ANC Today

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Volume 7, No. 29, 27 July - 2 August 2007

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THIS WEEK:

* Letter from the President: Employment equity & the birth of a nation 
* Business tourism: Working together, we can become one of the world's favourite
destinations 

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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Employment equity & the birth of a nation

As South Africans we are living through very interesting times. With our own
eyes we see the new struggling to be born. During our lifetime we are exposed to
the images of the slow death of the old, and its desperate and hopeless efforts
to secure its survival.

And because, for us, every development of significance around us is without
precedent, we search constantly and continuously for levels of understanding of
our reality and forms of action to respond to this actuality, which would assure
us that we are masters, or mistresses, of our destiny.

For this reason, and for those among us who see themselves as agents of
progressive change, complete and accurate knowledge, representing accurate
understanding of objective reality, liberated from prejudice, false assumptions
and propaganda, becomes an imperative and inalienable condition for the
untrammelled but responsible exercise of the hard-won right to self-
determination.

We have the possibility and latitude and the necessity to speak thus because we
live during our own age of revolution. Exactly because it is such an age, all of
us face the demand to understand objective reality accurately and objectively,
to enable the revolution to decide on the correct strategy, tactics and
operations.

Respect the truth

In this situation of an inevitable contest about the future of our country,
information, facts, the truth, themselves become an area of contestation. The
truth manifests itself as truths. Opponents of change see it as their obligatory
task to falsify reality, in their interest. The imperative to understand the
critical difference, and in some instances the contradiction, between essence
and phenomenon becomes ever-more pressing.

Mini-skirts achieved their high point as an indispensable item of women's
fashion and an iconic representation of the ethos of an age during the 1960s.
Even at the height of the craze, when it was virtually a social offence not to
show a considerable part of women's thighs, the statisticians remained loyal to
their profession.

They spread the notion, not difficult to understand even by the most discreet
observer, that mini-skirts showed or suggested more than they revealed.
Presumably to demonstrate that they said what they said as an objective fact,
without fear or favour or prejudice, they said the product of their trade,
statistics, was distinguished by the same inherent features as the mini-skirt.

Thus they stated, with no sense of embarrassment whatsoever, that more often
than not, the statistics they compiled and published, like the mini-skirt,
showed or suggested more than they revealed.

In a manner of speaking, what this meant is that one had to use one's head to
visualise what lay beyond the hem of the mini-skirt to arrive at the reality
suggested by the mini-skirt. Thus they urged that consumers of published
statistics had to use their brains to discover the fundamental truths, which
these statistics could only suggest.

Perhaps unconsciously, and with no deliberate intention to act as spoilsports,
cold-blooded enemies of unshackled fun and a delightful indulgence of human
frailties, these statisticians served as the contemporary representatives of the
stern Thomas Gradgrind in Charles Dickens' "Hard Times".

Nothing but facts

Dickens described Thomas Gradgrind as: "A man of realities. A man of facts and
calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four,
and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything
over...With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in
his pocket, Sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human nature, and tell
you exactly what it comes to. It is a mere question of figures, a case of simple
arithmetic."

True to form, Thomas Gradgrind, schoolmaster, opens the story told in "Hard
Times" with the words; "Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls
nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root
out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon
Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them...Stick to Facts, Sir!"

Thomas Gradgrind, a man of facts and calculations, spoke as a representative of
what modern philosophers would characterise, in the context of what is described
as periodicity, as the modern age. To explain this in simple terms, Thomas
Gradgrind would have been quite right to see the mini-shirt as representing
nothing more than a short skirt, factually seeing nothing beyond the hem sewed
in the clothing factory.

The philosophers we have mentioned would then proceed to teach us that Thomas
Gradgrind is nothing more than a relic of the past. This is because we now live
in the post-modern age. Post-modernism demands that we see beyond the hem of the
short skirt sewed in the clothing factory, and therefore what is merely
suggested by the mini-skirt.

And thus begin the troubles with which, in modern times, we must necessarily
contend. Post-modernism, represented as enhanced human capacity to understand
objective reality, dictates that, even out of self-respect, we must see and
speak about the unseen world above and beyond the hem of the short skirt sewed
in the clothing factory.

Daring to define what is meant by "post-modernism", the Cambridge Dictionary of
Philosophy says it encompasses "rejection of the picture of knowledge as
accurate representation; rejection of truth as correspondence to reality;...and
a suspicion of grand narratives, metanarratives of the sort perhaps best
illustrated by dialectical materialism."

