1.1 The non-racial democratic elections held in April 1994 and the establishment of the Government of National Unity, for the first time in the history of South Africa, provided a framework through which citizens of our country can collectively determine their destiny as political and constitutional equals. This development brought to an end centuries of colonialism. It opens a new chapter in which South Africans can join the world as a free nation working together for democracy, peace and a rising quality of life.
1.2 This historic breakthrough was the culmination of the heroic struggle by the majority of the people and the relentless support of the international community. It was this struggle which forced the apartheid regime to concede the need for negotiations with the genuine representatives of the oppressed people. The negotiations opened the way for the establishment of a government based on the will of the democratic majority.
1.3 However, the balance of forces has dictated that there should be limitations on the extent of the exercise of majority rule. The democratic movement has attained only elements of political power, with much of the state machinery still remaining intact. At the same time, the advances which have been made by the ANC and the democratic movement contain a potential platform on which a fully democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society can be built.
1.4 This is the essence of the challenges facing the ANC and the rest of the democratic movement. We are called upon to correctly assess the current situation, take advantage of the many possibilities which this situation provides and fulfil the strategic objective which still lies ahead.
2.1 The establishment of the outpost of the Dutch East India Company in the Cape Peninsula in 1652 marked the beginning of a long history of colonisation over the indigenous people of our country. The establishment of this outpost was a direct consequence of economic expansion in Europe and the emergence of a new commercial class. This class was either at the helm of or was acting in collusion with governments which saw colonisation of foreign markets as one of the ways of developing their own economies as well as alleviating economic, political and demographic problems in their countries.
2.2 A series of resistance wars against colonialism were waged by the indigenous people at every possible frontier. The Dutch colonists who were the first to occupy our land by force of arms, later came into conflict with a new colonial power, Great Britain. Great Britain finally established its colonial authority over the full extent of the future South Africa at the end of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.
2.3 The defeat of the Bambata Rebellion in 1906 marked the end of that series of resistance wars by our people as fragmented ethnic groups.
2.4 The defeat of our people in the wars of resistance was largely the result of the following factors: Firstly, this was the time of the ascendancy of capitalism as a world system. It was a system founded on and backed by a more developed economic base, a superior arsenal of weaponry and a more established political force. Secondly, indigenous peoples resisted as divided, fragmented and at times fratricidal ethnic groups. Thirdly, there was no developed political leadership and organisation that could forge political cohesion and national consciousness amongst the different ethnic groups.
2.5 Through the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, Britain ceded political power to the white settler minority to the exclusion and against the interests of the African majority. This act marked the establishment of what we characterised as "colonialism of a special type"
This form of colonialism was so described because of the co-existence within the same territory of both the "colonial power" and the colonised.
3.1 The African National Congress (ANC) was founded in 1912 with the purpose of uniting and mobilising the oppressed African majority in resistance against a political and constitutional Union which had totally excluded the African people from its framework. The strategic objective of this resistance was the establishment of a non-racial democracy in our country. From 1912 until 1960 this objective was pursued through various peaceful extra-parliamentary means.
3.2 In the course of that period of resistance the ANC forged a resistance pact with democratic organisations of the Indian and Coloured communities. This pact was based upon the recognition of two important factors. Firstly, the recognition that these communities themselves were also politically and constitutionally oppressed. Secondly, the recognition that successive white minority governments were trying to co-opt these national groups into an undemocratic political and constitutional order as second class citizens in order to bolster that order against the resistance of the African majority.
3.3 The ANC also forged a pact with the organisation of white democrats who shared the desire of the oppressed to attain a non- racial democracy. This pact was also based on the recognition that political and constitutional freedom of white people in our country was not real without the liberation of the African people.
3.4 The ANC entered into a resistance alliance with organisations of the working class represented by the Communist Party of South Africa (and later, the South African Communist Party), as well as the progressive trade union movement, ultimately represented by the South African Congress of Trade Unions.
