Committed to build a new nation!

On 29 May 2006, one of our newspapers carried on its front page an article on the future of the ANC under the dramatic headline, 'Rudderless ANC at sea over next step on Zuma'.

In this article, the newspaper sought to speculate on the outcome of a regular meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC held on 26-28 May 2006. It decided that it was better not to wait for the ANC to inform the nation about the decisions taken by our NEC.

Informed by its political agenda, it decreed that, necessarily in its view, the most important issue that would have confronted the NEC would be the future of our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma. It was in this context that the newspaper made the determination that the ANC is "rudderless" and "at sea".

The article in question also said: "The (ANC) succession battle has also raised the question: can the party survive intact over the next 18 months to the conference in December next year when Mbeki's successor is due to be elected. The party needs to reassert its authority urgently to avoid being torn to shreds."

As confirmed by the 1 March 2006 local government elections, the ANC remains, by far, the most trusted political representative of the overwhelming majority of the people of South Africa. This means that, only three months ago, this majority reasserted its confidence that the ANC will continue to sustain and improve its capacity effectively to respond to the aspirations of the people, within the context of available resources.

These masses will therefore be deeply concerned to discover that so soon after they made their view very clear in free and fair democratic elections, and contrary to what they know, their trusted political representative, the ANC, is "rudderless", "at sea", may over the next 18 months not "survive intact", and may be "torn to shreds".

Logically, all this will confront these masses with the challenge to decide whether to continue to rely on their knowledge, experience and instincts about the state of health of the ANC, or believe the doomsday scenarios according to which their movement might be "torn to shreds".

I have no doubt whatsoever about what the masses of our people would and will decide in this regard. Even if they are not fully knowledgeable about our history of 94 years, during which, at various times, our successive opponents predicted that the ANC would be "torn to shreds", they would know, even instinctively, that such predictions about the ANC are nothing more than an expression of the desires of their authors.

They will know that the assertions made about the ANC being "rudderless" and "at sea", threatened with the possibility not to "survive intact", are nothing more than a manifestation of the phenomenon of wishes being father to the thought, signifying an intention to transform such wishes into reality!

As reflected in the newspaper article to which we have referred, there are some in our country who seem to have come to fundamentally wrong conclusions about what constitutes the most important challenges facing our movement.

These people have convinced themselves that these challenges centre on such issues as the political future of our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, and the seemingly related matters of who, in future, will constitute the leadership of the ANC and the Government of the Republic.

Accordingly, these punters and speculators about the futures of particular political personalities in our movement, including the ANC President and Deputy President, seem to have concluded that their views, asserting the centrality of this matter, also constitute the principal preoccupations of our movement.

On the same day that the newspaper in question invented a "rudderless" ANC, our Secretary General, Kgalema Motlanthe, issued the Statement of the May ANC NEC meeting, about which this newspaper had decided to initiate a negative and pre-emptive speculative process.

This important ANC NEC Statement closes with the long-standing and supremely confident slogan of our movement - The ANC lives! The ANC leads!

By this means, our movement, which is more than 90 years old, affirms, without qualification, that it is not a paper tiger! It is not a colossus with feet of clay!

Within this context, the ANC NEC Statement makes the firm assertion that there is no danger that our movement is about to be "torn to shreds". It communicates the unequivocal message that our movement is neither "rudderless" nor "at sea" about anything of importance to the further advance of the national democratic revolution, and the achievement of the goal of a better life for all.

Correctly, the ANC NEC Statement says: "The challenges of the moment require unflinching commitment on the part of every member of the movement to building and strengthening the ANC as a people's movement at the forefront of the struggle for a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa.

"The challenges of the moment dare not distract us from our historic mission and responsibility to unite the people of South Africa in this struggle. (These) dare not distract us from implementing the mandate given to us in successive elections to build a better life for all."

The ANC NEC Statement also refers to the decisions taken at the November 2005 meeting of the ANC NEC. In part, these decisions were informed by a Joint Report presented to this NEC meeting by the President and Deputy President of the ANC, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma respectively.