Clearly, in our philosophically post-modern world, Thomas Gradgrind and Karl
Marx would appear in world statistics as mere ciphers among the unemployed, and
perhaps the unemployable, unless they repudiated their faith in Facts. Their
grievous fault would lie in their rejection of the proposition that truth,
manifesting itself in the forms of Facts, does not necessarily correspond to
reality!

In the light of the seemingly permanent war in our country about which facts are
in fact facts, about which facts in fact reflect objective reality, and which do
not, many among us face the same fate as would befall Thomas Gradgrind and Karl
Marx during our post-modern era.

Findings of the Daily Dispatch

Earlier this month, the East London newspaper "Daily Dispatch" published a
dramatic report headed "Why Frere's babies die", alleging an extraordinarily
high death rate of neonates at the public Frere Hospital located in the city.
Among other things, the newspaper said:

"Hundreds of newborns are dying every year at Frere Hospital's overburdened
maternity section - and the institution's own records reveal the scale of
negligence behind many of the deaths...The Dispatch team spent nearly two months
walking the maternity wards with hidden cameras, attending the mass burial of
dead babies and interviewing medical staff and heartbroken mothers...Minutes
from weekly management meetings reveal damning admissions by doctors that
patients were dying because of outright negligence...

"Two thousand babies were stillborn in the past 14 years at Frere, according to
the Abortions and Stillbirth book in the labour ward. Last year's figures appear
to be the highest on record, when at least 199 babies were stillborn. Frere's
official baby mortality rate exceeds provincial and national figures as
contained in an unpublished report by a unit of the Medical Research Council."

In his 'Comment', Andrew Trench, Deputy Editor of the newspaper said: "There are
many truths behind the Frere baby death scandal. There is no single person to
blame. This tragedy is the result of our collapsing public health system, bereft
of funding, resources and skilled staff."

The Eastern Cape Department of Health responded to this report and questions
posed by the newspaper through a full-page advertisement in the newspaper
entitled, "Department responds with facts to the 'Daily Dispatch exclusive
investigation on baby death at Frere Hospital', saying:

"The Eastern Cape Department of Health is extremely disappointed that this
publication didn't even bother to contact us for confirmation of facts before
printing such a misleading statement about Frere Hospital."

The Green-Thompson Inquiry

Deeply concerned about the picture presented by the "Daily Dispatch", the
National Minister of Health immediately sent a team to Frere Hospital to
investigate the situation at the allegedly affected section of the hospital. The
members of the team were the special adviser to the Minister, Professor Ronnie
Green-Thompson, a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology, Chief Director for
Hospital Services, Dr Thabo Sibeko, and Dr Nat Khaole, Director for Women's
Health.

On 22 July, ten days after the publication of the "Daily Dispatch" report, the
Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, announced the findings of this
team. Among other things she said:

"Basic equipment was available and interviews with the clinical staff and
hospital management indicated that no baby has died as a result of the non-
availability of equipment. Therefore, the statement that health workers 'play
God' and decide which patient lives or dies because of acute shortages of
equipment was not found to be true....

"The general complement of doctors is reasonable but can be increased...Although
there is largely a commitment to service delivery amongst staff, the current
levels of staff complement was the main area of concern. There is an urgent need
to increase the number of porters, messengers, general assistants and clerical
staff and ensure that these categories of health workers are available at all
times so that clinical staff can focus on what they have been trained to do...

"The District Health System must be strengthened to reduce the number of
unnecessary referrals and enable the hospital to concentrate on the high-risk
patients and thereby improve the peri-natal outcomes...

"The Saving Babies Report (which aggregates the figures for 164 sites and
considers 20% of the births in South Africa) provides the perinatal mortality
rate of 27.9/1000 live births. Frere Hospital's rate was 29.2 for 2005, 34.5 for
2006 and 32.9 for 2007 thus far. These figures are for the deliveries at the
hospital using the denominator of all live births at the hospital. They do not
include all the live births within the catchment area of Frere Hospital and
therefore need to be adjusted by using (as the denominator) all the deliveries
in the referral area of Frere Hospital.

"The neonatal mortality rates per 1000 live births for 2005, 2006 and 2007 (to-
date) were 5.5, 12.9 and 9.5 respectively. The Saving Babies report figure is
8.5/1000 live births. Adjustment also needs to be done here also.

