An urgent task of the ANC

The forthcoming National Conference of the ANC and the attendant so-called leadership succession battle, have produced a very interesting and very perverse outcome. This outcome is of central importance with regard to the very character of our movement.

The perverse outcome to which I refer consists in the interpretation of any reassertion of the most fundamental values, policies and programmes of the ANC as amounting to an attempt to thwart the presidential ambitions of our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma. Let me list some of the specific instances to which I refer.

Some time ago, I said that ANC policy on the emancipation of women and gender equality means that our movement would have absolutely no problem in electing a woman as President of the ANC. Some promptly denounced this as an attempt to deny Jacob Zuma the possibility to serve as President of the ANC!

More recently, the Chairperson of the ANC, Mosiuoa 'Terror' Lekota, denounced the use of tribalism by anybody within our movement to advance any objective whatsoever. Again this was condemned as yet another attempt to thwart the presidential hopes of Jacob Zuma!

Mosiuoa Lekota then said that our liberation songs have always served as a critical component part within our strategy to mobilise the masses of our people to act as their own liberators. Accordingly, our repertoire of liberation songs has always changed with our changing conditions and tasks.

He therefore argued that there are songs that were relevant to the stage of the armed struggle, but which are counter-productive in the context of the current phase of the National Democratic Revolution. Once again, this was denounced as an attack on Jacob Zuma, with the intention to ensure that he does not become President of the ANC!

Address to caucus

Even more recently, I addressed the weekly Caucus Meeting of the national ANC MPs on 20 November to indicate one of their principal ANC tasks as an important echelon of the leadership of our movement.

Basing myself on a Statement made to the Caucus by 'EN', the daughter of an ANC MP who had passed away, I said that all of us, including our MPs, had to fight and defeat a cancer that was beginning to establish itself within the ranks of the ANC, with which our MPs are very familiar.

'EN' had spoken of an ANC branch she said had been taken over by criminal elements, who, according to her, had chased away all the genuine patriots who belonged to the branch, bought membership cards for people who did not even want to join the ANC, and sought to use the ANC for purposes other than addressing the interests of the masses of our people.

I said that all the Members of Caucus knew very well that the malaise of which 'EN' spoke did not refer only to the ANC branch from which her mother was driven out, but was affecting other ANC branches throughout the country. I said that the only way to respond to this was for all of us to conduct sustained political work among our membership to defend the policies, programmes and values of the ANC.

I suggested that the MPs should treat this as their principal task during the parliamentary recess, which would last up to the opening of parliament at the beginning of February 2008. In this context, I must make this point that all the ANC MPs know that on the eve of every long parliamentary recess, as President of the ANC I make an effort to address Caucus essentially to indicate the major tasks of the day.

As I explained at the meeting on 20 November, I requested the special meeting of the Caucus because I would not be able to attend its last meeting before the parliamentary recess on 22 November. This was because I would have left the country for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda, travelling via Harare.

At the meeting, I quoted what 'EN' had said at a Memorial Service organised by the Caucus the previous week, and insisted that we must act on what she had said. Once more, this has now been interpreted as an attack on Jacob Zuma, and an attempt to help ensure that he is not elected President of the ANC!

With regard to the latter, I would like to quote what one of our newspapers said. In its 25 November 2007 edition, "The Sunday Independent" said: "President Thabo Mbeki made an impassioned plea to ANC MPs this week not to allow the ruling party to be led by 'rapists', 'criminals' and 'counter-revolutionaries and mercenaries...

"He embarked on what some ANC MPs interpreted as a 'last-minute campaign' and a veiled attack on ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.

"'It became a campaign caucus. I think Mbeki is now panicking. In all the terms he could use why did he specifically talk about 'rapists' and 'criminals'? You can't call a special caucus to say those things,' said one ANC MP known to be a Zuma sympathiser...

"'Everybody was surprised as to what he was talking about but nobody said anything. We just sat there and listened to him as we usually do when he comes to caucus,' said (another MP), speaking on condition of anonymity."

The sad thing for our movement is that the anonymous "Zuma sympathiser" and "another MP" who spoke to "The Sunday Independent", both of whom serve in parliament as members of the ANC, obviously think that what 'EN' said, and what I said as a consequence, are of no meaning, since they constituted nothing more than 'a last-minute campaign against Jacob Zuma'.