In turn, these decisions built on conclusions arrived at during the September 2005 meeting of the ANC NEC. Again, I, as ANC President, and Deputy President Jacob Zuma, had presented a Joint Report to this meeting.

Among other things, our September 2005 Joint Statement as President and Deputy President of the ANC said:

"We do appreciate the genuine sense of solidarity among cadres within the movement with the Deputy President. However, we need to be vigilant against unhealthy forces (which) seek to attach themselves to this campaign. Some of these forces would be driven by opportunism, others by a counter-revolutionary agenda to weaken the ANC and undermine transformation, and yet others by attempts to hide behind the campaign to pursue illegal and corrupt activities.

"We wish to assert that there is one ANC, and therefore reject the notion that individuals should be required to choose sides, on the basis of the absolutely false assertion that we lead two contending factions within the movement...We therefore urge, in the strongest terms possible, that no one should use the name of the President or the Deputy President to mobilise for or against either, and for or against any other leader of the movement."

In the Joint Statement of the ANC President and Deputy President tabled at the November 2005 meeting of the ANC NEC, we said:

"Fundamentally false assertions have repeatedly been made that the Deputy President is engaged in a campaign to mobilise support to enable him to be elected President of the ANC in 2007 and President of the Republic in 2009. The Deputy President has never campaigned for these or any other positions.

"Throughout the decades he has been engaged in struggle as a cadre of our movement, he has proceeded from the position that he would loyally serve our movement, our revolution and people in any sector and position decided by the movement. We take this opportunity to reaffirm this principled position and practice, which must continue to inform the outlook of all genuine members of our movement."

As we have seen in the recent past, despite our voluntary, explicit, unequivocal and published observations, as contained in our Joint Statements to the ANC NEC, there are some in our country who find it in their fundamental interest to propagate the false message that the current, and very strange, public controversy that relates to our movement centres on a supposed life and death conflict between the President and the Deputy President of the ANC!

These go on to claim that this is the single most important and decisive issue that will determine the medium-term future both of the ANC and democratic South Africa. In this regard, the newspaper to which we have referred goes so far as to claim that, during the next 18 months, the ANC may not "survive intact", and may be "torn to shreds", because of 'the Zuma affair'.

In this context, among other things, the May 2006 ANC NEC meeting also said, "The NEC once again rejects as without foundation perceived notions of a division among the senior leaders of the organisation."

Without doubt, actual reality over the next 18 months, rather than the wishes of some forces in our country and elsewhere in the world, will prove that the speculative prediction that the ANC may not "survive intact", is nothing more than an expression of the vain wishes of its inventors.

Principled and decisive action by members of the ANC, the broad democratic movement and the masses of our people will, once again, confirm the determination of our people to defend the integrity and unity of their historic movement, the ANC, confident that it remains the true repository and defender of their interests.

Above, I have cited joint comments that I, as President of the ANC, made with our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, towards the end of 2005. We made these statements together, fully conscious of our shared commitment to respect and sustain the noble traditions that have characterised the ANC for more than nine decades.

Together with our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, I take advantage of this Letter to reaffirm that:

• above everything else, we, and our movement, the ANC, remain firmly committed to the objective to build a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa;
• we, together with other leaders and members of the ANC, will continue honestly to honour the commitments which our movement has made to the masses of our people, as a result of which it obtained their overwhelming mandate to govern, encompassing all spheres of government;
• as loyal cadres of the ANC, of long-standing, we will continue to subject ourselves to the discipline, Constitution and traditions of the ANC, ready to carry out any responsibilities delegated to us by our movement;
• accordingly, we oppose and reject all initiatives, regardless of their origin, that, in any way, suggest that either one of us is involved or interested in self-promotion campaigns intended to guarantee us any position of leadership both in the ANC and in Government;
• we declare that we will oppose all attempts to drive a wedge between us, and among other leaders of the ANC, which we know would only serve to weaken and defeat the eminent people's movement we are privileged to lead, by virtue of our unanimous election to our positions at the 51st ANC National Conference;
• we will honour our responsibilities, as defined in the ANC Constitution, and embedded in our history, to fight for the principled unity of our movement, as defined by our agreed policy positions, our traditions and conventions, and the value system that has defined our movement for many decades;
• we will persist in our efforts further to entrench the practices of collective leadership, of open democratic debate and decision making within the ANC and the rest of the democratic movement, and respect for all decisions of our movement that emanate from democratic and rules-based processes conducted within the constitutional structures of the ANC;
• we will continue to act in a manner that truly respects the principle and practice of the accountability of the ANC to the masses of our people, our nation as a whole, the African continental masses, and the world progressive movement; and,
• we will spare no effort to ensure that the ANC continues to live and to lead, creating the possibility for all our people, and our friends in Africa and the rest of the world, meaningfully to celebrate the historic Centenary of the ANC, a short six years from now, in 2012.