3.5 These formations, the progressive organisations of the various national groups and the working class as well as the trade unions became basic organisational components in the alliance that was forged to ensure the mobilisation of the mass of the people in the struggle against Apartheid colonialism. This alliance also re- cognised the leading role of the ANC which derived from the common acceptance of the fact that the struggle was characterised by the central objective of the emancipation of the African majority.
3.6 Already from the end of the 1940s, the joint involvement in struggle of the oppressed national groups began to shift the subjective understanding of the objective of the struggle from being the "liberation of the African majority" to "the liberation of the black people in general and Africans in particular". The evolution of the struggle over the last four decades in particular further emphasised the objective of the emancipation of the black people as a whole.
3.7 As the South African economy developed and urban life began to assert its pre-eminence, recognition of the centrality of the African workers in particular and the black workers in general to the struggle for national emancipation also grew.
3.8 At that stage of the national democratic resistance, the ANC identified the liberation of the African majority as the main content of the national democratic struggle. This strategic aim governed every aspect of the conduct of mass resistance.
3.9 In 1960 the ANC was officially banned. That development led to the conviction within our movement that the strategy of armed struggle had become a necessary and appropriate option in the advancement of our struggle.
4.1 From 1960 onwards methods of resistance of our people led by the ANC were characterised by the adoption of a strategic approach which recognised the importance of four pillars of our struggle in the conduct of resistance. These four pillars were utilised in an integrated manner which ensured mutual reinforcement of one another and the more effective advancement of the liberation struggle in its totality.
4.2 The ANC led a campaign of mass political education and agitation from the underground. It was a campaign aimed at achieving mass political rejection of Apartheid in all its forms. As a longer term objective, the campaign sought to make the country ungovernable and Apartheid unworkable. It sought to empower the masses politically, to enable them to take their future in their own hands and to replace Apartheid structures with structures of mass resistance and popular governance.
4.3 The formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961 opened a chapter of underground armed resistance and placed on the agenda the seizure of power by the people from the white minority regime.
4.4 The ANC mission abroad co-ordinated an international political campaign. The objective was to ensure political, military, economic and cultural isolation of the Apartheid regime. It was also aimed at mobilising political, material and human resources for the national liberation movement.
4.5 The liberation alliance led by the ANC created a network of underground structures inside and outside the country to ensure the realisation of all the strategic and tactical goals of the liberation movement.
5.1 In 1990 the Apartheid regime was forced to lift the ban on the ANC and other organisations. This development constituted a strategic victory for the movement, leading to the creation of political conditions which made it possible to pursue the objective of the transfer of political power to the people through negotiations.
5.2 Negotiations aimed at establishing a new and democratic constitutional order began in earnest. Of particular importance with regard to these constitutional negotiations and their outcome are the following considerations:
5.2.1 The negotiations took place in a situation in which the end of the Cold War shifted the balance of forces internationally decisively in favour of the resolution of regional conflicts through negotiations. Our own struggle internally and in our mobilisation internationally posed the negotiation possibility as a tolerable option to the regime.
5.2.2 In the course of that struggle, neither the liberation movement nor the forces of white minority rule had emerged as an outright victor, thus obliging these two opposing forces to enter into certain tactical agreements with each other.
5.2.3 During the negotiations, the liberation forces were further inhibited by the fact that the multi-party negotiation forum was not elected and therefore could not use the power of a convincing election victory further to ensure the imprint of the views of the majority on the constitutional process.
5.2.4 The negotiations culminated in an agreement which established institutions and processes that led to the transfer of important elements of political power to the people while leaving the old state machinery in place and enabling the political representatives of the old order to participate in governing the country.
5.2.5 The negotiated settlement imposed constitutional procedures or "rules of the game" on all political forces within the country through which these forces, including the national liberation movement, could pursue their political objectives.
5.3 The April 1994 elections held in line with the provision of the Interim Constitution marked a qualitative development in the process towards broad political democratisation.
