23 March 2009
African National Congress (ANC) President Jacob Zuma told about 40,000 people gathered at Jane Furse in the Sekhukhune district of Limpopo yesterday (22 March 2009) that the democratic gains achieved under the leadership and stewardship of the ANC are safe.
Zuma said that since 1994 the ANC has never abused its majority by effecting changes to the constitution even though it had the parliamentary majority to do so. This is because the ANC places people at the centre of development.
Zuma assured ANC members and supporters that the ANC will move swiftly to get rid of corruption, laziness and nepotism in government. "Together we have achieved much in the first 15 years of democracy. By working together, and learning from our experiences, we can do more to improve the quality of life of all our people," Zuma said.
Zuma said the ANC would accelerate and deepen the democratic gains achieved in the past fourteen years.
Turning his address to leaders in the ANC and government, Zuma said no one is entitled to any position. "People are going to be appointed to positions of responsibility on the basis of their skills and merit," Zuma said. He made an analogy of a soldier who is trained in target shooting, "that soldier cannot be given a responsibility to administer explosives because that person will be self-destructive and endanger others in the process".
Zuma said the new government administration would introduce a performance-monitoring tool that would ensure that ministers, premier, mayors, councilors and civil servants perform their responsibilities as expected.
Zuma told a cheering audience that the ANC has a clear and achievable plan to speed up change.
"With your help, the ANC has developed a clear and achievable plan to speed up change in people's lives," Zuma said. The plan promises to create more jobs and decent work, fight poverty and hunger, and ensure access to quality education, health care and rural development.
Referring to Limpopo as one of the rural areas, Zuma said the ANC would intensify the land reform programme to ensure that more land is in the hands of the rural poor, and that the ANC government will provide them with technical skills and financial resources to productively use the land.
In closing, Zuma made a call to South Africans to vote for the ANC because they would be voting for the future. They should vote ANC because it is the only party that truly listens to them and because, working together with the ANC, more can be done.
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Ishmael Mnisi 082 333 5550