The 29 May 2006 ANC NEC Statement also said:

"The NEC is guided by the need to maintain the unity and cohesion of the African National Congress and its leadership collectives. This matter is of paramount importance, as it lies at the heart of the ANC's ability to provide leadership to the process of fundamental social transformation.

"The NEC is guided also by its understanding of the role and responsibilities of leadership within the ANC and the broader democratic movement. This includes its responsibility to provide direction on the critical political issues of the moment, to be exemplary in its conduct and statements, to observe and uphold the organisational discipline of the ANC, and to safeguard the values and principles of the liberation movement.

"In exercising this leadership, the NEC agrees on the need to clarify and reiterate key policy positions of the ANC on some of the matters that have arisen in the public arena as a consequence of the coverage of the (rape) trial (of the ANC Deputy President). The NEC further agrees on the need for the ANC to intensify its efforts to build a new nation founded on democratic principles and progressive values."

These decisions of the ANC NEC mean that all members of our movement, regardless of rank and position, have an obligation to:

• strive to maintain and reinforce the unity and cohesion of the African National Congress and its leadership collectives;
• help ensure that the ANC provides leadership to the national process of fundamental social transformation;
• empower the elected ANC leadership to discharge its responsibilities of leadership within the ANC and the broader democratic movement;
• ensure that the ANC, from the branches upwards, behaves in an exemplary manner in its conduct and statements;
• observe and uphold the organisational discipline of the ANC;
• safeguard the values and principles of our liberation movement; and,
• work such that, at all times, the ANC has the ability, and actually continuously intensifies its efforts to build a new nation founded on democratic principles and progressive values.

All the foregoing constitutes the Order of the Day for all genuine members of the ANC, the Progressive Alliance, and the rest of the democratic movement. We must and will mobilise the masses of our people, black and white, and all social strata, to convince them to affirm, in action, that they uphold the vision of our continuing democratic revolution, which the ANC has outlined through its constitutional structures.

At the same time, we reaffirm our commitment vigorously to promote the right of the masses of our people to determine their destiny, by further entrenching the practice of participatory democracy, as regulated by the outstanding progressive national constitutional and statutory framework that democratic South Africa has put in place.

The people themselves must, and will, make the loud and clear statement that what will decide the question whether anyone in our movement, government and society is a genuine actor for progressive change or not, is whether, in their national, provincial or localised actions, their deeds honestly convey the message, that rather than personal or partisan interests - they truly serve the people of South Africa and Africa!

Youth Month

A fitting tribute to the fighting youth of 1976

In 1944, the youth of the ANC resolved that: "The formation of the African National Congress Youth League is an answer and assurance to the critics of the national movement that African Youth will not allow the struggles and sacrifices of their fathers to have been in vain. Our fathers fought so that we, better equipped when our time came, should start and continue from where they stopped."

More than six decades later, the statement remains just as relevant to the youth of today as we mark the 30th anniversary of the 1976 uprisings throughout youth month, which began this week. During this month the youth of our country and the entire progressive world will be saluting and celebrating the lives of those unselfish young women and men who took the apartheid bull by its horns.

As commonly accepted, the South African Students Movement, inspired by the sacrifices of leaders like Walter Sisulu, Anton Lembede, Mxolisi Majombozi, Oliver Tambo and many others, took the youth activism to greater heights.

