ANC Today --------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 5, No. 33, 19-25 August 2005 --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK: * Letter from the President: SADC means Batho Pele! * Language: Promotion of indigenous languages requires collective effort --------------------------------------------------------------------- LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT SADC means Batho Pele! The Southern African Development Community (SADC) held its annual Summit Meeting in Gaborone, Botswana on the 17-18 August 2005. The Community used this occasion to celebrate its Silver Jubilee 25th Anniversary, having been established on 1 April 1980, just over two weeks before the independence of Zimbabwe. The Community started with nine founding Member States, including Zimbabwe. When it began its latest Summit Meeting in Gaborone, it was made up of 13 Member States. By the time the Meeting concluded, Community membership had grown to 14. This was because it had accepted Madagascar's application to join SADC. When he addressed the closing session of the Meeting, the current Chairperson of SADC, Botswana President Festus Mogae, said that Madagascar's membership meant that the SADC population now amounts to 260 million. The peoples of the SADC Member States have long shared the dream of the rest of the African masses throughout our continent, that to realise their most fundamental hopes, they must ensure that Africa unites. They have also accepted that Africa needs to build the necessary regional building blocks that would serve as the stepping stones that would be used to achieve the unity of our continent. SADC is such a regional building block, as are other Regional Economic Communities (RECs), including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with 15 Member States, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), with 19 Member States. (NB: some of the latter are also members of SADC). Together with the rest of Africa, our region has also understood that it pursues its objectives of the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment, within the context of the process of globalisation. This process has resulted in the formation of regional groups such as the EU, NAFTA, ASEAN, MERCOSUR and APEC. All these regional organisations work to unite neighbouring countries, the better to be able to pool their resources and otherwise combine to constitute viable economic entities. This is based on the recognition that the contemporary global situation makes it impossible for any country to be an island sufficient unto itself. Even a country as large as China, with a population of well over a billion, decided to join the World Trade Organisation, understanding that it would not thrive and meet its needs by separating itself from the rest of the world, content to consider itself an island sufficient unto itself. This emphasises the critical importance for the countries of Southern Africa to cooperate in a meaningful manner, recognising that none of us, including our country, can achieve sustained development outside the context of regional and African cooperation and integration. In any case, the SADC Member States face the same problems concerning the reality and impact of poverty and underdevelopment in our individual countries. Our countries are also bound to one another by many ties. This means that the objective situation in our region dictates that we have no choice but to cooperate to solve our common problems. Our region responded magnificently to this challenge when it faced the task to achieve its liberation from colonialism and apartheid. Among other things, it established the voluntary network described as the Frontline States, which came together with Nigeria to support and promote the total liberation of our region and Africa. When he delivered his farewell speech at the Gaborone Jubilee Summit Meeting, President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania recalled the days of struggle against apartheid. He said: "At the G8 Summit in Gleneagles last month, I told the rich industrialised countries that during the liberation struggle in Southern Africa it had never occurred to me in my public service at that time that apartheid could be history in my lifetime. But when the then OAU, the Frontline States and the then G7 formed a united front with the struggling people of South Africa, apartheid was swept away...The time is opportune...(to) make poverty history in our lifetime... "Together (as Southern Africa) we shared, together we endured and together we brought to triumph the liberation struggle. The spirit of the Frontline States should invigorate us into action - action that would see SADC emerge as the most purposeful, most powerful and most regional economic grouping in our lifetime... "If there is any regional economic grouping with the sine qua non and all the ingredients for rapid take-off, it is SADC. No other such region has the provenance and pedigree that we have in SADC...The solidarity (in Southern Africa), forged in the heat of struggle can, today, if properly harnessed, help us forge regional integration at a greater pace...Let the SADC Summit be the fire around which people in this region sit - in unity, solidarity and enthusiasm - to chart a path of survival and prosperity through the jungle of a globalising world." President Mkapa's remarks, made at the SADC Summit Meeting, assume an especial relevance within the context of the protracted controversies that have engulfed Zimbabwe over the last few years, particularly given the potential strength of the Zimbabwe economy. Zimbabwe is a vital and integral part of our region. A stable and prosperous Zimbabwe is critical to the integration of the SADC region and the take-off that President Mkapa spoke about. It can and must play a central role in the struggle to achieve the goals spelt out in the SADC Treaty. The "spirit of the Frontline States" to which President Mkapa referred means that as members of SADC we must be ready and willing to work closely together, understanding that we share a common destiny. It means that all of us must understand that what we do in any one of our countries has an impact on the rest. It means that as countries, we will sink or swim together. The Summit Meeting recognised the challenges the Community faces in this regard. In this context, it considered a "Report on the Status of and Prospects for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in SADC". Already submitted to the African Union, this Report will also be submitted to the UN General Assembly, which will assess the progress made in the last five years towards achieving the MDGs, which were adopted at the UN Millennium Summit Meeting in 2000. The SADC Report says: "The prospects of the SADC region achieving the MDGs as planned in the Millennium Declaration are faced with daunting challenges including high levels of poverty, endemic food insecurity, environmental degradation, and institutional and resource constraints. These factors are compounded by an unfavourable external economic environment that has resulted in unsustainable external debt, declining terms of trade and inaccessible markets in developed countries. While still possible, meeting the MDGs for most countries in the SADC