Number 16, August 2002
Special 51st National Conference Edition
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The papers in this UMRABULO provide information and outline the key political and policy issues for debate towards 51st National Conference. These discussion papers are not ANC policy. The National Policy Conference will adopt draft resolutions, which will be circulated before National Conference. Delegates at National Conference will further discuss all these issues and Conference will adopt policy for the ANC for the next five years.
By President Thabo Mbeki
The National Executive Committee of the ANC met in July 2002 to consider various matters relating to the 51st National Conference, which will be held in December. In this regard, the NEC had to examine the policy decisions adopted at the 50th National Conference in 1997 and the 2000 National General Council.
The purpose of this work was to make an assessment as to whether these policy positions required a fundamental review or whether they remain correct and valid. This exercise also enabled the National Executive Committee (NEC) to make a determination concerning the work that had been done to implement these policies and thus begin the outline of the programme of action required further to advance to the goals set in the policy decisions.
The NEC took the view that the essential pillars of our policy as decided by the 1997 and 2000 conferences remain valid and correct. It also agreed that there may be a few areas that might require some new policy initiatives. Nevertheless, these would not alter the direction set by these previous conferences.
However, the NEC also took the view that we must continue with our preparations to hold a Policy Conference before the National Conference. Through our branches, the membership has therefore been asked to make its own determination concerning these important matters relating to policy. Delegates representing the views of this membership will therefore gather at the Policy Conference to effect such changes as may be thought necessary.
An important feature of the ANC over time has been the stability of its policy positions. This derives from an unswerving commitment to the vision of a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa. Whatever the detail in the policy, the orientation has remained the same -the creation of this kind of South Africa. Accordingly, at all times the ANC has avoided any opportunism and populism, whatever the circumstances. It has also resisted all attempts to deny it its right to make its own decisions. Both during the period of extreme repression and in the context of the ideological and political struggle to determine the future of our country, the ANC has kept to its fundamental tenets.
At the heart of these is the commitment to achieve people-centred development and build a caring society. The policies adopted by the 1997 and 2000 conferences are focused on the achievement of these goals. To this end, they aim at the eradication of the legacy of colonialism and racism. Necessarily, therefore, they are focused on ending the gender, racial and geographic imbalances that continue to characterise our country.
They are directed at ensuring that we end the poverty and underdevelopment of the majority of our people imposed on us by centuries of national oppression and exploitation. Obviously, this covers many areas of human activity, both social and economic.
Our existing policies are also aimed at ensuring that we build a society that enables all our citizens to develop themselves to the full and to exercise their right to human dignity. This entails not only freedom from want. It also includes the critical right of the citizen to safety and security and the inviolability of every person. It also includes access to knowledge, to banish ignorance, and freedom to enjoy one's culture and language and to develop one's identity.
Through the decades, the ANC has sustained the vision of African unity, convinced that the peoples of our continent share a common destiny and that they need to combine their efforts and resources to achieve Africa's renaissance. We have been committed to the view that Africa must play her rightful role in global affairs, no longer marginalized and despised. The positions she takes must also help further to intensify the global offensive for the defeat of racism and xenophobia.
The objectives we have set ourselves, for the fundamental renewal of both our country and continent, will not be realised overnight. All of us are familiar with the reality of the deeply entrenched legacy of the past both within South Africa and the rest of our continent. We are therefore aware that it will take us time to achieve the goals that we seek.
It is because of this that the need does not arise to review policy everyday, provided, of course, that such policies prove to be correct in practice. The basic reality we face is that the legacy we have sought to remove and the new society we are struggling to create are positive achievements that are still ahead of us. The policies we have put in place correctly express our determination to reach these goals. They must therefore remain in force until such time that the change in the circumstances they seek to address demands that they should themselves be changed.
The work to elaborate concrete policies for a free South Africa, on the basis of the Freedom Charter, began already in the mid-1980s. The outcome of this protracted and detailed work has resulted in the many policies governing our country as it goes through the process of reconstruction and development.
These include our national constitution and the many pieces of legislation that provide the legal basis and framework for the implementation of our transformation programme. It is therefore clear that we do have a strong and comprehensive lawful programme for change, based on the policies we have elaborated over a considerable period of time. The challenge ahead of us is to ensure that these policies succeed to create the kind of South Africa our people expect and which we intend to build.
One of the themes of our 51st National Conference is - People's Power in Action! Through struggle, today we have an entrenched democracy in our country. At all levels, the governments in place are governments freely chosen by the masses of our people. Continuously we are making all efforts to organise and mobilise our people so that they participate in the process of governance, within the three spheres of government. We want the vision realised as comprehensively, that the people shall govern!