Obviously, they will therefore do nothing to combat the dangerously corrosive tendency which all members of the ANC know very well, about which 'EN' spoke.

Testimony of a witness

To allow our members and readers to make their own judgement about the importance or otherwise of what 'EN' and I said, and the real worth of the informants of "The Sunday Independent", let me now quote what 'EN' said when she addressed the Memorial Meeting convened by the ANC National Caucus on 15 November. Among other things, she said:

"As you know, there are certain private things that are only shared within family (sic). The funeral (of my mother) also gave us an opportunity to peep into another world that she resided within with her comrades in all sorts of structures including SADTU, ANC and parliament...

"The announcement of (my mother's) deployment (to the National Assembly) was met with great disapproval by her former ANC branch leadership, which had managed to bring to its knees a branch which was once an icon of Tshwane, the first to launch...Women and Youth League structures in that region.

"With the help of the regional leadership, the said characters with publicly known questionable and scary credentials, including criminal records such as rape, armed robbery and murder were allowed to, amongst others, completely overhaul the character of the branch through the purchasing of membership for people not even interested in joining the organisation and also in the process literally chased away the founding members of the branch and its authentic leadership.

"To that end, the branch still remains alive only in name as members abandoned it in great numbers. Since then genuine branch programmes were subsequently replaced by clandestine activities such as smear campaigns and even, in one instance, using the name of the deceased eldest son, 'LN', without his approval, in an election campaign pamphlet to the effect that he was in support of - as an ANC candidate - one of the questionable characters above who was incidentally competing for the chair the former held as councillor since 2000.

"No effort was spared to bring this to the attention of the organisation's leadership, but to no avail. Some of the attempts included letters and e-mails to the Secretary General's Office, deputation (sic) to certain NEC members to forward the matter to the Secretary General's Office, and personally handing some of the text mentioned above by hand to the Secretary General's Office...

"We owe it to our deployees to operate in an environment wherein they are not under constant seize (sic) to a point where their health is even put under strain, which is what we suspect could have also being (sic) one aspect of mother's condition. The reality is that a member of the ANC is only as good as alive (sic). The departed do not build branches and create leadership. (My mother's former) ANC branch has lost such a builder and mentor. It is against this background that mother decided to relocate to Lebotloane to find a new political home where she could discharge her constituency work without harassment."

After quoting this excerpt, I insisted that the members of the ANC Caucus knew this as a matter of fact that the situation described by 'EN' was fairly prevalent in our movement. I said that this arose from the political victory of our movement in 1994 and our accession to state power.

Further, I said these developments had opened the way to mercenary elements to join our movement, as a stepping stone to state power and theft of resources meant to assist the poor to extricate themselves from the dehumanising circumstances of poverty.

Interestingly, it is all this that has led the informants of "The Sunday Independent" to conclude that what I said to our national Caucus has nothing to do with the rapists and criminals that EN spoke about, because to speak about rapists and criminals is to attack Jacob Zuma!

Some fundamental truths

With regard to all the foregoing, I would like to state a few fundamental truths that the ANC will and must uphold at all times, regardless of its political calendar, and regardless of the political circumstances within the movement, in our country and the world.

One of these is that the ANC is committed to the emancipation of women and gender equality. It has absolutely no problem with the proposition that a woman should serve as President of the ANC and/or President of our Republic. No genuine member of the ANC is or can be opposed to this.

Another is that from its foundation in 1912, the ANC has been opposed to tribalism, ever determined to "bury the demon of tribalism". No genuine member of the ANC is or can be opposed to this.

Yet another is that the ANC is and has always been opposed to populism. An important part of the reason it has survived for nearly 96 years is the fact that it has always remained loyal to principle, constantly refusing to resort to any action solely on the basis that it might, at any particular moment in our history, evoke popular acclaim. No genuine member of the ANC is or can be opposed to this.

Another is that our movement will strive constantly to combat and rid itself of opportunist elements who have wormed themselves into its ranks, seeking to use the ANC as a step-ladder to state power, with the intention to use this power for self-enrichment. No genuine member of the ANC is or can be opposed to this.