region requires a number of significant and accelerated reforms both at national and international levels." Among other things, what this means is that the SADC region will have to do a lot more to meet the goals set in the 2000 UN Millennium Declaration. These include poverty reduction, improvements in the health of the people, access to education, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. Correctly, President Mkapa said the SADC region has "all the ingredients for rapid take-off". Our region is home to one of the largest global depositories of natural resources, including fossil fuels. It has fertile and extensive agricultural land, as well as water resources. It has access to both the Indian and Atlantic Oceans and their resources. It has substantial numbers of skilled and professional personnel. Millions of its citizens are trained in the tradition of modern industrial, agricultural, mining and service industry work organisation. It has a strong business sector. It has a similarly extensive system of democratic governments. It is positioned to serve as a centre point, a hub, linking South America, Sub- Saharan Africa and South Asia, while it continues to provide the old Cape sea route that links Africa and Asia to Europe. SADC provides our region with the institution to coordinate and drive regional development. Through SADC, the region has adopted a Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan, and a Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation. It works closely with the NEPAD structures. It has the possibility to draw on the experience of the Frontline States to which President Mkapa referred. The fundamental perspective that sustains and drives the member states of SADC is that they have a better possibility to realise the MDGs and other development objectives if they act together as members of one Regional Economic Community. They are therefore critically interested that SADC should achieve its objective of the integration and balanced development of our region. This is what the agenda of the SADC Gaborone Jubilee Summit Meeting sought to address. The SADC Treaty prescribes that, among other things, the Community should strive to: * achieve development and economic growth, alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the peoples of Southern Africa and support the socially disadvantaged through regional integration; * evolve common political values, systems and institutions; * promote and defend peace and security; * promote self-sustaining development on the basis of collective self-reliance, and the inter-dependence of Member States; * harmonise political and socio-economic policies and plans of Member States; * mobilise the peoples of the region and their institutions to take initiatives to develop economic, social and cultural ties across the region; and, * develop policies aimed at theprogressive elimination of obstacles to free movement of capital and labour,goods and services, and of the peoples of the region generally within Member States. Consistent with these Treaty objectives, the Jubilee Summit Meeting of SADC discussed a whole range of issues that have to do with the political, economic and social integration of the region of Southern Africa, focused on the objective rapidly to improve the quality of life of the 260 million citizens of SADC. It confirmed that three years hence, in 2008, we must transform our region into a Free Trade Area of 260 million or more people. Necessarily, this will also entail freer movement of capital in the region. Inevitably, this will increase the imperative to address the challenge of the movement of people within the SADC region. To respond to this, the Jubilee Summit Meeting approved the Protocol on the Facilitation of Movement of Persons in SADC. In addition, it appointed the Tribunal that would adjudicate disputes that might arise out of the implementation of the Treaty obligations binding all Member States, concerning the all-round integration of the region. The Meeting adopted new decisions that will enable the Community soon to complete the process of setting up its Peace Making and Peace Keeping Institutions, including the military-civilian Standby Force, the Early Warning and Peace Training Centres. It approved the establishment of a SADC Electoral Advisory Council, which would work to ensure the compliance of all Member States with the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. In this context, it endorsed the decision of the African Union that all Member States should achieve gender parity in decision making bodies in the public sector. This served to repeal the existing SADC decision which prescribed a 30 percent quota for women. The Jubilee Summit Meeting also reconstituted the most senior echelon of the SADC management with the appointment of a new Executive Secretary and a new Deputy Executive Secretary. These are, respectively, Drs Tomás Augusto Salomão and João Samuel Caholo from Moçambique and Angola. The Jubilee Summit Meeting also elected Botswana President Festus Mogae as the Chair of SADC, with Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili as his deputy. It elected Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba as the Chair of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, with Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa as his deputy. The latter will be replaced later this year by whoever will be elected as the new President of Tanzania. We are certain that the political and executive leadership elected at the SADC Jubilee Summit Meeting in Gaborone will help us to speed up the progressive transformation of our region, understanding that in everything our region will do, we will ensure that the people come first! When he opened the Jubilee Summit Meeting, President Festus Mogae said the leaders of our region gathered in Gaborone should respect the principle and practice of Batho Pele - People First! To achieve this objective, President Benjamin Mkapa said that SADC, inspired by the example of the Frontline States, must chart for our region a path of survival and prosperity through the jungle of a globalising world. His concluding words were: "It is possible! It is desirable! It is doable! Let us go and do it!" Thabo Mbeki --------------------------------------------------------------------- LANGUAGE Promotion of indigenous languages requires collective effort In celebrating 130 years of the development of Afrikaans, South Africans should join forces in the struggle to ensure the promotion and advancement of all the country's indigenous languages. This should include Afrikaans and African languages that suffered neglect and diminished official status under colonialism and apartheid, including the Khoi, Nama and San languages. The occasion of the anniversary of the formation of the 'Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaners' on 14 August 1875 - which aimed to elevate the status of Afrikaans to a written language and a medium of literature - presents an opportunity for the country to reflect on its linguistic heritage and to reaffirm its common commitment to the equal protection and development of all its languages. In a statement earlier this week, in which it saluted the achievements made in the development of Afrikaans as a