Issued by: African National Congress
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND PUBLICITY
ANC NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING, 24-25 APRIL 1998, PRESS STATEMENT
The ANC NEC met outside Johannesburg over the weekend of 24-25 April. The NEC devoted considerable time to discussing in depth a political overview presented by ANC President, comrade Thabo Mbeki. It was noted that the ANC's commitment to locating our own reconstruction and development effort within the context of an African Renaissance was beginning to resonate powerfully in many quarters of our continent. More and more, the ANC and ANC-led government are being called upon to take an active part in the interaction between our continent and the developed economies in the context of globalisation. The ANC and government are also being called upon increasingly to join hands with others in the deepening of democracy in our continent.
The NEC meeting noted the request of Sinn Fein and the British Labour Party to assist in facilitating implementation of the agreement on Northern Ireland. The ANC is sending a high-level delegation, including Premier Matthew Phosa, Cyril Ramaphosa, and ministers Valli Moosa and Mac Maharaj to Dublin, to play a facilitating role.
The discussion of the national situation focused upon the ongoing imperative of transforming the state into an effective and developmental instrument. Against the background of some recent events, the meeting noted that there are elements within the public structures of our new democracy who seek to abuse the ANC's commitment to inclusivity and constitutionality to pursue backward agendas. We reaffirm our commitment to these principles, and warn those bent on rearguard actions against transformation that it is precisely they who are a menace to fostering respect and legitimacy for constitutional structures.
The ANC also devoted time to discussing the imperative of a sustained effort at building the moral fabric of our society. The necessity for this effort is underlined by many recent events, the shooting of baby Angelina Zwane, taxi violence, and corruption. The NEC noted important improvements in the road casualty statistics for the past Easter weekend, but the persistence of unacceptably high levels of casualties on our roads emphasises the need to sustain and intensify the "Drive Alive" campaign. The NEC expressed its condolences to the families of the victims of the horrific Newcastle accident, and to all others who have lost family in recent accidents.
The NEC agreed upon an approach for our electoral lists for the 1999 elections. We aim to complete the process by the first quarter of 1999. Once more the nominations process will be based on a thoroughly democratic approach, proceeding from branch-level nominations, through to provincial-level list conferences. The list emerging from the provinces will, where necessary, by amended by the NEC early next year, with due regard to gender, geographic, skills and age balance. The ANC's allies, COSATU and the SACP will have an agreed quota of voting delegates at the provincial list conference.
The NEC discussed and approved preparations for the forthcoming Tripartite Alliance Summit of May 23-24. Policy discussions on employment strategy, labour market transformation, social wage, land reform and fiscal and monetary policy will be taken forward at the Summit.
The National Executive confirmed the appointment of the following NEC members to full-time positions at ANC Headquarters:
The meeting resolved that the headquarters of the African National Congress should remain at 51 Plein Street, Johannesburg, and that a major refurbishment of the interior and exterior of the building should be undertaken.
To coincide with the centenary of the birth of former ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli, and to honour his contribution to the struggle for democracy in South Africa, the headquarters of the ANC will be renamed Albert Luthuli House.
The NEC received a report on the discovery of secret burial grounds of missing anti-apartheid activists. The TRC has now located the graves of now fewer than 480 missing cadres, and there are certainly more. This indicates a scale of systematic elimination of mainly ANC, and ANC-aligned cadres that has been hidden until now. It has sometimes been said that in apartheid South Africa, by contrast with certain Latin American military juntas, repression was always mitigated by the persistence of levels of legality, albeit an apartheid legality. The discovery of these secret burial sites indicates that hundreds were "disappared", systematically and secretly executed, in several centres around the country. We are not dealing with one or two, allegedly renegade death farms. When distraught families made pleas to former apartheid-era officials, the NP, the very culprit, always cynically referred the families to the ANC in exile.
The NEC extends its support to the preparations for the reburial in Port Elizabeth on 26th June of Vuyisile Mini and his five comrades, Kayinge, Mkaba, Jonas, Mpentse and Ndongeni. These comrades were executed in the early 1960s and buried in secret by the apartheid regime. It has taken all this time to discover where they had been buried.
The NEC salutes the outstanding contribution of the late Trevor Huddleston to the South African struggle, and to building a world anti-apartheid movement.
Issued by:
National Executive Committee
African National Congress
P O Box 61884
Marshalltown 2107