The creation of a non-racial, non-sexist, and democratic society, is about the liberation of the Africans in particular, and black people in general from political and economic bondage, and uplifting the quality of life of all South Africans, the majority of whom are African and female. The Strategy and Tactics (1997) therefore states that 'the central aim of transformation is to improve the conditions of the people, especially the poor."
Poverty, said the RDP, is the single greatest burden of South Africa's people. Attacking poverty and deprivation is therefore the first priority of the democratic government. This objective should be realised through a process of empowerment, which gives the poor control over their lives and increases their ability to mobilise sufficient development resources, including from the democratic government where necessary.
Our programme for social transformation must therefore ensure that it builds a better life by providing land and houses, comprehensive health and social security, basic services which include water and sanitation, human resource and capacity building, clean and safe environment, food security, and an improvement in their health profile, including dealing with communicable an non-communicable diseases, causes of mortality, and sports and recreation.
Social transformation must also ensure the development of a South African identify, which draws from the multiplicity of talent and heritage, to reflect an African nation on the southern tip of the African Continent. Critical to nation building is the de-racialisation of our society.
In the build up to the 1997 National Conference, we acknowledged that our policies had just been put to test in the arena of governance and legislation, and that what Mafikeng should do was largely to fill gaps in the policy area, and to focus on implementation. The resolutions on Social Transformation from Mafikeng therefore mainly address these gaps or matters of implementation. Our Elections Manifestos 1999 and for local government in 2000 also set out clear programmes of the priorities for government during this term of office.
The work done around the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), is an acknowledgement that we must build partnerships on the continent to address the challenges of poverty and underdevelopment, which is as much a reality of South Africa, as it is for the rest of the continent. Our programmes for social transformation therefore also takes place in a regional and continental context.
The subsequent National General Council (2000) also elaborated on issues of implementation, and concentrated on how this could be strengthened. These two conferences confirmed our policies in general, but both of did not have enough implementation experience to be able to assess whether the policies were indeed correct, or even whether they needed to be supplemented or changed if they did not have the desired effects due to factors such as the change in the balance of forces, both globally and internally, the unforeseen and unintended consequences, or any other valid reason for such policy chance.
Meeting basic needs
COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE: Provision of health care to our people continues to face major challenges. The Mafikeng conference noted the strides made in the transformation of our health system based on the primary health care approach. The National General Council (2000) also highlighted the need to take a more detailed look at how comprehensive our health system is and begin to take a handle on what the health status of communities is.
Poverty, the lack of education and environmental degradation are recognized as being the major determinants of health. These four factors alone and in combination, constitute perhaps the greatest challenge to humankind. The link between ill health and poverty exists as a fact of life in every country in the world, more so when social support structures are weak or non-existent.
The virtuous circle between social investment, health and economic prosperity has thus been demonstrated in a variety of settings, yet an influential body of contrary opinion continues to exist on both sides of the traditional North-South divide. This assertion that social development takes place at the expense of economic growth and that the latter should precede the former, is not helpful since it presents a false dichotomy. It also implies that life begins at a particular level of GDP.
Our policy of Primary Health Care captures the essence of this approach, and the clustering of government departments is a major step, because for good health, we need synergies between education, housing, food security and nutrition. With the increasing importance of emerging and re-emerging diseases, this approach becomes pivotal in the attainment of our health goals.
We have registered significant progress through PHC as part of the anti-poverty strategy. There is however a need to establish hospitals that are modeled around the totality of the health needs of the country.
This means addressing several areas within the system relating to major causes of mortality, communicable and non-communicable diseases, quality of care, human resource development, the health problems related to tobacco, alcohol and substance abuse, and public health issues in relation to provision of water for domestic use, sanitation and rapid response to disease outbreaks.
A number of achievements have been made and are dealt with under each of the sections. Generally there have been constraints, mainly related to the crosscutting nature of some issues e.g. the quality of health care depends to a large extent on the level of coordination and integration of service delivery with other government departments.
Patterns of mortality and morbidity: South Africa faces a triple burden - namely diseases of poverty that are largely infectious, ill health as a result of intentional and unintentional injuries and diseases of lifestyle. Persistent poverty makes it difficult to eradicate problems of malnutrition like kwashiorkor, TB and other diseases that need good nutritional status to enable the body to fight. This compounds current interventions against the scourges of HIV and AIDS. In the area of lifestyle diseases tobacco smoking is a leading cause of lung cancer and thus remains a burden. The long-term effects of our legislation against tobacco smoking will be felt fully in years to come. There is however evidence showing a decrease in young people taking up smoking.
