ANC Today --------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 8, No. 43, 31 October - 6 November 2008 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK: * Letter from the President: Register now to vote for a better life for all * Poverty: Intensifying the war against poverty --------------------------------------------------------------------- LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Register now to vote for a better life for all. This week we buried the mortal remains of one of the country's stalwarts in Comrade Billy Nair, and we will also be laying to rest two other outstanding veterans and stalwarts of our struggle in Professor Eskia Mphahlele, a world renowned author, educationist, intellectual and an African humanist, as well as Ma Vuyiswa "Tiny" Nokwe, a leader and the veteran of women's struggles in our country, and the wife of the late General Secretary of the ANC, Duma Nokwe. They all played a critical role in leading our country to where we are today. We salute them and pay our tributes and lasting respects to them, and wish to convey our condolences to their families and friends. The ANC has a history, a present and a future. Its history guides us and ensures that we do not go astray. Part of our history and tradition is the non-racial character of the ANC. Our non-racial character stems from the fact that we are an organisation that is deeply rooted in human rights, humanity and ubuntu. Our diversity defines our character and unifies us in a most unique way. In 1923 the ANC became the first political organisation on the continent to adopt a Bill of Rights. In 1943, the ANC adopted the African claims, a bill of rights which asserted the right of African people to self-determination and human rights. This Bill of Rights laid the basis for the development of the human rights perspectives in the liberation struggle. It created the condition for broadening the base of the liberation movement with the signing of a co-operation pact in 1947 between the ANC and the South African Indian Congress known as the Xuma- Dadoo-Naicker Pact, which eventually led to the formation of the Congress Alliance in the early 1950's. The principle of humanity and the non-racial character of the ANC informed the formation of the Congress Alliance that translated to the adoption of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People - at Kliptown in 1955. This was the first such fully representative gathering in the history of South Africa. The Freedom Charter became the cornerstone that guided the policy and practices, and the strategy and tactics of the ANC after its adoption and today still forms the core guiding principles of the ANC. The delegates that met at Kliptown responded with a call that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people". The ANC will never stray from the culture and traditions of our movement. We confirm that we will continue to draw inspiration from the lessons gained from the lives of Comrades Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Joe Slovo, Beyers Naude, Braam Fischer, Chris Hani, Dorothy Nyembe, Florence Mophosho, Billy Nair and many others. In memory of these heroes of our struggle, we urge all ANC members to remain steadfast in the principles and traditions of the movement. They must not be swayed into negative action by the anger arising out of the new phenomenon of some ANC members who are calling a so-called convention to discuss the formation of a new political party. We wish the adventurists luck, and are pleased that many are coming out and are resigning from the ANC. We expect the convention to unmask many others who will hopefully also leave the ANC in peace without any further delay. The ANC lives, it leads, it is strong, and it will lead this country for decades to come, depending on the will of the people as expressed in the Freedom Charter. We remain unfazed by the occurrences of the past few weeks. The ANC is not for the faint-hearted. If it were, it would not have had leaders of the calibre of Comrades Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela. In 2009 South Africans are going to vote in the democratic elections for the fourth time. These elections are essential for taking forward the ANC process of transformation. The ANC is on the ground mobilising people to register to vote in the coming elections. The ANC is the only party with a vision, plan and policies to ensure the creation of a better life for all. The record of this government is the record of the ANC. It has been able to maintain this role because of its democratic nature and practices and its ability to balance diverse views with united action. We should therefore celebrate the achievements of our fifteen years of freedom and democracy, and the opportunities it has provided for millions of our people. We are continuing with our programme of building and strengthening our structures. We will continue with the programme of unity, organisational renewal and action to heal the ANC. We are determined to build a caring ANC, and will listen and address the grievances of all members who wish to engage the movement constructively. We are also engaging our people and our outreach programme is giving the minority communities space to engage directly with the ANC. We also held a very successful alliance economic summit. The resolutions that came out the summit talk to intention of improving our ability to deliver. Giving content to the concept of a developmental state, we have come up with concrete proposals on the enhancement of planning, evaluation and monitoring capacity. Industrial and trade policy has been brought to the centre. Central to this shift is the emphasis put on creating decent work opportunities. This is in recognition of high unemployment, poverty and growing inequality being the pre- eminent problems in society today. The ANC will go to the electorate in 2009 to seek popular approval to implement the resolutions of its Polokwane conference on the steps needed to develop our country further to create decent jobs, to mobilise the resources and capabilities of the state, to stimulate higher levels of economic growth, and to tackle poverty. We will seek the electorate's approval of our assertion that education and health should be at the centre of the country's social-development programme for the next five years. It is an assertion that we need to make a concerted