Following that fateful day, as a result of the actions of an oppressive regime, the youth of our country swelled the ranks of the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), to speed up the process of bringing apartheid to its knees.

When these masses of impatient yet disciplined young people joined MK, the face of the people's revolutionary army changed forever. The armed struggle intensified, with many young people prominent among its heroes. Many of those who gave their lives in this fight, like Solomon Mahlangu, were young people.

With the unbanning of the liberation movement, the youth of our country were presented with a new task - that of walking long distances to educate people about elections. Credit is always given to the youth, especially in the ANC, for ensuring that the masses of our people could go out in their millions to cast their ballots for the first time in the history of this country.

As we celebrate the youth struggles of the past, we are facing an even more brutal monster in the form of poverty. Correctly, the entire country expects the youth to play a leading role in mobilising the people to overcome poverty. This is because young people are the primary beneficiaries of changes taking place in our country. The ANC's Strategy and Tactics document describes youth as an important sector of the motive forces for change, which bears an important responsibility for implementing the programme of national transformation.

In recent years, our young people have been labelled as being less revolutionary than their predecessors. Some of those propogating this unfounded myth have even claimed that the youth of the ANC in particular are too passive or unwilling to challenge the positions of the mother body. They fail to understand that youth activism does not necessarily mean that the role of the youth today is to throw missiles at the government or ANC. Youth activism, by contrast, involves disciplined and critical engagement with all sectors of society, from politics to education, arts and culture, science and sport, among others.

It is not necessarily wrong, however, for society to continue interrogating young people's level of participation in the society. As a dynamic sector of society, youth are expected not only to safeguard our democratic gains but further serve to champion the way forward.

For the youth to ensure they achieve their twin task of mobilising young people behind the programme of transformation and championing the interests of young people requires that they demonstrate the highest level of discipline and love for their people.

This same principle of discipline and love for their people is what guided the youth of 1976 as they took to the streets of Orlando to pledge solidarity with the Standard Seven class of Orlando East Secondary School. Quite clearly, youth will not succeed if they do not adhere to this principle.

Like the youth of 1976, who helped rejuvenate the liberation movement of the late 1970s and usher in an age of hope, the youth of today have a responsibility to inspire our people to be active agents in the programme of poverty eradication.

The ANC National Executive Committee, in its January 8th 2006 Statement, declared the focus of this part of the year to be "youth mobilisation for transformation, in which ANC branches lead a sustained programme to mobilise youth in support of local development and transformation".

It further said: "During this period, an assessment should be undertaken to determine the extent to which issues affecting youth have successfully been integrated into the work of government".

Accordingly, the ANC in parliament has been working to assess the work done by the National Youth Commission and Umsobomvu Youth Fund. To further demonstrate its commitment to youth development, the ANC-led government has established the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) which seeks to ensure that our youth are skilled properly to respond to the needs of a growing economy.

These developments, among the many others of our first 12 years of democracy, would not have been possible had the youth never risked their lives in standing up to injustice and oppression.

The occasion of the 30th anniversary of the 1976 student uprising presents us with an opportunity to evaluate the tasks, achievements and role of the youth today. We have to honestly ask if indeed the youth is making a necessary contribution to change. This should not be a reflection for its own sake but should lead to a comprehensive programme of action that reflects a broader agenda for the transformation of society.

The most appropriate way of honouring the sacrifices of the youth of 1976 is to ensure that the youth of South Africa remain committed to their revolutionary role of leading the fight against poverty and for the fundamental transformation of society.

Child Protection Week

Caring communities protect children

Child Protection Week, which began on 29 May, gives us an opportunity to reflect on our achievements as a nation. Such reflection will also afford us an opportunity to recommit ourselves to working even harder to protect and develop our children, as government, communities and all stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations and the religious sector.

In 1994, South Africa ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In so doing, the country committed itself to implement the principle of putting children first. We also have the Constitution, legislation, policies, the African Charter as well as UN Conventions to guide us in meeting this important development objective.