With regard to the latter, for some time already, our movement has recognised the fact that our political victory in 1994 also brought new challenges. In this regard, in his Report to our 2002 National Conference, our Secretary General, Kgalema Motlanthe, said:

"We have also reported to the NGC on the challenges being in power has on the structures of the movement. We found that the issues dividing leadership of some of our provinces are not of a political nature, but have mainly revolved around access to resources, positioning themselves or others to access resources, dispensing patronage and in the process using organisational structures to further these goals. This often lies at the heart of conflicts between constitutional and governance structures, especially at local level and is reflected in contestations around lists, deployment and internal elections process of the movement. These practices tarnish the image and effectiveness of the movement...

"The limited political consciousness has impacted negatively on our capacity to root out corrupt and divisive elements among ourselves. For the movement to renew itself as a revolutionary movement we have to develop specific political, organisational and administrative measures to deal with such destructive elements."

It was exactly this negative phenomenon that I spoke about when I addressed the ANC Caucus on 20 November. To ensure its integrity and maintain its respect among the masses of our people, our movement will and must continue to oppose those within its ranks who abuse their membership of the ANC to work to 'access resources, position themselves or others to access resources, dispense patronage and in the process use our organisational structures to further these goals', and thus "tarnish the image and effectiveness of the movement".

Perverse results

Earlier in this article I spoke of the perverse results produced by those who seem to be very keen to denounce any restatement of the most basic ANC positions as constituting an attack on our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma.

This manner of proceeding communicates the unfortunate message that in the context of his desire to become President of the ANC, Jacob Zuma is opposed to the emancipation of women; that he accepts the use of tribalism to achieve political ends; that he is not opposed to resort to unprincipled populism; and that he is ready to tolerate the opportunists in our ranks, presumably because he counts on the support of these elements.

In my Closing Address at the 2005 NGC I said: "I would appeal to all our members that while we await the outcome of (the judicial) processes (affecting our Deputy President), we must conduct ourselves in a dignified manner befitting members of the African National Congress and consistent with the traditions of a movement that our people not only respect but genuinely love and admire.

"We must take the greatest care not to act in any manner that would compromise the image of both the Deputy President and the ANC. It is indeed during difficult and painful periods such as the one we are going through that we face the greatest challenge to behave as genuine members of the ANC who would do everything to maintain its prestige, its unity and cohesion."

Whatever the circumstances inside and outside its ranks, at any particular moment, the ANC must defend its principles and values, without any hesitation or equivocation.

(NB: (i) I have used the initials 'EN' and 'LN' instead of the full names because I have not sought the permission of these two persons to mention their names. (ii) Subsequent to the appearance of media articles about the special 20 November Caucus meeting, the ANC National Assembly Chief Whip and the Chairperson of the ANC Caucus issued a statement about what actually happened at this meeting. This statement can be found on the ANC website.)

World AIDS Day

Together we can keep the promise to stop HIV and AIDS

On 1 December, the day after the publication of this edition of ANC Today, South Africa joins the rest of the global community in observing the World AIDS Day. As a people we will convene at different venues across the country, with the national event being in Limpopo, to reflect on the challenges posed by HIV and AIDS on our society. We will use the World AIDS Day to share the achievements and constraints in dealing with mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

We are going to ponder over the challenges faced by our youth as they resist various pressures in an effort to delay their sexual debut, and later, have to deal with complexities of exploring their sexuality in the midst of the risk of HIV infection.

As this is also a period of 16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women and Children, we will relate the pain of many women who remain at the receiving end of gender inequality and violence. Many of them have to make hard choices of either risking exposure to HIV infection or accepting the possibility of victimisation from their partners.

We will also seek to understand the struggles of many men to break with the patriarchal values of the society that raised them. These values turned some of them into both perpetrators and victims of many anti-social activities.

The theme for this year focuses on leadership. It calls upon all of us - as governments, global institutions, labour, business, people living with HIV and AIDS and civil society in general - to take the initiative to stop HIV and AIDS. It emphasises our collective duty to exercise leadership in all spheres of our lives to ensure that all sectors work together to stop the spread of HIV infection and reduce the impact of AIDS on our society.

