed matters relating to issues that had been thrown up in the context of legal processes affecting our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma.

At a meeting held on the morning of the commencement of our 2nd National General Council (NGC), on 30 June 2005, the NEC had decided to hold an urgent extraordinary meeting after the conclusion of the NGC. For various reasons, including the decisions of the NGC, which pre-empted the planned NEC discussions, the extraordinary NEC meeting did not take place.

Specifically, the extraordinary meeting of the NEC was intended to discuss the request and decision of our Deputy President to suspend the discharge of his leadership functions to which he had been elected. He had argued that this would give him time to pay attention to the preparation of his response to the criminal proceedings the law-enforcement authorities had earlier instituted against him, reversing the decision of the former National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) not to prosecute him.

Whereas our National Working Committee (NWC) had accepted the Deputy President's request, the NEC resolved to suspend the implementation of this decision, pending its own substantive discussion of the Deputy President's proposal, which would take place after the conclusion of the NGC.

As it happened, ahead of the pending NEC discussion of the same matter, the NGC felt that our movement should not accept the Deputy President's request, and that he should continue to discharge his responsibilities as an elected member of our NEC and our Deputy President.

Responding to this view, the Deputy President formally withdrew his offer to the NEC, presented through the NWC, to suspend his activities as a leader of our movement, pending the outcome of his forthcoming trial. This removed the need to convene an extraordinary NEC meeting.

Unfortunately, since then, the entirely false assertion has been propagated that, during the period immediately preceding the NGC, the NWC and the NEC had taken the initiative to remove the Deputy President from his elected positions. Accordingly, the decision of the NGC has erroneously been interpreted as a defeat of the elected leadership of our movement. This leadership, the NEC, (and the NWC), is alleged to have decided to remove the Deputy President from his elected positions, which neither did. The supposed defeat of the NEC by the NGC delegates is then presented as a demonstration of the mass popularity of the Deputy President.

I mention all the foregoing because it constitutes part of the background against which the November 2005 ordinary meeting of the NEC took place.

The notion that the membership of the ANC was engaged in a mass revolt against the leadership collective elected at our 2002 51st National Conference, including the President, was reinforced by pictures of individuals burning official ANC t-shirts bearing the portrait of the President of the ANC.

This happened against the backdrop of demonstrations organised to express support for our Deputy President in the context of his court case, as decided both by the NEC and the NGC. In this regard, some members of our movement put forward the demand, "Zuma for President", which was interpreted as a revolt against a perceived abandonment of the Deputy President, and support for the latter, in opposition to the President.

In this regard, in my concluding speech at the NGC, I said: "Correctly the National General Council has expressed its support for our Deputy President during these trying and painful times. Once more we have emphasised the point that it is an imperative of natural justice that he should have an opportunity to defend himself against whatever accusations have been made against him. We are all united around these principled positions and join him in hoping that the judicial processes will not be delayed unnecessarily."

During my address to Parliament on 14 June, when I announced that I was relieving the Deputy President of his governmental responsibilities, I said: "Personally, I continue to hold the Hon Jacob Zuma in high regard, and I am convinced that this applies to most Members of Parliament. We have worked together under difficult and challenging conditions for thirty years...I am certain that I speak on behalf of all who have served with him in Cabinet when I say that we shall remain friends, colleagues and comrades in the service of the people. And, as government, we shall continue to draw on his experience and expertise where the need arises."

By no stretch of imagination could these statements be read as expressing a hostile or malicious attitude towards the Deputy President.

Nevertheless, in addition to other demands that had already been made, supposedly in support of the Deputy President, the Central Committee of COSATU, a valued member of our Alliance, adopted a formal resolution calling on the President of the Republic to abort our country's judicial processes by causing the abandonment of the court case against our Deputy President, and subsequently to reinstate him as Deputy President of the Republic.

As our readers know, this latter demand arose from the fact that on 14 June 2005, the President of the Republic had announced his decision to relieve Deputy President Zuma of his responsibilities in government, basing himself on what he believed were their shared Constitutional obligations arising out of the judgement made by Justice Hillary Squires at the conclusion of the Schabir Shaik trial.