"Further review of data relating to Frere Hospital catchment area is necessary
since Frere Hospital is a referral facility that receives complicated
pregnancies from various lower level facilities. The national Department of
Health will also be initiating a national review of the peri-and neonatal
mortality rate in a similar approach as the Confidential Inquiry into Maternal
Death."

Rage

On 22 July, the SABC reported correctly that "A report released by the health
department has dismissed as lies media reports that any of the reported 2,000
infant deaths at Frere Hospital were a result of equipment and staff shortages."

On 23 July, the SABC further reported that, "The furore over the death of babies
at East London's Frere Hospital rages on. The Congress of SA Trade Unions
(Cosatu) has now entered the fray, accusing Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the health
minister, of protecting her provincial counterpart...Meanwhile, the minister and
premier expressed confidence in the health MEC. Today Cosatu accused them of
closing ranks around the MEC. 'It is very unfortunate that the report tabled by
the minister of health is contradictory, in terms of not being able to publish
the causes of death of the infants in this hospital,' says Xola Phakathi,
Cosatu's provincial secretary. The Democratic Alliance said the report raised
more questions than answers and that it would submit questions to Tshabalala-
Msimang in Parliament to clarify her deputy's comments about Frere's maternity
section."

In a statement issued on 25 July, the health spokesperson of the DA, Mike
Waters, said: "We are concerned that the Minister (of Health), who has
specifically stated that no heads will role (sic) after findings of
catastrophically high death rates among new-borns at the hospital in recent
years, does not want to release the report because it may point fingers at
specific practices and specific actions by hospital management. She would then
be under greater pressure to act...

("A full copy of the full report was not released. The DA has since then been
attempting to obtain the full report, but officials say they cannot get hold of
the Minister to get the go-ahead to release it. Unless the report is produced
within the next 24 hours, the DA will submit an application in terms of the
Promotion of Access to Information Act to demand its release.")...

"The appalling findings of an under-cover investigation into Frere Hospital by
the Daily Dispatch made clear the consequences of the complete disregard that
many officials have for the lives of the patients they are responsible for. If
officials at the hospital are not held accountable for their outrageous failure
to ensure that the necessary equipment is in place and that doctors and nurses
are able to do their jobs properly, then the inevitable consequence is that
babies will continue to die..."

Fact vs Fiction

Here we have a clear demonstration of the problem our country faces - when are
facts, facts and a truthful representation of objective reality, or should we
resign ourselves to the notion that we live in a post-modern world, which
includes permissible 'rejection of truth as correspondence to reality'!

With regard to the specific issue we are discussing, it is clear that the DA
representative, Mike Waters, has decided that the "Daily Dispatch" reporters
published the truth, whereas Professor Ronnie Green-Thompson and his fellow
medical professionals told lies through the statement read by the Minister of
Health.

For this reason he describes the assertions or claims made by the "Daily
Dispatch" as "findings", and the findings made by health professionals as
amounting to nothing more than a cover-up to protect public health officials
whom the "Daily Dispatch" and the DA have found guilty of gross criminal
misconduct.

The Minister of Health acted urgently to establish the Facts about the situation
at Frere Hospital, repeating to Prof Green-Thompson and his team, after Thomas
Gradgrind, "Now, what I want is, Facts... Stick to Facts, Sir!" For his part, Mr
Waters of the DA took the position that he would accept the report of the Green-
Thompson investigating team as factual only if it endorsed the "findings" of the
"Daily Dispatch" as a faithful representation of Facts!

The simple truth is that the DA, perhaps taking advantage of the liberties
afforded by post-modernism, is making the statement that everything is Fact -
truth corresponding with reality - if it communicates a negative message about
the ANC and the government. On the other hand, members of the ANC, such as the
Minister of Health, remain committed to the discovery of Facts - truths that
corresponds with reality - precisely to empower themselves, our movement and
government to act correctly in the continuing struggle to transform our country
to ensure that we achieve the objective of a better life for all our people.

The statement read to the media by the Minister of Health on 22 July contains
statistical information on perinatal and neonatal mortality contained in a
"Saving Babies Report", as well as Frere Hospital information on these issues
for the years 2005-07. The Green-Thompson report also makes some comments and
recommendations arising from the fact that Frere is a referral hospital.