In an effort to exercise leadership as we view it from the southern tip of the continent most affected by HIV and AIDS, our movement and government also has to contend with false allegations that it is in denial of the challenges for our society posed by HIV and AIDS; that it is indifferent to the plight of people living with HIV and AIDS; and that its efforts to curb the spread of HIV infection and reduce the impact of AIDS are either non-existent or inadequate.

To support this propaganda, false statements are made and reported worldwide about our efforts to meet at least three of the eight Millennium Development Goals:

• Reducing child mortality (Goal 4)
• Improving maternal health (Goal 5)
• Combating HIV and AIDS and other diseases (Goal 6)

A previous edition of ANC Today ( Vol 7 No 41, 19-25 October 2007) highlighted one such incident relating to the comments allegedly made by a senior representative of the United Nations Children's Fund that South Africa was neglecting children born with HIV and AIDS.

"This is unacceptable," Ann Veneman, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), reportedly told an international news agency, Reuters. "The child really has been in some ways forgotten." These wild allegations were not substantiated by any facts in the Reuters' article.

This week, a report presented by UNICEF itself at an international meeting held in Johannesburg to discuss Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) disproved the statement attributed to its senior official almost a month ago.

The meeting heard that South Africa was one of 17 countries that were on track to meeting the United Nations 2010 target in the provision of antiretroviral treatment for Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV. This was according to the 2007 Report Card of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on PMTCT and Paediatric HIV Care and Treatment in Low-and Middle Income countries.

The UNICEF report card also states that South Africa and Kenya were the only two of the countries with the high burden of HIV that were reaching 40% of HIV positive mothers in need of antiretrovirals for PMTCT by 2006. This figure has since risen to between 50-60% for South Africa in 2007.

Of course, much more still needs to be done before we can claim any victory in our response to HIV and AIDS, including PMTCT.

The report card correctly makes these conclusions because South Africa has expanded its PMTCT programme to cover 90% of public health facilities. All antenatal clients are offered PMTCT services as part of a comprehensive approach to maternal, child and women's health services.

Antenatal attendance is high at about 80% and all these women are provided with appropriate counselling. All pregnant women testing HIV positive are offered CD4 count testing and offered a comprehensive package of care, including antiretroviral treatment to those eligible. Emphasis is placed on the need for informed individual decision based on the choices available.

In the face of this continued propaganda against our programme on HIV and AIDS, it is important to always state facts and to use all means available to share these facts with the rest of the world.

Over the past few years, our response to HIV and AIDS evolved from basic awareness campaigns to a fully comprehensive prevention, treatment, care and support strategy with all the elements of evidence-informed interventions, guided mainly by the principle of partnerships.

A national multi-sectoral Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS and STIs was developed for 2000-2005through an extensive consultative process, with four primary areas:

• prevention;
• treatment, care and support;
• monitoring and evaluation;
• human and legal rights.

Several interventions were introduced during the period of the first National Strategic Plan including:

• voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) and rapid testing,
• PMTCT,
• post exposure prophylaxis.

In 2003 we endorsed the Comprehensive Management, Care and Treatment Plan which included strengthening of treatment interventions, including the introduction of an antiretroviral treatment programme in the public health sector for those who qualify. This required accreditation of health facilities that met the criteria for adequate health systems capacity to provide these interventions.

During the period of our first National Strategic Plan (2000-2005), the annual budget allocation for HIV and AIDS increased from R200 million to R1.2 billion. This budget is standing at R2.1 billion for the current financial year for the Health Department alone. When you add other government expenditure relating to HIV and AIDS, the total government HIV and AIDS budget rises to R4 billion for the current financial year.

South Africa relies on its own fiscus for over 90% of the national HIV and AIDS programmes. There is need to ensure that the utilisation of these resources is not only limited to procurement of medicines but covers all the elements of our comprehensive response to HIV and AIDS, thereby strengthening the health system in general.

The South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), chaired by the Deputy President of the country, was established in the year 2000. It has since been restructured to ensure it functions effectively and efficiently. This has assisted in strengthening partnerships and ownership by the majority of South Africans of the problem of HIV and AIDS and the national response to it.

The implementation and scaling up of the elements of our programmes have been very successful considering that we are a country that is faced with many competing social needs. These urgent needs relate largely to the historical imbalances caused by discrimination and lack of access to basic service including housing, water and sanitation and other social determinants of health.