home-grown African language, the ANC said the evolution of Afrikaans into a fully-fledged scientific language, "serves as an inspiration for the development of South Africa's other indigenous languages, including as languages used in the expression of scientific and other knowledge". The development of Afrikaans in the areas of commerce, governance and science should serve as encouragement for the broader usage and application of the country's other indigenous languages. This will, however, require a more concerted effort among all sectors of society to implement the vision of the Freedom Charter that all people shall have equal right to use their own languages. The country's constitution goes further to place a specific responsibility on the government to address historical imbalances with respect to the country's languages: "Recognising the historically diminished use and status of the indigenous languages of our people, the state must take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of these languages." This is a task and responsibility that all South Africans should embrace. Addressing the ANC National General Council (NGC), held at the University of Pretoria in July, President Thabo Mbeki said the issue of language is an important part of the national question: "It therefore also relates directly to the challenge fundamental to our perspective as a movement, the challenge of the creation of a non-racial society." "We have to engage the language question more vigorously and systematically as an important part of the profound process of social transformation which our movement leads," he said. The ANC's Strategy and Tactics document, which describes the organisation's objectives and methods of struggle, says one of the central features of liberation is to ensure equality among the racial, ethnic, language, cultural and religious communities; and equality between women and men. "Critical to nation-building is the de-racialisation of South African society and the elimination of patriarchal relations. It means creating a society in which the station that individuals occupy in political, social and other areas of endeavour is not defined on the basis of race, ethnicity, language, gender, religious, cultural or other such considerations," it says. Building such a society therefore demands attention be paid to addressing all the areas in which South Africans have historically been divided, and which continue to define some of the main lines of division within society. It demands a recognition that race, ethnicity, language, gender, religion and culture have all been used to disadvantage some South Africans and to advantage others. Nation-building therefore requires steps to redress the inequality that exists with respect to race, gender, language, etc. It is for this reason that the country's constitution, the founding document of a new nation, does more than simply stipulate the country's official languages. It also places a responsibility on the democratic state to take measures to rectify the imbalances with respect to the development, usage, status and promotion of these languages. Speaking at a Business Unity SA meeting this week, South Africa's Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, raised concerns about the number of South African children unable to speak in their mother tongue: "We are beginning to see South African children who live in South Africa who can't speak an African language. I think that is a tragedy." "We need to find a way of moving away from the notion that it is only when you speak English that you know what you're talking about," she said. These observations underline the challenges the country faces in affirming, promoting and developing African languages in a post-apartheid society. They highlight the reality that South Africa is still some distance from the objective of a society in which the language a person speaks (or doesn't speak) has no bearing on "the station that individuals occupy in political, social and other areas of endeavour". In the midst of the challenge of promoting those African languages that have historically been neglected are expressions of concern from some quarters about the status of Afrikaans - a language that, like English, has historically been privileged. In his NGC address, President Mbeki said: "It is clear that there is serious concern among certainly some sections of the Afrikaner population that the democratic order is acting in a manner that results in the marginalisation or diminution of the Afrikaans language." While the ANC may contest this assertion, he said the organisation would nevertheless have to recognise the fact that it is a matter of concern to some of our people, and must therefore be addressed in the context of the challenge facing all South Africa's languages. On Thursday this week, a group of students at the University of Pretoria -the venue of the ANC NGC - protested at what they alleged was the sidelining of Afrikaans at the institution in favour of English. According to reports, the students demanded an immediate halt to classes being "Anglicised", and that students insisting on Afrikaans classes be accommodated. This protest highlights the complexity of the challenge facing the country in addressing the issue of language. All South Africans should be able to receive instruction in the language of their choice. At the same time, institutions of learning need to accommodate students from communities who were excluded from these institutions under apartheid. Yet in doing away with apartheid restrictions, institutions need to ensure that language doesn 't become a new barrier to access for prospective students from these communities, thereby further entrenching inequality in access to education. The status and usage of Afrikaans has been raised at other educational institutions, including at some of the country's schools. As President Mbeki noted at the NGC, this is a matter that needs to be addressed in the context of the challenges facing all South Africa's languages. It cannot be addressed outside of the struggle to promote and advance all indigenous languages, just as it cannot be addressed outside of the struggle to transform South Africa into a non-racial, non-sexist society. The struggle to protect and promote Afrikaans cannot be separated from the struggle to develop and advance South Africa's other indigenous languages. Nor can the struggle to protect and promote Afrikaans serve as the basis for the continuing exclusion of the majority of South Africans from access to educational and other opportunities. In the statement released earlier this week, the ANC reaffirmed its commitment to the protection and promotion of Afrikaans "as it remains committed to the affirmation and promotion of all South Africa's languages, particularly its other indigenous languages". "Through the implementation of its policies and programmes, the ANC will continue to ensure that the rights of all South African languages are respected and that their equal promotion is encouraged and properly resourced." --------------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of ANC Today is available from the ANC web site at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2005/at33.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