Arising out of all these developments, the perspective advanced by some, ahead of the November 2005 ordinary meeting of the ANC NEC was that:

• both the ANC and our Alliance were deeply divided, in a manner and to a degree that threatened their very survival;
• this division was centred on fundamental differences between the President and the Deputy President of the ANC, who lead opposing factions within the ANC and the Alliance;
• politically, this division represents two opposed fundamental tendencies within the national democratic movement, these being a reactionary tendency led by the President, and a progressive tendency led by the Deputy President;
• the President's faction was pursuing a neo-liberal agenda, and was intent on reducing democratic participation within the progressive movement through the suppression of open debate, the centralisation of power in the ANC and Government Presidencies, and the marginalisation and destruction of the Alliance;
• the Deputy President's faction was committed to promoting a progressive agenda, which included revolutionary social transformation, freedom of expression within the progressive movement, and the enhancement of the role of the Alliance in our system of governance;
• much of what had happened to the Deputy President, including his removal from Government, his unfair treatment by the state organs, especially the Scorpions and the National Prosecuting Authority, as well as his pending trial, was a result of a political conspiracy hatched by the President and his faction, to deny the Deputy President the possibility to succeed as President of the Republic in 2009;
• the contest within the ANC and the Alliance, thus defined, constituted a threat to our country's future, necessitating the intervention of progressive elements within our movement, and all concerned South Africans, to help resolve a bitter partisan conflict that had negative national implications; and,
• perhaps both the President and the Deputy President have to relinquish their positions within the ANC to end the conflict and create the conditions for the emergence of a new ANC leadership committed to serve the national interest, rather than plunge the nation into a crisis, arising out of the selfish pursuit of the personal interests of the President and the Deputy President of the ANC, and their respective factions.

It was in this context that the ANC NEC met on 18-20 November, and, for the first time, considered the substantive issues relating to the Jacob Zuma affair. It did so to implement the decision taken at its 9 September 2005 meeting, which resolved "to endorse the decision of the NWC authorising the President and the Deputy President to make recommendations about how the NEC should engage the substantive discussion of the matter at hand at a specially convened NEC meeting, which will be held as soon as possible".

This planned "specially convened NEC meeting", which ended up as a regular meeting of the NEC, provided this Committee with its first opportunity to engage in a "substantive discussion of the (Zuma) matter at hand".

After open, frank, intense and extensive discussion, the NEC reached a number of important conclusions, as reflected in its 21 November 2005 "Statement of the National Executive Committee on the current challenges facing our Movement and Country", which we must communicate to all our members.

These conclusions cover a number of important areas including the false allegations about differences between the President and the Deputy President, the existence of a conspiracy in the movement against the Deputy President, and the origin of various e-mails.

The NEC also addressed a variety of other important matters, including the unity and cohesion of our movement, the need to deal with factional rumour-mongering, the need for the Secretary General's Office to coordinate activities in support of the Deputy President, the obligation on members of the NEC to maintain close contact with the membership, processes leading to the election of our national leadership, the need to engage the membership in mass work to advance the goals of the national democratic revolution, and so on.

In addition to all these detailed matters, the NEC made the important observation that: "In dealing with (the matters on its agenda), the NEC is informed by the imperative to unite the organisation, Alliance, the democratic movement and the nation as a whole in pursuit of the fundamental objective to create a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society. In the current period, the immediate task is to implement programmes to speed up growth and development, ensure the creation of more work opportunities, reduce poverty and generally improve people's quality of life. This requires a strong ANC."

This spells out the order of the day for all members of our movement. By focusing on the tasks contained in this paragraph, which are about the intensification of the struggle for the fundamental social transformation of our country in the interest of the masses of our people, we will ensure that once more we give meaning to the assertion that the ANC lives! The ANC leads.

16 Days of Activism

An injury to one is an injury to all

The struggle to eradicate violence against women and children is fundamental to the rights and dignity of everyone in society. All South Africans are therefore urged to support and participate in the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children and ensure the campaign forms the basis of a year round effort.

For the past ten years the 16 Days of Activism has marked activities around the world to end gender-based violence. The 16 Days Campaign has been used to create a global movement to raise awareness, to address policy and legal issues, to campaign for the protection of survivors of violence and to call for the elimination of all forms of gender violence.