We can now confidently say that we have a PMTCT programme with the largest coverage in the sub-Saharan region - at 50-60% of the targeted population. There is, however, a need to improve the ability of health facilities to follow up on women and children that have been enrolled in the PMTCT programme. An extensive evaluation of the PMTCT programme will be conducted next year and the findings of this review should inform the further strengthening of the programme in an effort to achieve universal access targets with regard to PMTCT

Treatment guidelines to improve the treatment regimen for PMTCT are being considered. The new guidelines should replace the current mono-therapy (using nevirapine) model for PMTCT, particularly because of concerns long raised by government about its limited effect and the possibility of resistance associated with it.

In the same breath, we can also proudly say that we have enrolled the largest number of people on ARVs worldwide. More than 370,000 people had been initiated on antiretroviral therapy by September 2007. More than 32,000 of these are children under 14 years.

We can say with pride that the awareness level is high. Condom distribution and reported use continues to increase. All hospitals now offer post exposure prophylaxis for sexual assault clients and these hospitals can manage opportunistic infections.

Screening and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) has been improved considerably. Government is supporting communities in initiating food production initiatives to address challenges of food insecurity, and nutritional supplementation is provided in health facilities to patients with TB and/or HIV and AIDS.

We emphasise healthy lifestyle and in particular nutrition as important interventions in prolonging progression from HIV infection to development of AIDS-defining conditions. Nutrition also forms a solid foundation for the effectiveness of treatment when this becomes necessary.

The adoption by all stakeholders of the National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS and STIs for 2007-2011 is one of the encouraging developments for this year. The latest plan builds on the strategic plan for 2000-2005 in a continuous manner to intensify the implementation of the four key priority areas mentioned above.

The latest national strategic plan provides an extensive analysis of the nature, dynamics and character of the challenge of HIV and AIDS as it manifests itself in our environment. Having defined our problem, the plan then identifies an appropriate response in the form of evidence-based interventions as well as aspirational targets aligned with our international commitments with regard to addressing HIV and AIDS. These targets are adapted by each sector according to their means, particularly the availability of resources and in line with the provisions of our Constitution.

Despite all the challenges facing us as a nation, the observation of World AIDS Day tomorrow should be an opportunity to acknowledge progress made in responding to HIV and AIDS and to spread a message of hope. It should be an occasion to express our gratitude to all communities and stakeholders, particularly the health workers who are making efforts to reduce the risk of HIV transmission and provide appropriate care and treatment to affected children and adults. We should also express our appreciation to the many civil society organisations and other partners who are working together with government in reaching out to all those in need of care.

This is the day to honour the youth for ensuring that the prevalence of HIV does not increase and it has actually decreased among teenagers from 15.9 % in 2005 to 13.7% in 2006. It is a day to further mobilise our people to respond positively to the messages of abstinence, being faithful and condom use, and elimination of stigma and discrimination against those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.

Let us use this day to recommit ourselves to fighting all forms of gender inequality, coercion and abuse, which undermine the health and well-being of women and their children.

We must continue to work together as men and women of South Africa towards attaining our collective goal of a non-sexist society that is free of all forms of discrimination and stigma, particularly against those affected by HIV and AIDS.

Let us show that indeed we care. Together we can keep the promise to stop HIV and AIDS.

** Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is a member of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) and the Minister of Health.

What the media says

Let the Palestine-Israel negotiations succeed!

Accompanied by others working in government, I left our country on Saturday, 24 November, travelling to the United States. We left for Annapolis to attend the international conference convened to restart the negotiations to resolve the painful and protracted Israel-Palestine conflict.

We attended the Annapolis conference in response to the formal invitation of the convenor of the conference, the US government. When we arrived in the United States we read a report in The Sunday Independent, written by Peter Fabricius, entitled "'Unhelpful' SA gets belated invitation to peace talks".

In his article Fabricius said: "After long uncertainty, the United States has invited South Africa to participate in the Middle East peace conference... Diplomatic sources had said that the US was not keen to invite South Africa because it was considered 'unhelpful' in international organisations - largely because of its votes against US positions in the UN. The US would also have regarded South Africa as unsympathetic to Israel, a key US ally".

"But it is believed that South Africa received an ex-officio invitation as a current member of the Security Council."