5.4 This election confirmed the ANC as the principal political force in the country and the representative of the majority of the people. Because of the existence of a particular balance of forces in our country at the time, the negotiation process resulted in the acceptance by all major political forces of the need for the Government of National Unity for the first five years of democratic governance.
6.1 The strategic objective of the ANC is the transformation of our country into a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society. Each of these principles are interlinked and are all part of the central objective of a thorough-going democratisation of our country. It must be understood that this objective which visualises the reconstruction and development of South Africa, can be achieved only through the struggle for the completion of the total objective of the national democratic revolution.
6.2 The elections of April 1994, the establishment of the GNU led by the ANC and the adoption of the interim constitution amount to a qualitative historical moment in the course of transfer of political power from the white minority to the democratic majority. This moment marked a decisive but not a complete transfer of political power. The democratic majority has won only some of the important elements of that political power necessary for the advancement of the struggle towards the completion of the current phase of the democratic revolution.
6.3 The creation of a non-racial society, a central objective of the national democratic revolution, requires that the movement should set short, medium and long-term targets and adopt a programme of action aimed at genuine deracialisation of our society. Similar targets and programmes of action should be adopted to address the issue of creating a non-sexist society, proceeding from our acceptance of the strategic concept that without the emancipation of women no society can be said to be truly liberated. The task of deracialising our society plus the ending of gender disparities are central to the effort of the total dismantling of apartheid.
6.4 Another objective of the national democratic revolution is the achievement of national unity. This requires that though we should continue to recognise the ethnic and racial diversity of our society, we should seek to build a united society which would not be torn apart by competing and antagonistic ethnic and racial demands. This requires among other things, that we should continue to oppose any solutions which seek to distribute political, economic and state power on the basis of race and ethnicity or which seek to distribute power among these regions. At the same time we must continue to uphold the principle and the practice of bringing government as close to the people as possible, to ensure popular participation in government.
6.5 The attainment of a high quality of life for all South Africans is one of the central objectives of the ANC. The main strategic plan in our endeavour to attain that objective is the RDP. It is aimed at addressing reconstruction and development at every sphere of our human existence and effort. The survival of the very essence of our political, constitutional and national integrity largely depends on our countryÕs ability to attain and sustain an improving quality of life.
7.1 The main contradiction of this phase is the yawning political, economic and social disparities based on race and ethnicity which were created and consolidated by apartheid rule over the years. It is for this reason that the main content of this phase continues to be the all-round political, economic and social emancipation of the black majority in general and the African people in particular. The final objective of the national liberation revolution still lies ahead of us.
7.2 The main motive forces of the democratic transformation are primarily represented by African workers and the African rural poor. These forces are also represented by black workers in general and the black middle strata. These are the forces which possess the best political and ideological potential to lead and defend the process of transformation.
7.3 At the same time we must recognise the fact that there is social differentiation these black masses which at times will lead the various strata and classes to express different aspirations and pursue separate objectives. While continuing to strive to represent the black people as a whole, the movement must however ensure that, at all times, and in the first instance, it represents the interests of the workers, rural masses and the middle strata, those who constitute the majority of the people of this country.
7.4 The process of reconstruction and development is taking place at a time when labour organisations have reached an unprecedented level of organisational and political maturity. Rural communities, more than at any time in the past, are acutely aware of and are reclaiming their right to land. A multiplicity of democratic organisations of civil society have taken root both in rural and urban areas. These are sections of our society who are eager to see a thorough-going process of social transformation.
7.5 The continued predominance of the national question in our social and historical motion points to the amount of work we still have to do in organising and mobilising among the white community. To a certain extent the same reality applies to the Indian and Coloured communities. It is an indication that we still have to convince these communities that the policies and programmes of the ANC, in the long term, guarantee the best interest of the country as a whole as opposed to the short-term sectional interests devised by the grand Apartheid strategy of the past.
7.6 Various sections among the white community share an objective interest in the abolition of the old order, the creation of conditions of stability and peace as well as the establishment of truly democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society. These sections must also be mobilised to come over to the side of the democratic transformation.