Given that we have now established the firm policy base we need to guide the transformation process, and given that we also have the democratic instruments and institutions to implement these policies, it is correct that our 51st National Conference should indeed position itself as a conference dedicated to the objective of action to speed up change.
Less than eighteen months after we hold this conference, our country will celebrate its 10th anniversary of liberation. When this important moment comes, we must be able to measure in quantifiable ways the progress we have made during the first decade of liberation. This last lap to that anniversary should also inspire us to ensure that we use People's Power in Action more effectively further to advance quicker towards the goals of a better life for all and a truly transformed South Africa.
The 51st National Conference of our movement must therefore be a Congress of Fighters for Change. Its place in our history must be defined as the critical point at which, having produced the design of the new South Africa, the people's movement turned all its focus to the task of ensuring the speedy construction of our country according to that design.
This requires that we ourselves, as members of the ANC, go back to the decisions we took at the Port Elizabeth National General Council (NGC) in 2000. At that NGC, we made the commitment that we would transform ourselves into new cadres dedicated to serve the people for accelerated change. The moment is upon us that we deploy ourselves as such cadres to bring about the faster change that the masses of our people are calling for.
Accordingly, our National Conference will not be a place for those who have joined our movement to gain positions, access resources and otherwise serve only their personal interests. As usual, the Conference will carry out its work of choosing the leadership of the ANC as it sees fit, from the President to the other members of the National Executive Committee. But is will be the responsibility of the genuine cadres of our movement to ensure that the Conference is not diverted from the duty it owes to the masses of our people, to set the pace for the accelerated social transformation of our country.
The 51st National Conference must therefore be a Congress of New Cadres United in Action for Change. It must address the question thoroughly and accurately - what must we do as these new cadres, to ensure that we accelerate the processes towards a better life for all our people.
Yet another theme of our Conference is - Phambili mavolontiya! The new cadre must, indeed, be a volunteer ready to work selflessly for the cause of the people. The genuine cadres of our movement will surely distinguish themselves as they have been doing during the year of the 90th anniversary of the ANC, the Year of the Volunteer. Thus, by the end of our Conference, these volunteers who constitute the very backbone of our movement, must have a clear view of what their tasks are as they directly engage the challenge for accelerated change.
The theme People's Power in Action requires that we ensure that we focus this people's power more aggressively on the same matter of speeding up the advance towards the eradication of the apartheid legacy and the construction of a new society. Thanks to our support and the confidence the masses have in our movement, the ANC is the dominant political force in all three spheres of government.
This puts a particular responsibility on us to ensure that the government structures we lead, both executive and administrative, carry out the responsibility with which they are charged. This is the task of ensuring the speedy and effective implementation of the policies and programmes that we have put in place.
We know that many structures of government continue to show many weaknesses. We have to intervene to ensure that these are corrected. We must work to encourage the local governments to work efficiently, to communicate with the people and to root out the corrupt elements at this level of government, who use many methods to enrich themselves.
Some provinces are persistently showing unacceptable levels of performance with regard to service delivery and the encouragement of social and economic development. Urgent steps will have to be taken to ensure that these deficiencies are addressed. Again, this will require the sustained attention of the genuine cadres of our movement.
At the national level as well, we must pay attention especially to improved integrated planning and execution, the speedy implementation of development programmes and the proper and full use of all allocated resources, for the benefit of the people.
Even as we work at home for change, so must we sustain our effort to contribute to the speedy renewal of our continent, living up to the expectations of the African masses and the responsibilities that have been given to our country. We must respond correctly to yet another theme of our National Conference - Afrika ke nako!
As the branches do their work to prepare for the Policy Conference, they have to reflect on the matters we have raised, bearing in mind that the principal task ahead of us is to achieve further advances with our people, t o the 10th anniversary of freedom and beyond!
The Political Education and Training Unit wishes to acknowledge the following people for their contribution to this edition:
Umrabulo Editorial Collective: Naph Manana, Joel Netshitenzhe, Pallo Jordan,
Jeremy Cronin, Mandla Nkomfe and Fébé Potgieter.
Layout and Design: Donovan Cloete, ANC Communications Unit
Proofing and Editing: Diana Cumberledge
Logo: Creativity
The Editorial Collective welcomes contributions to UMRABULO. Articles should be not longer than 2000 words and letters not more than 500 words. Such contributions may focus on:
a. Articles published in Umrabulo 1-15; or
b. Letters to the Editor
c. New issues for debate
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