South Africa and the Middle East

As Fabricius said, indeed the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, had told President Thabo Mbeki that it was important that our country should be represented at the peace conference. At the same time, over the years the Israeli governments have insisted on the necessity for our country and government to be actively involved in the search for peace between Palestine and Israel.

I have also been present at meetings between Presidents Thabo Mbeki and George W Bush when the Israel-Palestine question was discussed. At all times President Bush has insisted that he and the rest of the US government are determined to be open with us with regard to this issue. This has also characterised my own interaction with the US Secretary of State, even though our governments have held different views on this important issue.

Contrary to what The Sunday Independent said, the timing of the invitation to us to attend the Annapolis conference was not determined by any US consideration that we are 'unhelpful' or that we are 'unsympathetic to Israel'.

It depended on the assessment whether sufficient preparatory work had been done to ensure that to one degree or another there was any possibility for the Annapolis conference meaningfully to restart the Palestine-Israel negotiations.

We fully understood this concern, which we shared with the Palestinian Authority, the people of Palestine and the rest of the Arab world. Because we understood this reality, we were therefore ready to respond at short notice to the invitation to attend the peace conference, knowing that a short notice might be unavoidable.

The 'diplomatic sources' on whom, in part, Fabricius relied, were entirely wrong in their assessment that South Africa had been invited 'at the last minute', because we were 'unhelpful' with regard to any matter. I leave it to Fabricius to explain what an "ex-officio invitation" is. What I know personally is that we received an invitation to attend the Annapolis conference, no different from the invitation received by many other countries and delegations.

Annapolis

We are convinced that the process started at Annapolis is of the greatest importance. This is born of the decades-long desire and commitment of our movement, the ANC, that the Palestine-Israel conflict should be solved, among other things making it possible for the creation of a sovereign State of Palestine.

It is most unfortunate that some within our media chose to carry such misguided reports as the Fabricius article, which seek to detract from the vital importance of the Annapolis initiative and the obligations our country has in this regard, arising from the fact of its participation at the Annapolis peace conference. Such is the result of the obsession to oppose our government and movement at every twist and turn.

As we sat listening to the statements made at the Annapolis conference on 27 November, we could not but appreciate the importance of the moment. In this regard, I hope that our media will help to inform our people about the essence and intention of the Annapolis process.

The cultivation of a proper understanding of this process does not deserve to suffer from petty considerations such as those that inspired the false assertion about an 'unhelpful' South Africa.

To enable our people to understand that the search for peace in Palestine, Israel and the Middle East has reached a critical moment, I can only give a mere suggestion of what happened at Annapolis. I would like to thank the Editor of ANC Today for giving me the opportunity to submit this article to provide even a limited bird's eye view.

The US commitment

In his opening statement, the host, President Bush said: "We meet to lay the foundation for the establishment of a new nation - a democratic Palestinian state that will live side by side with Israel in peace and security. We meet to help bring an end to the violence that has been the true enemy of the aspirations of both the Israelis and Palestinians...

"The task begun here at Annapolis will be difficult. This is the beginning of the process, not the end of it - and no doubt a lot of work remains to be done. Yet the parties can approach this work with confidence. The time is right. The cause is just. And with hard effort, I know they can succeed.

"President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert, I pledge to devote my effort during my time as President to do all I can to help you achieve this ambitious goal. I give you my personal commitment to support your work with the resources and resolve of the American government. I believe a day is coming when freedom will yield the peace we desire. And the land that is holy to so many will see the light of peace."

Anyone who has studied the approach of the current US Administration towards the Israel-Palestine issue since it came into office will understand the significance of these words, which were uttered in the presence of many representatives of the international community.

Joint Statement

President Bush was also given the responsibility to read out a critically important joint statement of commitment agreed by the leaders of Israel and Palestine, represented by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Mahmoud Abbas. In part this Statement said:

"We express our determination to bring an end to bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict between our peoples; to usher in a new era of peace, based on freedom, security, justice, dignity, respect and mutual recognition, to propagate a culture of peace and non-violence; to confront terrorism and incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis.

"In furtherance of the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, we agree to immediately launch good-faith bilateral negotiations in order to conclude a peace treaty, resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues without exception, as specified in previous agreements.

"We agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations, and shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008."