7.7 Continued predominance of the national question in our social motion is also an indication of the road we have to traverse towards the attainment of a truly non-racial democracy. The process towards the attainment of this objective is inseparable from our ability to manage the reconstruction and development programme in such a way that we eliminate Apartheid's artificial barriers and remove socio- economic disparities based on race and ethnicity and thus open the way for our march towards a fully non-racial and non-sexist democracy.
8.1 The character of the ANC should continue to derive from the correct assessment of the current phase of the democratic revolution and the motive forces of that revolution. It is for this reason that the ANC should continue to maintain its character as a broad national liberation movement.
8.2 The result of the April 1994 elections confirmed the correctness of the ANCÕs characterisation of itself. The result also confirmed the correctness of the characterisation of the main content of our national democratic revolution and the correct identification of the main motive forces.
8.3 The ANC is a broad national liberation movement at the head of the process of political and social transformation. The character and strength of the ANC must continue to reside in its mass base. It must strive to remain a broad democratic movement by accepting into its ranks all those who accept and abide by its policies and objectives. The character and strength of the ANC also reside in its ability to mobilise and organise the African National Congress WomenÕs League (ANCWL) and the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL).
8.4 The ability of the ANC to continue to champion the struggle for the emancipation of women and lead the struggle towards the establishment of a non-sexist society depends on our success in integrating the objective of non-sexism in all our transformation programmes, as well as ensuring that all our organisational structures are politically and organisationally empowered to pursue this goal in a consistent manner.
8.5 The ANCWL represents a section of our society which, over the decades, has been oppressed and exploited as a nation, a class and as women. True transformation of our society will only have meaning if it addresses the plight of triple oppression suffered by women. The ANCWL should continue to broaden its base and to strengthen its organisational strength. It should place itself at the centre of the struggle of womenÕs organisations and at the centre of the Gender Commission.
8.6 The ANCYL should continue to function as an organisational and political preparatory school of young activists of our movement. The organisational autonomy of the ANCYL broadens the organisational and political human resource base of the ANC. The ANCYL always provides organisational vibrancy and the youthful political debate imperative to a revolutionary organisation. It should continue to broaden its base and to deepen its political and organisational strength. It must strive to galvanise and to place itself at the centre of the broadest spectrum of youth organisations for reconstruction and development. It must play an influential role in the programme of the Youth Commission.
9.1 Our ability to maximise organisational capacity of the ANC depends on our ability to marshall the widest possible base of our people for the main political task. Over the decades the strategy of building political alliances has proved to be an indispensable prerequisite in pursuit of this objective.
9.2 The Tripartite Alliance is situated at the centre of this broad political and organisational front which recognises the leading role of the ANC and is united around the perspectives contained in the Reconstruction and Development Programme.
9.3 Historically, the Tripartite Alliance owes its existence to a shared interest in the victory of the national democratic revolution on the part of the national democratic movement, the party of socialism and the progressive TU movement.
9.4 While maintaining their independence, these forces continue to share a joint interest in retaining this alliance to ensure united action in meeting further objectives of the national democratic revolution, in conditions which some elements of political power have been transferred into the hands of the people. To this end, they have agreed on a common platform as contained in the Reconstruction and Development Programme.
9.5 Each component of the Alliance has a responsibility to organise and mobilise its social base and any other forces allied to it, for the defence of the democratic revolution, the implementation of the RDP and the mobilisation of the people as a whole for their constructive engagement in the process of the fundamental transformation of the country.
9.6 The ANC continues to encourage the growth, consolidation and mobilisation of mass democratic organisations of civil society (civics, village committees, cultural organisations, student formations, religious organisations, NGOs, CBOs, etc) as popular vehicles for change.
9.7 It is imperative that we intensify the work of building ANC organisational structures in the localities. These structures should be sufficiently organised to guide and lead in the implementation of reconstruction and development. This task should be performed in a manner consistent with our understanding of what constitutes the main content of transformation and who comprise the main motive forces of the transformation.
