Viewpoint | BY ZAMANI SAUL
Our primary responsibility is to unite and mobilize society behind the transformation agenda

The untimed succession debate grossly undermines the voters and goes against every grain of revolutionary morality and against what we are about that hardly a month after Comrade Jacob Zuma took an oath of office as President of the Republic, succession debates are invoked. >>> MORE

Viewpoint | BY MALUSI GIGABA
Let us harness migration for development

There is growing recognition and appreciation of, as well as focus on, the relationship between international migration and development, even though current development strategies do not take due account of international migration. >>> MORE

Viewpoint | by Zamani Saul

Our primary responsibility is to unite and mobilise society behind the transformation agenda

On three occasions in the run up to the 2009 General Elections the ANC Research Unit presented reports to the NEC on the mood and attitude of South Africans towards the ANC. The research work was periodic, almost bi-monthly, and with a fairly big and representative sample.

There were in the main three issues that consistently came out of the report:

 

• One, that the majority of South Africans have a positive attitude to the ANC and still have confidence in the movement as the only organisation that truly represents their best aspirations.
• Two, that the majority of South Africans are seriously concerned about the divisions within the ANC as they think that such divisions have a potential to reverse many gains that the country made in the past fifteen years.
• Lastly, the research highlighted that there was a strong perception among South Africans that both ANC and government leaders are self-serving. Very interestingly but strangely, was the finding that this perception was most pervasive among strong ANC supporters.

Over the past few weeks we read with concern headline articles in some national newspapers, to mention few, City Press (06/09/09) and Mail & Guardian (04/09/09), on the leadership succession in the ANC.

The current NEC leadership collective was elected at the watershed, Polokwane 52nd National Conference in 2007. This means that this leadership collective is not even mid-term. This dictates that the debate should be more about the implementation of Polokwane resolutions and the 2009 ANC Election Manifesto which was overwhelmingly adopted by the majority of South Africans through their overwhelming vote for the ANC.

This untimed succession debate grossly undermines the voters and perpetuates the perception that as ANC leaders we are only interested in "ourselves and our positions". It goes against every grain of revolutionary morality, and against what we are, that hardly a month after Comrade Jacob Zuma took an oath of office as President of the Republic, succession debates are invoked.

This is diversionism of the worst order that betrays political immaturity. Our primary responsibility is to lead society and mobilize the broader South African society behind the transformation agenda of the ANC and government. Embarking on this organisational task requires from all of us, particularly members of Alliance to fiercely resist the temptation to generate unnecessary debates which are likely to crystallize in unnecessary contradictions with the great potential of dividing the ANC and South African society.

We should not even make ourselves amenable to be dragged by the media into discussing this matter. At this stage it is a non-debate, we have a leadership collective whose credibility and authority to lead the ANC is unquestionable. With unshaken resolve this same leadership collective steered the ANC ship through difficult times in the past few months.

The rescue phase of the movement is finally over, our primary responsibility is to remain constantly vigilant and work extraordinarily hard to unite and build the movement from the shock-wave of the challenging 52nd National Conference and the COPE split. We can’t afford to have ourselves distracted at this critical juncture of our struggle.

Our struggle is to hegemonise the ANC led Alliance in the battle of ideas, and this entails robustly contesting determination of the content, velocity, tone and space of the public discourse in our country. Because we responded in a manner that appeased media houses on the issue of the second term, the media creatively shifted the debate from the position of the President, and now the debate is about a likely contestation of Secretary General position. The manner in which we handled this matter, seeks to suggest that there is such a debate, if such debate does exist its ill-informed and premature and will take the movement nowhere.

The 2009 General Elections proved that the myth of invincibility of the ANC is an exaggeration, we lost ground. Now our focus should not be premised on debates which are not properly generated from the ANC structures, but on how to strengthen the ANC to recover the lost ground, and how to strengthen the delivery capacity of government. The latter is a task this leadership collective must execute with extraordinary degree of focus and any leadership succession debates at this stage might generate ill-informed leadership battles.

Such battles have a full potential to debilitate the work of the ANC as an organisation and can also adversely affect the work of government. South Africans, and in particularly the black working class, our primary motive force, have placed massive expectations on the ANC and government, our hands are full.