The facts communicate the conclusion that neonatal mortality at Frere Hospital
is not significantly different from the national incidence of such mortality.
Verifiable Facts therefore make the statement that the "findings" of the "Daily
Dispatch" about the neonatal mortality rate at Frere Hospital are false.

But as the SABC reported on 23 July, and despite what we have just said, "The
furore over the death of babies at East London's Frere Hospital rages on." And
so might it continue to "rage on", because for the DA and others it is not the
truth that matters - Facts - but the pursuit of an agenda centred on winning
political victories over the ANC and the government and positioning themselves
as the principal actors with regard to defining our country's future.

Fighting on all fronts

As soon as it could, the Ministry of Health sent the Green-Thompson report to
the Chairperson of the National Assembly Portfolio Committee on Health. Mr
Waters of the DA is a member of this Committee. He will therefore receive a copy
of the report from his Committee Chairperson. For reasons that are not difficult
to fathom, as it not difficult to imagine what the miniskirt does not reveal, Mr
Waters nevertheless went so far as to threaten legal action if the Ministry of
Health did not treat him as a special member of the National Assembly Portfolio
Committee on Health.

He demanded that the Minister should provide him his own private copy of the
Green-Thompson report. He had succeeded to convince himself that the report
would be suppressed because he could not imagine that there could be any truth
other than the virtually oracular "findings" of the "Daily Dispatch"! At the
same time he knew this as a matter of fact that our movement and government
would always lie to cover up their criminal misdeeds!

For Mr Waters and the DA what is at issue is to fight on all fronts, to secure
some political victory, including destroying the credibility of the Green-
Thompson report without even having read it. For us the issue must remain the
objective to achieve a better life for all our people, including the
accomplishment of the goal of health for all. To realise this outcome we must
remain steadfast in our determination to understand the objective reality in our
country, searching constantly and continuously for levels of understanding of
our reality and forms of action to respond to this actuality, which would assure
us that we are masters, or mistresses, of our destiny.

We wish the national and provincial Departments of Health and Frere Hospital
success in their efforts to implement the recommendations contained in the
Green-Thompson report. We salute and thank the staff at Frere Hospital for its
"commitment to service delivery", which was mentioned in the statement made by
the Minister of Health. We also join the ANC leadership in the Eastern Cape to
express our confidence in MEC for Health, Nomsa Jajula. As always we must
continue to search for, respect and defend the truth. Sooner or later those who
try to falsify reality to achieve partisan objectives discover that lies have
very short legs. The struggle continues!

Thabo Mbeki

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BUSINESS TOURISM  <Viewpoint - Marthinus van Schalkwyk>

Working together, we can become one of the world's favourite destinations

The South African tourism industry has outdone itself yet again. Arrival
statistics for 2006 show that South Africa received almost 8.4 million
international arrivals, an increase of more than one million visitors compared
to the previous year, and resounding evidence that the focused marketing efforts
of South African Tourism are paying off.

Business tourism can contribute positively to the volume of foreign arrivals to
South Africa. It can also play an important role in reducing seasonality and
drive transformation of the economy. We have therefore put in a lot of work in
developing our Business Tourism Growth Strategy, which is the outcome of
research undertaken in 2006/07. The strategy sets out to understand the market,
and identify where South African Tourism should focus its marketing efforts and
resources.

With more than 1,700 conference venues around the country, South Africa hosts
more than 860 major conferences every year. Our key target markets for
attracting international meetings are the United Kingdom and the USA, followed
by Germany, France and the Netherlands.

The world market for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions, the core
drivers of business tourism, is expected to make up 10% of the estimated US$672-
billion generated by the travel and tourism industry, with the figure doubling
by 2013. Competition in this market, naturally, is tough. Globally, South Africa
is currently ranked 23rd by the Union of International Associations (UIA) as a
top meetings destination and 31st by the International Congress and Convention
Association (ICCA).

Business tourism is very serious business, and we have set ourselves an
ambitious goal to tie-in with the FIFA World Cup in 2010. By the time that
momentous event kicks off in South Africa, it is our vision to progress our
destination ranking substantially to get into the Top 10 of preferred global
meetings destinations. This is an ambitious goal and requires a concerted and
collaborative partnership with industry. Getting to that position will take an
unusual amount of work, an unusual amount of confidence, and an unusual amount
of selling our country to meetings and incentive planners around the globe.