The fact that we are society in transition characterized by increasing urban migration and disengagement from traditional family support structures compounds some of these problems. The changes in the patterns of diet and the stresses associated with this lead among others to heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. Given the legacy of our past and the violent nature of apartheid, issues of mental health and mental illnesses have become more recognizable problems.
Alcohol and substance abuse pose a serious threat to the health resources that we have. Studies show that more than 50% of violent deaths (particularly homicide and road accidents) have raised alcohol blood levels. There are ongoing programmes aimed at reducing substance abuse. There is however a trend showing a continued decrease in violent deaths among the youth. But reports of increased violence against children and women are a major concern. A major limitation in the area of unnatural deaths is conflicting data we have on the extent of the problem. Currently a validation study is being undertaken and Statistics South Africa is helping to develop a national surveillance system that will assist in the proper analysis of the data in future.
These patterns of mortality and morbidity dictate that our response must be multi-sectoral. It is important that whilst we continue to deal with pressing challenges, that we set a platform both in prevention and curative programme that enables us to deal with the totality of challenges we face.
Integrated Food Security and Nutrition: Food insecurity affects mostly the poor and is related to issues of land hunger, environmental degradation, water pollution in rivers and poor housing settlements, resulting in the inability to utilize these resources for food production. In line with other anti-poverty initiatives, an Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Strategy has been developed and will be debated, which include issues around the primary school nutrition programme, food fortification, community gardens and land reform to ensure food production by small scale farmers. The Special Programme for Food Security will bring together all relevant government departments.
Maternal and Child Health issues: Government has prioritized women and children, amongst the vulnerable groups. The policy of free healthcare for pregnant mothers and children under six years has been an important intervention. During our Demographic Health Survey (DHS), antenatal clinic attendance by pregnant mothers stood at 94%, a major jump compared to previous studies. Antenatal coverage is now very high with 80% of deliveries now being conducted in the presence of skilled birth attendants. Furthermore, we have instituted a system of confidential enquiries into maternal deaths since 1997, which enables us to identify preventable causes of deaths and take corrective action. Our maternal health programmes also deal with the issues of breast and cervical cancer.
The policy of free health services for children under six years has paid off. Children now present early to health facilities and when they are less seriously ill. There is also a decrease in vaccine preventable diseases like measles, tetanus etc. We are well on the way to meeting the global target for polio eradication and we have eradicated wild measles. However AIDS related diseases like TB are on the increase. The problem of alcohol abuse is evident in certain areas of the country as evidenced by children presenting with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. The Northern Cape has a very high rate of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome with 10% of school entry children exhibit signs of the condition. Researchers in this region also report an increased incidence of 'squint' eyes, which they attribute to FAS. The problem is not limited to the Northern Cape and calls for conference to debate and consider the question of legislating on alcohol advertising.
Malnutrition is a major concern especially among children and the elderly. The prevalent poor nutritional status is closely related to the issue of food insecurity. The ability for sick people to respond to treatment is also influenced by poverty and hunger. The inability to comply with a regimen to take medicines is therefore linked to these issues. Discussions and preparations are afoot to introduce legislation on food fortification. An integrated approach is being taken at the Social Sector Cluster level between government departments.
The debate over the school nutrition programme brings to attention the need to ensure continuity of it whilst resolving the issues about coordinating departments, to make sure that children benefit from the programme and that no child goes hungry while attending class.
The policy of termination of pregnancy remains a challenge. There are reports of unsafe abortions still taking place, thus adding to maternal mortality rates not responding in the way we envisaged. Conference needs to examine what role communities can play in preventing unnecessary deaths. At the heart of the challenge is the resolution of the tension between rights of providers of services and the rights of choice of those who use our institutions.
HIV and AIDS: The Mafikeng Conference called for an ANC-led programme on AIDS awareness, which would be led by the President, and would be joined by the Alliance. The Mafikeng Resolution directed itself to a practice by the insurance industry, which prejudiced people living with AIDS and HIV. The resolution therefore centered around a campaign to ensure coverage by insurance companies and medical schemes, as well as opposition to pre-employment testing and an awareness campaign to remove prejudice.