Focus is our only weapon to ensure that the centenary of the ANC in 2012 will deliver a movement strong, energetic, focused, united and vibrant to see another century. It is unavoidable that at a right time and right place this debate will emerge. It will emerge when we discuss the state of organisation towards the 53rd National Conference, which will include our assessment of the performance of the NEC, both as collective and individuals.

Our immediate task is to support the current leadership. The right place where the debate will take place is in the structures of the ANC and alliance partners. As leaders we must be wary of the inherent dangers of arrogating the work of the structures of the ANC to volatility of ideas that characterizes our streets and media houses. At the ultimate end, it is not about "us and our positions" it is all about the ANC and advancing the National Democratic Revolution and the transformation agenda.

Let us focus on implementing the Polokwane Resolutions and the mandate the electorate gave us. We dare not fail the ANC and the people of South Africa.

>> Zamani Saul is the Northern Cape ANC Provincial Secretary

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Viewpoint | by Malusi Gigaba

Managing migration for development

The issue of international migration has prompted very interesting debates in South Africa which, to a large degree, are littered with many misconceptions. These include, but are not limited to, that: first, immigration is presumed to be a new phenomenon that started just post-1994; secondly, it is presumed to be about foreign nationals coming into South Africa while South Africans do not go to live and work abroad; third, all "illegal" immigrants are presumed to be African and criminal, or put differently, every African is probably an "illegal" migrant and a criminal; fourth, South Africa is presumed to be swamped by foreign nationals and every African wants to come live in South Africa, to benefit from its strong economy and thus to rob South Africans of their rightful dues; fifth, South Africa can stop or reverse immigration.

Arising from these misconceptions, many South Africans thus regard international migration as negative, as something to be combated. But, such negative views are not limited to South Africa alone. Many other countries share many of these and immigrants have increasingly become a political tool. Many countries face a pattern of mixed-migration flows – that is, regular and irregular migrants, including refugees, forced migrants who are victims of human trafficking and unaccompanied minors. South Africa shares similar experiences.

In contemporary times, largely owing to the globalisation process, migration has become more complex and has expanded. Every country is now either a point of origin, transit or destination for migrants; often all three at once, and there is little reason to believe that this will slow down in the decades ahead.

For many people in developing countries migration offers a way out of poverty for them and their families, as they can send remittances to meet their families’ socio-economic needs. However, for developed countries, immigrants offer an alternative source of people and labour at a time of declining population and labour supply. This is illustrated in the recruitment of skilled labour, especially from developing countries.

In Africa, the colonial legacy has further contributed to shaping the continent’s prevailing migration trends. There is, for example, a lot of irregular cross-border movement of people between South Africa and Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique and Botswana visiting relatives from across the borders, which is a legacy of colonialism.

If managed well, migration in Africa can and will lead to development. The challenge however is that most African countries have no capacity to harness migration for development. Yet, in most countries, remittances serve an important function among many people who otherwise would have no income.

Historically, migrant labour within Africa has been high, especially in South Africa. However, post-1994, irregular labour migration in South Africa, including that of working class and low-skilled peoples from other African States, has risen sharply.

Labour migration is more complex than migrant labour and has major implications for the development objective in Africa. Globally, especially in developed countries, the hunt for skills has fuelled massive, targeted and aggressive programmes to recruit skilled foreign nationals, especially from developing countries, in a manner that has proven itself clearly detrimental to their development needs. Unless managed better and differently, this threatens to perpetuate global socio-economic disparities between the developed and developing countries. The so-called "brain drain" can be mitigated through encouraging return and temporary migration as well as investments in education and skills development in Africa.

Most migrants coming into South Africa are doing so not so much in search for work, but rather in search of self-employment opportunities. Migrants in South Africa are a notably self-reliant and very entrepreneurial. And many others travel weekly, daily or during weekends to trade, purchase goods or groceries and return to their home countries, thus serving as a positive factor for local businesses, especially next to border gates.

Another large migrant group in South Africa is that of asylum-seekers and refugees. Whereas all refugees are immigrants, of course not all immigrants are refugees. War, conflict, human rights violations and political repression are the main causes of asylum in Africa, even though there are growing proportions of economic refugees. However, refugees in South Africa are far fewer than often presumed to be.

The challenge facing refugees and asylum-seekers is to guarantee their safety and security, whilst still travelling and once in the host country, to advance their human rights, welfare and other socio-economic rights.