Since 1994, government has introduced a host of policies and programmes to protect children from vulnerability. As a result of these, more than seven million children now receive the child support grant, while more than 330,000 children receive foster care grants. We will accelerate delivery in all areas aimed at child protection, as directed by significant pieces of legislation such as the Children and Sexual Offences Bills.

In the past, one of the key challenges had been government's limited knowledge of which children have been abused or neglected by which caregiver or community member. Through the Child Protection Register we anticipate that we will have all this information at our finger tips. This will ensure that policy makers and implementers are enabled to ensure improved service standards, financial planning and human resources allocations. Our ultimate aim is to close gaps in service delivery. To effectively do so, families and communities must take responsibility. In recognition of this fact we have selected "Caring Communities Protect Children", as the theme for this year's Child Protection Week. We therefore encourage increased usage of the register to report incidents of abuse.

To facilitate for the taking up of such responsibilities by communities, an army of community and social workers will be required. Thus we have finalised the Retention Strategy for Social Workers and will soon finalise a similar one for all social service professionals. These steps are aimed at improving the material and working conditions for our social workers and social service professionals. We will also in the coming years begin to encourage young graduates and matriculants to take up opportunities in this field.

Early childhood development

We will also ensure, as we have already done with the Umsobomvu Fund, that our contribution to the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative (ASGISA) and the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) benefits unemployed young people.

Through the EPWP we have already identified such opportunities in the early childhood development and home and community based care sectors. We will ensure that the numbers of early childhood development (ECD) professionals are increased. These efforts will be complemented by the increase of government-subsidised ECD facilities. The ECD programme ensures that children are better prepared for formal schooling, and builds their confidence and self-esteem.

Over the past few years we have witnessed an increase in the numbers of vulnerable children. The ultimate result, in some instances, has been the phenomenon of child-headed households.

Since we, as a continent, have intertwined destinies, we must develop collective actions to impact positively on our own regional and global development. It is with this in mind that South Africa, in July this year, will host a SADC conference on orphans and vulnerable children.

The conference will provide a discussion forum and facilitate for action to substantially improve the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children in our region. This phenomenon cannot be addressed unless each and every one of us commits to caring for at least one vulnerable child, within or outside our families. Since April last year, we have registered 2,256 domestic adoptions and 251 inter-country adoptions. We trust that many more will come forward to take the opportunity to give needy children a solid foundation in life.

Our country continues to experience increased levels of substance abuse and child criminality. A worrying trend is that first time substance and drug users are now between the ages of nine and ten. Even more worrying are that criminal offenders are also getting younger.

These signal that we ought to take radical steps which must return us back to the basics and ethos of our African culture. We must, on one hand, take collective responsibility for raising children and, on the other hand, strengthen our legislative environment. It is with the latter in mind that we will present the first draft of the legislation in substance abuse prevention and treatment. The new legislation will promote greater community involvement and community- based services, while placing greater emphasis on preventative services. It will also be more sensitive towards the needs of children who are often the victims of unscrupulous drug dealers and pushers.

We will also strengthen our diversion programmes which ensure that, instead of processing children through the normal justice system, they are placed under specialised diversion programmes. In the last year, approximately 30,000 children have been diverted from the criminal justice system, through agreements with the National Prosecuting Authority, provincial departments of social development and NGOs.

In marking Child Protection Week this year, we should recommit ourselves to the undertaking made by former President Nelson Mandela on the occasion of our first celebration of International Children's Day on 1 June 1994: "I wish to take this opportunity to reiterate the commitment of the South African government to a comprehensive programme to ensure that children of our country grow up secure in family life, enjoying all the rights and privileges they deserve. On this day, we also extend our solidarity with children throughout the world whose lives are ravaged by the scourges of hunger, war and ignorance. We commit ourselves to contribute, to the best of our ability, to the international efforts aimed at resolving these problems."

** Zola Skweyiya is a member of the ANC National Executive Committee and Minister of Social Development. This is an edited version of an address at the launch of Child Protection Week in Alexandra, Johannesburg, 29 May 2006.

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