effort now to develop our human potential, developing the skills and creating the conditions for South Africans to respond to the needs of a changing society and world. This is central to improving the lives of all our people, and finally eradicating poverty and underdevelopment in our country. The ANC will seek a mandate to continue work to establish a comprehensive and sustainable social-security system that responds to the immediate needs of the poor, advancing from survival interventions to ones that enable the poor and vulnerable to enter the mainstream of economic activity. Agrarian reform and rural development have to focus on food production and food security. Complementing these efforts, the ANC will seek a mandate to intensify the fight against crime. Not only does crime undermine the right to life and dignity, it also weakens efforts to tackle poverty and grow the economy. The democratic breakthrough of 1994 placed the future of all South Africans in their own hands. By registering to vote, South Africans will have a say on their own future by determining the direction the country should take. The Independent Electoral Commission will open all its voting stations on the 8th - 9th November 2008. We appeal to all our members and to all patriotic South African citizens to go and register in their voting stations and to check their registration details. The voting stations will open from 08:00 to 17:00. The voter registration and checking of names in the voters' roll will continue in all municipal offices until the election date has been declared by the State President of the Republic South Africa. Have your say. Shape your future. Act now to make sure that you will be able to vote in the 2009 election. Jacob Zuma ---------------------------------------------------------------------- POVERTY Intensifying the war against poverty THE ANC GOVERNMENT recently released a Towards and Anti-Poverty Strategy for South Africa, a discussion document - the framework which presents a building foundation for developing a comprehensive anti-poverty. The framework will underpin programmes of policy reform, investment projects and capacity building. Since 1994 we have waged a war on poverty. This is reflected in the types of policies adopted by the successive ANC governments and as well as in spending on social policies. Much of the ANC government's work is aimed at addressing ensuring a better life for all. More over the government's policy orientation has been targeted to the poorest of the poor. The adoption of an anti-poverty strategy will ensure that the work that has already begun is harnessed more effectively. It will enable a strategic focus and broaden the scope of government's initiative to deal with a wider range of issues linked to poverty and social exclusion. It will provide measures that tackle the root causes of poverty, including addressing inequality of opportunity, combined with a commitment to giving people freedom. The fight against poverty cannot simply be the responsibility of government alone. All sectors of society must be involved. At the centre of the fight against poverty is the creation of economic opportunities and enabling communities and individuals to access these opportunities. Central to this resolve is the ending of intergenerational poverty through improving the economic situation of households. It allows for engagement with the reality of poverty and the combination of things that should be done to deal with it. The strategy builds on the work of the years since the dawn of our democracy. It also seeks to change the trajectory of our anti-poverty initiatives. As we go forward we need to strength en our resolve to reduce the incidence of poverty as well as to prevent the reproduction of poverty within households and communities. Central to this resolve is the ending of intergenerational poverty through improving the economic situation of households. Critical elements to this end would include: * maintaining overall economic growth, including through substantial investment in economic infrastructure as well as appropriate fiscal and monetary policies * targeting government support at measures that will create economic opportunities on a mass scale f or the historically marginalised, including through land reform and agrarian development; support f or growth in sustainable, labour intensive formal activities, and a substantial expansion in public employment schemes, and * instituting measures to enhance the incomes in cash and kind earned from informal activities, the bulk of which take place in agriculture, retail and services. To this effect human resource development, in particular education and skills development will play a significant role in preventing the intergenerational transmission of poverty. An economy that creates jobs including self -employment opportunities and the ability of a country to improve the educational outcomes, skills and aspirations of children and young people are the most important factors in breaking generational cycles poverty. A focus on rural development and agricultural support for families is also at the centre of the anti-poverty strategy. About half of poor people reside in rural areas, where economic opportunities are limited. Reinforced interventions are required to transform the situation of the people in rural areas, in line with the National Spatial Development Perspective. Furthermore the strategy aims to reinforce partnership at all levels among government departments and agencies, business, organised labour and other civil society and non-governmental organisations. Within government, over and above the current initiatives, it is about doing some things, differently as well as emphasising implementation and coordination. The current initiatives to combat poverty rely heavily on government sponsored and administered programmes and projects. Whereas the government has a central role to play it should also focus on facilitating the involvement of other institutions, providing political leadership and using its resources and other capacities to mobilise all the role players in the desired direction. Indeed this is the "government's vision for the developmental state, one where public institutions together with other economic actors work in a coordinated way to address poverty and underdevelopment and promote higher and more widely shared, economic growth." Critical interventions that should receive the highest level of attention from government in addressing poverty, are: * economic interventions to expand opportunities for employment and self - employment in particular including improvement of the state's capacity to lead in job creating industrial development. * provision of quality education and skills and health care especially to poor communities; and * promotion of access to assets including social capital t o the poor and reduction of vulnerability * promoting social cohesion In line with the multidimensional nature of poverty, the anti-poverty framework is anchored on the nine pillars listed below. 