The Palestinian commitment

In his intervention, President Mahmoud Abbas said: "Tomorrow, we have to start comprehensive and deep negotiations on all issues of final status, including Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements, water and security and others.

"We have to support this negotiating process in concrete and direct steps on the ground that would prove that we are moving in an irreversible path toward negotiated, comprehensive and full peace, and to ensure ending all settlement activities including natural growth, and reopening closed Jerusalem institutions, removal of settlement outposts, removal of road blocks, and freedom of prisoners, and to facilitate our mission in the authority to enforce law and the rule of law.

"Here, I must defend in all sincerity and candour, and without wavering, the right of our people to see a new dawn, without occupation, without settlement, without separation walls, without prisons where thousands of prisoners are detained, without assassinations, without siege, without barriers around villages ...

"Each one of us must pitch in our weight and experience and sense of resolve in order to overcome the obstacles that we will face and to close the gaps between our positions in a bid to achieve a solution that would end occupation and the long years of suffering of the refugees and ensure good neighbour relations, economic cooperation, humanitarian openness so that all of them would ensure guarantees for peace that are stronger than any documents, commitments or pledges, despite the importance of these all ..

"Those who say that peace-making between us is impossible, actually does not need except to perpetuate this conflict toward the unknown, but it is, we all know, in other words, that continuation of bloodshed for many decades to come. After that, we would not reach the solution proposed today, all of which we know, all its components and elements. Or the ideal of peace would be killed in the hearts and minds.

"Indeed, peace is possible but it requires our common efforts so that we could make it and preserve it."

The Israeli commitment

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert then said: "I wish to say, from the bottom of my heart, that I know and acknowledge the fact that alongside the constant suffering which many in Israel have experienced because of the history, the wars, the terror and the hatred towards us - a suffering which has always been part of our lives in our land - your people have also suffered for many years, and some still suffer.

"For dozens of years, many Palestinians have been living in camps, disconnected from the environment in which they grew, wallowing in poverty, neglect, alienation, bitterness, and a deep, unrelenting sense of deprivation.

"I know that this pain and deprivation is one of the deepest foundations which formented the ethos of hatred towards us.

"We are not indifferent to this suffering. We are not oblivious to the tragedies you have experienced. I believe that in the course of negotiations between us we will find the right way, as part of an international effort in which we will participate, to assist these Palestinians in finding a proper framework for their future, in the Palestinian state which will be established in the territories agreed upon between us. Israel will be part of an international mechanism which will assist in finding a solution to this problem ...

"It will address all the issues which have thus far been evaded. We will do it directly, openly and courageously. We will not avoid any subject, we will deal with all the core issues. I have no doubt that the reality created in our region in 1967 will change significantly. While this will be an extremely difficult process for many of us, it is nevertheless inevitable. I know it. Many of my people know it. We are ready for it.

"The negotiations will be based on previous agreements between us, UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the Roadmap and the April 14th 2004 letter of President Bush to the Prime Minister of Israel".

Prayer for a lasting peace

I have cited the extracts from the speeches made by Presidents Bush and Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert to indicate the seriousness with which the principal actors in the Israel-Palestine peace process are approaching the initiative represented by the Annapolis conference.

The extracts I have quoted also state the matter plainly that the process begun at Annapolis, which is planned to conclude by the end of 2008, will address all the "final status issues", the matters that have proved to be the most difficult. At the same time, without the resolution of these issues, there can be no final settlement.

We all know that the forthcoming negotiations will be very difficult. We know that many among the Palestinians, the Israelis, the Arab world and elsewhere are very sceptical about the possibility for the negotiations to succeed. We also know that even as the negotiations proceed, the conflict that has claimed far too many lives already will continue.

To conclude his speech, President Abbas said: "May I close by recalling some words of Abraham Lincoln in one of the darkest moments of American history? 'Let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to do all which we may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.'"

It is not that long ago that we addressed this same prayer to ourselves, as we engaged in our own process of negotiations. Today our collective national and sacred duty is to do everything in our power to support the peoples of Palestine and Israel as they embark on the difficult road to arrive at "a just and lasting peace among (themselves) and with all nations", as we did in our own negotiations which started in 1990 and only concluded in 1996, when we adopted our "final" Constitution.

** Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma is a member of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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