9.8 The historical process of transformation which the ANC leads requires that the movement should pay special attention to the all- round development of a core of cadres who must play a central role as organisers and activists, capable of strengthening the capacity of the movement to discharge its responsibilities during the current phase of the struggle.
9.9 Similarly, care must be taken to ensure a balanced deployment of cadres to ensure our effective intervention on all fronts, including the governmental, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary, with proper coordination among all these levels, to ensure that we act as one movement, united around a common policy and bound by a common programme of action. 9.10 Conscious and systematic efforts will also have to be made to ensure that the ANCÕs membership truly reflects the broad mass base which the movement represents, both in the rural and urban areas.
9.11 Consistent political work among this membership will also have to be carried out to ensure that it is fully empowered to carry out its role as a conscious force for the reconstruction and development of the country, in keeping with the policies of the movement.
9.12 Today the task of building the organisational capacity of the movement is inseparable from successful implementation of the RDP. This capacity cannot depend only on ANC organisational structures. Of themselves, these structures are inadequate for the task. The organisational capacity of the ANC for the task ahead should be seen in its widest possible sense; as the leader of the Tripartite Alliance and the mass democratic movement, as the vanguard movement of the MDM, as the leading political party in the GNU and as the main driving force of the reconstruction and development programme of the government. The ANC should pursue its strategic political objective by exercising effective political and organisational leadership at all these levels.
9.13 Our political and organisational capacity should be geared towards ensuring our decisive influence in local government structures. It is at this level where community involvement and empowerment can be directly realised. It is at this level where popular implementation at its most basic sense can be effected.
10.1 All key sectors of our community were supportive of the democratic electoral process which took place in April 27 1994. The process of national democratic change, however, did not end with the April elections. The moment of national unity around the Interim Constitution and the electoral process should be translated and extended to a national consensus, a new patriotism built on the realisation and acceptance by all major sectors of our society of the fact that it is in the interest of the country as a whole to promote and consolidate that democratic settlement.
10.2 The leadership role in promoting that national consensus falls on the shoulders of the ANC. The class foundation of that social consensus is the labour movement, the civic movement and the private sector. Its political foundation is the GNU.
10.3 The challenge of forging a lasting national consensus is closely linked with the challenge of forging a common approach towards the transformation of the economy. This common approach should primarily address itself to ensuring the following elements:
10.4 Conditions should be created to ensure that business contributes to the successful implementation of the RDP both in its own interest and in the common effort to ensure stability and sustainable economic growth.
10.5 Central to the task of forging this consensus and creating a stable and democratic socio-economic base for the RDP is the speedy resolution of the land and agrarian question in our country. Land restitution is integral to building a new democratic nation. To the majority of our people who were forcibly dispossessed of their land, land restitution is one of the main gateways to family life, social coherence, personal freedom, social security and the right to property. The ANC should ensure that the government advances an adequate legal and political framework designed to address this question. It is only on the basis of a proper strategy that the agrarian question can properly be situated within the broader socio-economic strategy for reconstruction and development.
10.6 The RDP document was drafted by the mass democratic movement led by the ANC. Today that document has become the main policy guideline of the GNU. The ANC strategy of reconstruction and development has assumed a status providing a global framework to every conceivable aspect of social activity. The reality of the leading role of this policy framework enjoins the ANC with political responsibility over a constituency as broad as South African society itself.
11.1 The act of restructuring and transforming organs of state power constitutes one of the most important tasks in the process of broadening and consolidating the national democratic settlement. It is with the completion of this process that the revolution can truly be said to have equalled the task of defending and advancing itself.
11.2 The process of restructuring and transforming the state machinery, at all levels, should essentially comprise of democratisation at three fundamental levels. Firstly, such organs should reflect the national character and social content of our country. Secondly, it should affirm in favour of deprived social classes. Thirdly, it should affirm in favour of and promote gender equality.