1.Creation of economic opportunities - aimed at ensuring that the economy generates opportunities f or poor households to earn improved incomes through jobs or self-employment. 2.Investment in human capital - providing health care, education and training needed to engage with the economy and in political processes. 3.Income security - providing safety nets for the most vulnerable, primarily through social grants. This to ensure that vulnerability associated with disability age and illness does not plunge poor households into destitution. 4. Basic services and other non-financial transfers - what has been termed a social wage, consisting of services such as subsidised housing, and expanded access to water, electricity, refuse removal and sanitation; as well as a raft of minimum free basic services f or vulnerable sectors of the population. Inability to pay for basic services should not prevent the poor from accessing these services altogether. 5.Improving healthcare - ensuring that poor children grow up healthy, providing quality and efficient preventative and curative care, and ensuring that illness or disability do not plunge poor households into destitution. 6.Access to as sets - particularly housing, land and capital, including public infrastructure, both to improve economic and social security and to provide the basis for economic engagement in the longer run. 7.Social inclusion and social capital initiatives - combining programmes to ensure a more inclusive and integrated society, based on the development of more integrated structures and engagements across class and race, as well as community solidarity in communities and society as a whole. The focus is also on strengthening social capital, especially f or the poor to expand t heir networks and ensure they have access to information. 8.Environmental sustainability - requiring strategies and programmes that help link increasing economic opportunities f or the poor to the protection and rehabilitation of ecosystems, reversing environmental degradation and promoting eco tourism. 9.Good governance - direct intervention in the provision of information, facilitating participatory, pro-poor policies and sound macroeconomic management. This is to ensure proper use of public funds, encouraging shared economic growth, promoting effective and efficient delivery of public services and consolidating the rule of law. The challenge is to turn the high-level conceptual framework provided here into viable, phased programmes. As government interacts with the various social partners, it is keeping an open mind about other possibilities and combinations of ideas. What will be required among all social partners, though, is a preparedness to step out of straight jackets in creatively searching for effective and sustainable way s of meeting the national objective to halve poverty by 2014. The other challenge is to turn the framework provided here into resourced and practical programmes. The main uncertainty remains around the ability to stimulate the creation of appropriate economic opportunities on the requisite scale. Based on this discussion document, the ANC government seeks to solicit inputs and commitments from various stakeholders on their role in eradicating poverty and get inputs and comments as well as commitment and buy in on some of these government proposals Inputs and comments will be consolidated and included in the current draft to develop: a.An Anti-Poverty Strategy for SA b.An anti-poverty plan that commits all various role players in the fight against poverty The relevant departments and clusters will therefore have urgently to: 1.Develop implementation plans f or achieving the employment targets, with monitoring and evaluation systems. 2.Finalise proposals for supporting t he unemployed, ill, and children in households without adults and proposals f or implementing the wage subsidy for able-bodied young people. 3.Expand and ensure sufficient budgets f or programmes to improve and monitor education in poor communities, and develop proposals for substantially expanding school leavers' access to training. 4.Develop proposals to improve the access of the poor to healthcare, including by addressing waiting times and the cost of treatment and transport. 5.Develop systems to identify, support and monitor indigent households. As part of this process, it is important to work with social partners to develop a common definition of poverty, and a statistical system to monitor it, as well as standards for basic services and measures to reduce the level of exclusions and shut-offs. 6.Finalise institutional proposals, with timeframes, responsibilities and funding. 7.Develop quantified projections on settlement patterns and spell out the implications for infrastructure and employment needs in both rural and urban areas. We all hope that the discussion document on Anti-Poverty Strategy will initiate a public debate and cohesion on addressing the challenges of poverty. By building on what we have achieved, by acknowledging our shortcomings, by learning from experience - we will be able to make even further progress in improving the lives of our people. MORE INFORMATION: Towards an Anti-Poverty Strategy for SA - Discussion Document http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/docs/pcsa/economic/antipoverty_2008.pdf ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of ANC Today is available from the ANC web site at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2008/at43.htm To receive ANC Today free of charge by e-mail each week go to: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/subscribe.html To unsubscribe yourself from the ANC Today mailing list go to: http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?doc=lists/anctoday.htm