The day that marks the start of the campaign, 25 November, was declared International Day for No Violence Against Women at the first Feminist Encuentro for Latin America and the Caribbean held in Bogotá, Colombia in 1981. This day was chosen to commemorate the death of the Mirabal sisters in 1960 by the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The day was officially recognised by the United Nations in 1999 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

In South Africa the campaign has brought together civil society organisations, government and business to raise awareness by organising events and to raise funds to support victim support programmes. The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children Campaign is an annual, UN-endorsed, awareness-raising campaign that begins on 25 November each year and runs until 10 December.

The campaign is one element of government's year-long, integrated and cross-sectoral drive to eliminate the abuse of women and children. The campaign hopes to contribute to government's primary developmental objective of restoring to individuals their human dignity within the context of safer and more secure families and communities. The key commemorative dates during the campaign serve as useful platforms for highlighting the plight of vulnerable groups (women, children, the aged and the disabled) that suffer from this scourge.

The Presidency has tasked the Department of Correctional Services to coordinate the activities of all government departments and civil society and corporate partners. They aim to grow the campaign's reach year-on-year with the support and commitment of all sectors.

The campaign supports many of the other measures government is taking to improve the response to gender-based and domestic violence. These include the establishment of special sexual offences courts to speed up the legal process, increase the conviction rate and eliminate the secondary victimisation of survivors.

In its quarterly briefing in September, the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster of government reported that between March 2004 and March 2005, there were on average 63 specialised sexual offences courts in session. In March 2005, there were 70 courts in session. Between April 2004 and February 2005, 5,771 cases were finalised. The average number of cases finalised per court remained the same as the previous financial year. However, the conviction rate increased from 61% to 63%. In April 2005 these specialised courts achieved a conviction rate of 70%.

Government has also established the Thuthuzela Care Centres, which are 24-hour one-stop service centres, where survivors have access to all services that include police, counselling, doctors, court preparation and a prosecutor. Like the special courts, these centres are meant to eliminate secondary victimisation, reduce case cycle time and increase convictions.

Multi-disciplinary training has been completed for five sites, at Mannenberg, Mdantsane, Libode, Galeshewe and Chris Hani Baragwanath. Thuthuzela Care Centres are also planned for Mamelodi, Natalspruit and Mafikeng.

The cluster has been monitoring the implementation of the Anti-Rape Strategic Framework and Domestic Violence Programme. The team is responsible, among other things, for the management of the projects and the review of the services provided by the law enforcement agencies at the Thuthuzela Care Centres. The project is intended to improve the victim support services and the investigation of rape and domestic violence incidents. It is expected that the improved victim support service will facilitate the reporting of rape and domestic violence.

Yet, while the development of these services is important, the real challenge facing the country is to prevent violence against women and children from taking place. The existence of such violence is an assault on the dignity and rights of all citizens, and it is in the interest of all citizens to see it eradicated.

During the 16 days of the campaign white ribbons will be used to symbolise support and to create awareness about the campaign. The white ribbon symbolises the commitment of groups and individuals to promoting peace in the home, at work, in schools, in the workplace and in communities.

The campaign makes innovative use of new technology to spread the message, and make resources and information available to a wide range of people. The campaign website, hosted by WomensNet, is used to provide information about the campaign and its activities. The website includes a national calendar of events, a section for media, and links to helping institutions.

During last year's campaign, the 'Cyber Dialogues' were developed to bring people together to discuss the campaign and share strategies. The discussion takes place in cyber space in chat-room format, with discussion in real time via various access points around the country. This year the Cyber Dialogues are hosted at Gender Links, an NGO. The Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) is contributing by making the Multi-purpose Community Centres around the country available as communication nodes.

Events related to the campaign will be taking place around the country, hosted by government departments, faith-based organisations, business and non-governmental organisations. They highlight the various aspects of violence against women and children and emphasise the importance of prevention. The events provide an opportunity for communities and individuals to become involved in the campaign.

The postcard pledge campaign provides an interactive element of the 16 Days of Activism Campaign. Individuals can sign the postcard and mail it by free-mail to a central collection site where it will be used to build a Wall of Solidarity.

Every year the campaign generates funds though publicity. The Foundation for Human Rights then disseminates the funds raised to organisations working in the field. This year the campaign will make use of an SMS campaign to raise funds for NGOs and CBOs. Anyone wishing to donate can SMS the words '16 Days ' to 31616, at a cost of R5 a message.

More Information:

• 16 Days of Activism website

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