Progress in the fight against Tuberculosis: All evidence points to an increase in TB caseload and TB mortality. This is not just a function of better reporting but also evident from patterns of hospital bed utilisation and also a reflection of the close interplay between TB and HIV infection. The ability of the health system to deal with HIV and AIDS is closely tied to the success we register in containing TB. Furthermore, robust and aggressive treatment of TB and opportunistic infections more generally is central to improvement of quality of lives of many.
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs): There is general improvement in the overall fight against STIs with signs of a significant drop in incidence of syphilis. A national surveillance system is being put in place.
Health Care Delivery: The victory in the court case on the Medicines Act has opened possibilities for more affordable medicines to be available to a greater number of people. This has also been vindicated by the developments at the DOHA round of trade negotiations, which are consistent with the provisions of the Act.
The District Health System development has progressed well and issues of strengthening capacity at local level for provision of services will lend greater impetus. Ties with the S. A. Military Health Services are growing.
Quality of Care: The transformation of the health system continues with greater focus on the quality of care. There is a need for communities to participate in the governance structures of local health facilities to provide oversight on maintenance of quality and appropriate management of the facilities, observance of policy statements like Batho-Pele, support to health workers and ensuring that the communities take pride and protect the assets that are placed in their care.
The insufficient number of appropriately trained health workers to provide the services also compromises quality in many instances. The failure to fill up posts in some provinces hampers health care delivery. There needs to be greater interaction between government departments for the attainment of our goal of delivering good quality health care.
Issues of professionalism and the attitudes of our health workers is a challenge that the department is taking up with relevant stakeholders, in particular the health professional bodies. The key message is that a people mobilised and owning their institution are central to sustainable quality interventions in health care.
However a number of challenges prevail: Foreign doctors almost exclusively service most of our hospitals in the rural areas of places like Eastern Cape, northern KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. There is a persistent exodus of nurses and doctors from our public health system to either the private sector or mostly for overseas countries.
We propose that the following proposals be considered: We need to put in place incentives for health professionals to serve our rural areas. This may be in the form of subsidised housing, schooling for children, positive programmes for international exchange, flexible programme to allow for participation in Continuing Professional Development etc. The department is currently examining various approaches to this challenge. Creation of a special Education Human Resource Fund for the SADC region that will cater for undergraduate and postgraduate education and training.
National Health Insurance System: The Commission of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System has published its report for comment. This will create an overarching framework for the development of a Social Health Insurance. Work has commenced on Social Health Insurance.
WATER AND SANITATION: The provision of infrastructure goes beyond the concept of a "social wage", and contributes directly to the "better life" of our people, as measured by the key indicator of their health status. Good rural roads help reduce maternal mortality by ensuring that expectant mothers can get to clinics or hospitals to deliver their babies. The provision of electricity improves the air quality of homes and reduces lung diseases. Water and sanitation services do not just contribute to convenience and dignity, but make a direct contribution to reducing death and disease, particularly among children and vulnerable groups.
The government's decision to make provision of free water services to households and improvements in sanitation has brought an improvement to the struggle to better health by many families, especially the poor. There has been a noticeable increase in the provision of piped water to households - 9.3 million people have been served since 1994. Despite this progress there were cholera outbreaks in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo. The major challenges remain to be mostly in informal settlements, rural areas that have not yet been catered for in terms of water provision and farm dwellings. Most of these areas have health facilities in the form of clinics or district hospitals and the challenge is to make sure that health facilities have uninterrupted water supplies. The momentum gained must be maintained. In addition to the more visible provision of water, households must be accompanied by adequate sanitation. Major steps have been taken in providing households and schools with proper sanitation.
The challenge is to develop early warning systems and rapid response in cases of disease outbreaks. This requires that coordination between government departments and capacity at local government level is strengthened. This may possibly need to be part of the disaster management plans at local level.
Another challenge in the area of water provision is the issue of fluoridation with epidemiological surveys indicating that 70% of 6 year olds and 90% of adolescents experience dental decay. The implementation of a national fluoridation programme is facing some challenges. There has been a disturbing re-emergence of resistance against what is compelling public health imperative. We need to tackle this.
COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL SECURITY: National Conference (1997) resolved that we should have an investigation into a comprehensive social security system. The Presidential Job Summit in 1998 also resolved a Basic Income Grant be investigated. In May 2000 government established a Commission of Enquiry to investigate and recommend options for an affordable system of social security, which prioritized the poorest and most vulnerable sectors.
The Commission report has been published and focuses on the issues of poverty and unemployment. The report confirmed that a significant proportion of our population live in poverty, with children being the most vulnerable. It noted that unemployment is increasing and that it is of a long-term structural nature. A significant proportion of the population falls through the existing safety nets, in particular children over the age of six years and unemployed adults, who by virtue of their age do not qualify for the Aged Persons Grant.
The Commission recommends a comprehensive package of support to address the various dimensions of poverty. Amongst the recommendations are the introduction of a universal basic income grant (BIG), prioritising the child grant, not to introduce a special grant for people living with HIV, but to instead strengthen the general system of grants.
Conference will have to discuss our approach to these issues, arising from its mandate to have this investigation. It needs to address amongst others, the following approaches:
Values underpinning our approach to comprehensive social security: Our evolving policy approach (RDP, Conference resolutions) to social security is located within our objectives of a people centred and a people driven process of development. We believe that people themselves have the creative capacity to improve their own circumstances and to contribute to the development of the country. The role of the state is to harness and build on these capacities by creating the enabling conditions. It is this understanding that saw us launching the year of the volunteer, the Letsema programme, under the slogan, "Vuk'uzenzele".
We are also guided by the belief that the state must take all reasonable measures with the means at its disposal to provide support to those who, through inevitable circumstances, are not in a position to do so. At the same time, our programmes should also strengthen the social institutions of the family, and community networks to provide care and support for the most vulnerable groups in our society, especially children, the chronically sick, the severely disabled and the older persons.
Within this framework and understanding is our view that our attack on poverty must be integrated and sustainable. Government has introduced a number of measures aimed at poverty eradication, and is now in the process of consolidating and integrating them. A comprehensive social security system is part of this integrated attack on poverty.
Our approach to poverty alleviation: The Commission report has raised debates about our approach to poverty alleviation. The approaches that emerged from these debates include expanding social pensions (introduction of BIG, expanding the child grant), improving government services to the poor (housing, infrastructure, education, health, etc) and support for greater productivity and incomes for the poor by increasing productive assets, job creation and skills development. The approach outlined in the RDP, and in the Poverty Alleviation Framework of the Cabinet Social Sector Cluster favours a balance between all three of these approaches.
Child Support Grant (CSG): The Child Support Grant was introduced in April 1998, with an initial slow take-up rate, which has increased rapidly over the last three years. The target is to reach a total of 3 million children. Amongst the problems affecting the reaching of this target is documentation to register children (birth certificates and IDs). Work is in progress with the Departments of Welfare, Health and Home Affairs to enable this problem to be address. The registration of children for the child grant is also an integral part of the home-based care/community-based care for children affected by HIV/AIDS. The question is whether we should increase the qualification age of 6 years, to cover greater numbers of children.
Safety and Security for the Aged: People over 60 years constitute 7% of the population, and this is expected to increase. The Aged Persons Grant reaches 68% of all persons over 60 years, and 80% of the eligible population (since it is means tested). The high levels of unemployment and the increase in the number of vulnerable children often mean that older persons use their grants to support the entire household.
The Ministerial committee on the Abuse, Neglect and Ill-treatment of Older persons presented its report to government in February 2001, revealing alarming levels of abuse and neglect by relatives, old age homes, communities, government officials and service providers. There has been some progress with the implementation of the committee's recommendations, including addressing problems faced by older persons in the payments of their grants, conducting an audit of old age homes, national guidelines by Health on the prevention, early detection and intervention in physical abuse, integrating elder abuse into the Victim Empowerment Programme and initiating new policies and legislation to promote and protect the rights of older persons.
Training for developmental social welfare: Since 1998, many child and youth care workers and probation officers have been trained in new approaches such as diversion and secure care, as part of the transformation of the Child and Youth Care system. The Poverty Relief Programme has also provided opportunity to recruit and train developmental workers, but they are still in a minority.
The department has provided much of the training, with assistance from NGOs, rather than through the further or higher education sector. Some universities have introduced changes in their curriculum, but further discussions are required. To ensure linkages between social security, welfare and development as single human resource development strategy for the social development sector was drafted, covering all areas of work, including HIV/AIDS. The strategy has been tabled with the Health and Welfare SETA for approval and funding.