11.3 Restructuring and democratisation of organs of state power also involves retraining personnel both in terms of skills and in terms of outlook in line with the task of the current period, the kind of society we are trying to create and the demands of service to the people, transparency and accountability.
11.4 The civil service is located at the strategic interaction and communication point between the executive arm of government and the people. Its democratisation is tantamount to opening more effective channels central to ensuring good governance, popular empowerment and effective delivery. In the end, we must create an effective and efficient civil service, free of corruption, geared to serve the interests of the people and motivated to effect change rather than maintain the status quo.
11.5 We need to move with some speed towards the transformation of the armed forces, the police and correctional services as well as the intelligence agencies of the government in order to guarantee the defence of the constitution, protection of citizens of the country, protection of public and private property and the preservation of the integrity of the state. The governmentÕs ability to adequately address continued political and criminal violence to a large extent depends on the fundamental transformation of these organs of state power.
11.6 The defence of the revolution demands, among other things, that we ensure civilian control over the defence force, the police and political oversight over the intelligence services. All necessary steps should be taken to ensure that members of these state organs are themselves imbued with the vision contained in the national perspective of reconstruction and development.
11.7 We need a new and democratic education dispensation designed to redress imbalances of Apartheid and to begin to create a new national outlook consistent with our strategic political object of a new patriotism, the promotion of national unity, the modernisation of society, the freedom and fulfilment of the individual and the full integration of our country in the international community as an equal with all nations.
12.1 The task of formulating the new constitution by our people through the Constituent Assembly constitutes one of the most pivotal developments in the process of revolutionary transformation of our society. We must strive to ensure that the constitution reflects the fundamental perspectives of the national liberation movement with regard to the nature of the state we seek and the institutions we require to address the objective of democracy, popular participation, national unity, accountability and transparency. 12.2 Where necessary, the constitution should also reflect internationally accepted norms to bring our country into the mainstream of the most progressive traditions that humanity as a whole has evolved.
12.3 We must try to ensure that society as a whole makes a meaningful impact on the process of drawing up the constitution so that the fundamental law that will be the end product is accepted by the overwhelming majority of our population as the basic framework regulating the governing of our country.
13.1 It is largely the task of the ANC as the leading political party in the GNU to promote and foster the spirit which underpins the existence of this government. The ANC should always encourage the quest for a democratic consensus or resolution which does not impair the fine balance between the practical recognition of the principle of majority rule and the unity of the GNU. What we should always bare in mind however is the fact that the principle of majority rule is one of the most important weapons we have in our plan to introduce progressive and fundamental social changes in our country. It is imperative that the ANC assumes full responsibility for its overwhelming election mandate and drive the transformation process from its leading position within government. At the same time, we are called upon to foster the sense of national unity, to champion the task of nation building, to promote the spirit of reconciliation and to protect the integrity of the state while ensuring effective government.
13.2 Among the factors which pose the greatest threat to national unity and national integrity are the uneven socio-economic developments and vast disparities in natural endowment among different provinces and localities. These disparities are a threat to co- operation between the centre and the provinces and to co-operation between different provinces themselves. They tend to engender a scramble for scarce resources and pose the real danger of fanning racial and ethnic tensions. It is the political task of the ANC to promote a constitutional and political framework designed to nurture patriotism, a national perspective to matters of state and governance, and the dismantling of the system of Apartheid in all its manifestations.
13.3 The movement does not have much experience in governance. As a result both political and administrative problems arise from time to time. What is important in the face of all these challenges is to recognise the political centrality of the ANC as the leading organisation in government. We need to make sure that it continues to reiterate basic tenets of its policy, to emphasise the unity of the movement and its leadership and to involve the masses in the challenge of governance. It is only by involving the masses that they can truly claim to be owners and custodians of the democratic, reconstruction and development process. It is also by involving them that they can appreciate challenges facing the government and the tasks that lie ahead.