Often, because of lack of regular avenues for low and medium skilled migrants, they try to exploit the asylum system to gain regularisation and thus avoid deportations and exploitation and abuse by corrupt and unscrupulous officials, employers and criminals. It is when regular doors close largely on poor and working class migrants that irregular options are explored. Migration involves people and as such, there are human rights issues involved.

Irregular migration is inextricably linked to human security and human rights. It is difficult to quantify the numbers of irregular migrants because it is often undocumented, clandestine and can involve human trafficking and human smuggling. And, there are many negative consequences associated with this, which may include possible exploitation by employers, landlords and corrupt police and other government officials; lack of security; and because they are irregular, they cannot use their skills and hence play a role and contribute in the economy of the destination country.

Quite often, irregular migrants are blamed for crime and other socio-economic challenges facing the locals, and end up being victims of xenophobic violence. International migration has an uneven impact both within and between nation-states and has thus far benefited the developed countries often at the expense of the developing countries, and has reinforced the class and gender disparities.

There is growing recognition and appreciation of, as well as focus on, the relationship between international migration and development, even though current development strategies do not take due account of international migration. Perhaps, few countries would understand the political and socio-economic impact of international migration as well as South Africa, given the heavy influence it has had and shall continue to have in future on the national question in this country. International migration drastically transforms the country’s population, cities and economy. Like their global counterparts, many cities of the country are becoming cosmopolitan and hubs of human, cultural and economic interface.

Consequently, nation-building shall continue to be a permanent feature of South African and all other societies, which would include integrating the increasing numbers of immigrants, which is vital for growth, stability and cohesion.

Managing migration effectively, humanely and, above all, in the national interest is a public policy challenge which requires a paradigm shift away from viewing migration as a nuisance to be combated, and begin to view it positively as a process that can lead to the development of our economy, the improvement of our national and regional security, the deepening of our human and African solidarity and enhancement of our diversity.

Public policy shift must ensure that we integrate migration into development strategies and planning and thus take its positive benefits into cognisance. The challenge for South Africa, in the context of globalisation, is to develop an international migration policy that seeks to manage rather than combat migration.

Managing immigration requires sound policies that balance promoting the immigration of investors and skilled professionals and that of working class persons. Our small entrepreneurs may also benefit from cooperating with and learning from the entrepreneurship skills of migrants from other parts of the developing countries.

To achieve this objective requires that all government departments, all three tiers of government and society must each understand their role and undertake their own responsibilities towards migrants. This must be supported by credible data on immigration and refugee situations in the country to feed public discourse and debunk myths, misconceptions and stereotypes.

To manage immigration also means that the interests and needs, as well as the contribution of immigrants will be acknowledged, whilst acknowledging also those of the majority of the population as a whole. This means that all must accept the responsibility and the outcomes of that process through integrating immigrants.

In this regard, government must not try to act alone. The private sector, labour unions and non-governmental organisations must all collaborate with the state to harness our migration management efforts. Such cooperation should address the issues of national policy, coordinated implementation and capacity building, and facilitate public debate and dialogue on international migration.

Beyond national initiatives, there must also be bilateral, regional and global inter-state cooperation. This will ensure shared responsibility and shared benefits, especially between sending and receiving countries. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Free Movement Protocol, the bilateral visa waiver agreements and many other initiatives such as the dialogue between developed and developing countries attempt to accomplish exactly this. Such policies also help to re-channel human movement away from illegally crossing the border towards regular entry through recognised ports of entry. This would both enable South Africa to record and regulate immigrants as well as guarantee the security of the immigrants.

Supporting such management must be a comprehensive border control strategy aimed at balancing national security control and economic, day-to-day migration of ordinary people. Border control does not mean the same thing as immigration control.Furthermore, the pursuit for peace and stability, development and democracy on the continent is vital to address the root causes of migration and forced displacements, to diminish the push factors and strive to level the pull factors. This alone will not diminish migration, but it will assist somewhat to diminish irregular, undocumented migration.

It would be crucial for Africa to find ways to ensure that Africans abroad and in the Diaspora support and galvanise support for the Africa’s development, and invest in Africa through encouraging the transfer of resources, information, skills, information and knowledge; as well as to mobilise these African émigrés to support African political and foreign policy objectives.

Only through management can South Africa finally succeed to deal with what currently seems as an intractable challenge.

>> Malusi Gigaba is an ANC NEC member and Deputy Minister of Home Affairs