Thanks to continued investment in infrastructure, greater professionalism within
our industry, our value-for-money tourism offerings, and the sheer uniqueness of
our destination, we are well positioned to turn this goal into a reality. There
are however some challenges we have to deal with in reaching these goals.

One of the functional transport areas inhibiting tourism growth is 'airlift' and
the creation of an efficient tourist public transport system. The core of any
strategy to yield growth from tourism is the ability to maximise opportunities
for spending by visitors. The development of new and more diverse product
offerings, in pursuit of this goal, has to be supported by a system that can
connect visitors to products and attractions efficiently and effectively.

Regarding airlift, we have decided that the main theme of our annual National
Tourism Conference to be held at the end of October will be "Tourism and
Aviation". The implementation of the airlift strategy - the result of a strong
partnership between the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT),
SA Tourism, the Department of Transport and the private sector - has shown
impressive increases in capacity to bring tourists to South Africa. Between
September 2006 and January this year, rights for almost 1.4 million additional
seats per year were secured.

The current public transport system is not geared to serving the needs of
accommodation establishments and attractions. We therefore welcome the many
initiatives in upgrading the public transport system in the run-up to 2010.

When tourists in the global markets make decisions about where to travel, they
weigh up a number of criteria. Safety and security in a destination is the
second most important after value for money for South Africa's target consumers
across all our 10 priority markets. Research conducted by SA Tourism indicates
that while South Africa is in many respects an attractive tourist destination,
fear of crime could be a possible deterrent to potential visitors.

The 2005 SA Tourism brand tracking survey revealed that, of all target consumers
in the eight core markets represented, about 22.25 million (one-third of the
total market) mentioned fears about safety as one reason for not visiting South
Africa in the last five years. Crime is therefore an issue we as industry have
to deal with if we want to reach our target of 10 million arrivals by 2010.

Government has been working tirelessly in intensifying the war against crime.
There has been a significant increase in resources going to the fight against
crime. Since 2003/04, allocations to the Safety and Security ministry have
increased by 43%. Over the next three years, resources going to the police will
rise by a further 34% from R33 billion in 2006/07 to R44 billion in 2009/10. In
this year's budget, government is allocating an extra R2.4 billion to the police
to further expand police numbers and invest in technology and forensic
equipment. By 2010, we will have close to 190,000 police officers on our
streets.

The DEAT, together with provinces and the South African Police Service (SAPS),
established a national task team to oversee the development of a National
Tourism Safety and Awareness Strategy. After a series of consultation meetings,
a draft strategy has been developed. Further consultation with other critical
stakeholders, particularly members of the Tourism Business Council of South
Africa, which represents the tourism industry, was undertaken through workshops.

The strategy calls for an integrated approach in addressing tourism safety and
awareness and recognises the SAPS as a critical role player, with a direct
mandate regarding safety and security matters. In the implementation of the
strategy, the DEAT will collaborate around the possibility of having a
designated officer in every police station, dealing with tourism crime related
issues. The long term aim is to establish Tourism Ambassador Units in police
stations, with specialised training.

The SAPS has established planning forums, which are referred to as national and
provincial joint meetings, where operations for events are planned. The tourism
sector will participate in these meetings to provide information on activities,
routes and events taking place around the country. There is also a need for
adding a tourism variable in the existing crime database making available
tourism crime incidents and progress on investigations. This can assist in
dealing with perceptions that the country may not be safe for tourists.

The department has also produced a Tourism Safety Tips booklet and is in the
process of producing a Handbook for Tourism Practitioners.

The role that industry and society has to play in the implementation of the
strategy cannot be overemphasised. Law enforcement agencies alone cannot win the
war against crime, as some of these crimes are committed within the industry, by
employees and owners of establishments. These include making information on
tourists available to crime syndicates, theft of tourists' property in some
establishments, illegal use of tourist credit cards, unlawful levy collections,
illegal tour guiding and unlicensed tour operators.

South Africa is renowned for breaking new ground; for succeeding against all
odds. The goals we have set ourselves in the tourism industry will be realised
within record time. By working together, South Africa cannot fail to become one
of the world's favourite destinations.

** Marthinus van Schalkwyk is an ANC Member of Parliament and Minister of
Environmental Affairs and Tourism. This is an edited extract from an address at
the national conference of the Southern African Association for the Conference
Industry, 23 July 2007.

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