13.4 Accordingly, we must pay great attention to issues of local government in both the urban and rural areas in order to ensure that the new democracy we are still building have strong, representative and elected administrative structures at the local level and enables the active intervention of the organised masses in the process of governance.
13.5 In the rural areas, while recognising the existence of traditional leaders and traditional structures of governance, we must ensure that these leaders and structures recognise, respect and facilitate the process of democratisation in the country while they serve as institutions to unite the people around questions of peace, development and nation-building.
13.6 The ANC should ensure that the movement is not split into various sections - extra-parliamentary, parliamentary and executive or alternatively national, provincial and local - but exercises its leadership function as one united movement acting together in pursuit of common goals regardless of where its members are deployed. At all times we should strive to bring the leadership of the ANC and the government closer to the people.
14.1 Violence and social instability have been a feature of South African society from the beginning of the process of the colonisation of our country. This derived both from the direct process of colonisation and the impoverishment of individuals and communities resulting from the establishment of exploitative social relations.
14.2 The democratic order has inherited counter-insurgency forces and individuals who, as part of the old order, were organised, trained and indoctrinated as a reactionary force to resist the birth of a democratic society. Some of these are capable of and have been involved in the use of violence to achieve this objective and have the means to destabilise the new society through the use of force.
14.3 The democratic order has also inherited a situation of high levels of both violent and non-violent crime which reflect both the poverty of millions of our people, the social disintegration which derived from the illegitimacy of the government and the state as well as the moral crisis which mirrored the crisis of the Apartheid system as a whole.
14.4 The guarantee of peace and social stability is one of the fundamental objectives of the democratic revolution, without which it is impossible to realise the objectives contained in the RDP. It is therefore our duty to ensure that we destroy all centres of counter- revolutionary violence and destabilisation that may still exist within our society and to reorient the security forces and the public at large to deal more effectively with the challenge of political and criminal violence.
14.5 Another objective we have to achieve is to work towards the restoration of a culture of respect for human dignity, the creation of a gunfree society and establishment of respect for and acceptance of the legitimacy of all state structures.
14.6 In our interest, we must also contribute everything we can to ensure that within our region in particular, but also in Africa and the rest of the world in general, the masses of the people enjoy conditions of peace, stability, and prosperity in defence of both life and development.
15.1 The international campaign of the ANC against Apartheid and racism over the decades as well as the role that the ANC has played in democratic international fora have placed our movement amongst eminent world forces for change, democracy and peace. The manner and content of our democratic transition has helped to emphasise our organisational and political maturity as an integral part of these world forces. It has placed the ANC and the country on a high political and moral ground both on the continent and the world at large.
15.2 The moral and political stature of our leadership embodies that long tradition of the ANC as a formidable campaigner in the struggle against Apartheid, racism, colonialism, and for human rights and peace. Today this leadership constitutes a political and moral voice of conscience articulating aspirations of many of the under-developed and developing countries.
15.3 The success of the RDP depends on a conducive regional, continental and international climate characterised by democracy, peace, security, stability and prosperity. Our policy should place a high premium on regional co-operation with the aim of promoting these values especially on the sub-continent.
15.4 The future we seek requires that we participate in the global debate about the New World Order. It is a task we should execute with a sense of delicate balance between the national interest and the need to contribute to the effort of making our continent and the rest of the world a better place to live in. We need a New World Order which recognises the need for all humanity to contribute to the process of the reconstruction and development of the under-developed and the developing world, which recognises that the world is highly interdependent, and that its common survival depends on the survival and development of all its peoples. This is a vision which both domestically and internationally must be firmly based on the concept of human solidarity.
16.1 This then is the historical juncture at which South Africa is today, The victories scored by the ANC and the rest of the democratic movement contain seeds for advance to a truly just and prosperous society.
16.2 Basing ourselves on this assessment of the current conjuncture, on our commitment to democratic principles, on the tenacity of our membership, and, above all, on our reliance on the mass of the people, we are confident that we not only possess the capacity but also the will to fulfil our historic mission.