Challenges of Implementation: Two things stand out in the implementation of our social security programme thus far. Firstly there is the question of whether our programmes are targeted enough, and whether they do reach the most vulnerable in our society. Secondly, are they able to achieve both the objectives of social protection and creating enablers for the people to take themselves out of the trap of poverty?
On the first question, the campaign to register all children eligible and needing the child support grant is very critical. But this must be supported by strong organisation on the ground to ensure that the most vulnerable are cared for. Our branches have to take responsibility to ensure that those who are in great need of assistance from the state, do get access to that assistance. Our social security campaign should therefore not end with registration of those who qualify, but it should be seen as a campaign to rebuild our communities, and to realise the goal of a caring society.
This conference should therefore discuss this issue of poverty eradication and locate it within our perspective of the South African state as a developmental state, with the ANC and its allies leading that development, and mobilising people at large to lend a hand for a better life for all. Any discussion of social security that does not bear this in mind is likely to reduce our people to victims that must wait for handouts from the state in order to live.
The ANC should therefore concern itself with two strategic objectives in the area of social security. Firstly we must ensure that all those who need to get the existing grants, do get them. Our campaign in the next few years must be to ensure that all obstacles to the people receiving their grants must be removed. Secondly we must intensify the programme to improve service delivery.
We must make sure that all departments who have anti-poverty programmes deliver them timorously and efficiently. Particular attention must be paid to ensuring that programmes target the most destitute people in rural areas as well as in urban areas.
INCOME POVERTY: The biggest challenge in attacking poverty has been in the areas of employment, SMME development and related areas. Our social and economic programmes have as yet to result in significant positive gains in employment. Unfortunately, income poverty makes it difficult for the poor to access services provided by the state.
The Department of Social Development has shifted from a welfare approach towards a more developmental approach, initiating poverty relief projects through which beneficiaries could engage in various income generating programmes. The programmes started with serious teething problems particularly under spending, which were later corrected. It is however unclear what the actual impact of these programmes is.
The Public Works Programme has been hailed as amongst the best in the world. Initial problems of implementation included coordination and capacity across the three spheres of government, inequitable spread of benefits, imbalances of project type, lack of proper monitoring and evaluation systems, under-spending and limited integration between departments. Changes were introduced on the basis of evaluation done. Concerns raised about the NPWP include the cost and sustainability of jobs, the complicated nature of such projects, and the need to link skills learned on these projects with skills in demand in the labour market. The Cabinet Lekgotla in July 2002 agreed on work towards a comprehensive employment strategy, which should amongst others include massively expanding the Public works programme.
NOTE: These issues are discussed in more detail in the discussion paper on Economic Transformation.
Apartheid colonialism - in particular policies and legislation such as the Land Acts (1913 and 1926), Group Areas, migrancy and Bantustan policies - has resulted in settlement patterns that are extremely distorted. These distortions resulted in black South Africans being deprived of productive and fertile agricultural land, and crammed into reserves with very little productive activities to sustain them. It also reflects the very unequal patters of land distribution. Our towns and cities also reflect this reality, with black townships far removed from the centres of business and largely underdeveloped in terms of basic social and economic services. Our programme of transformation and deracialising South Africa therefore fundamentally has to change this situation.
Poverty levels in the country especially among the historically disadvantaged require an integrated approach in our provision of services. Human settlements should therefore be developed through coordination between various departments and all spheres of government. Some of the challenges we face are: the enormity of the backlogs in social services; land hunger, underdevelopment, especially in rural areas, limited state resources; massive infrastructure backlogs, inadequate private sector finance; the proliferation of informal settlements and corruption and fraud. While all these are part of the discussions on economic transformation, they are central to the mandate of social transformation, the eradication of poverty and its effects, especially as it relates directly to our ability to meet the basic needs of our people.
It is for this reason that we called in 1999 for an integrated approach to urban and rural development, which uses proper and adequate planning for maximum impact. Our approach to development, which has targeted certain areas where we would impact on a large number of people, has raises an important and a critical issue of putting planning and targeting at the centre of our interventions. This suggests that we should move away from a short-gun approach to service delivery and development, where we work in silos and concentrate on meeting backlogs through separate and uncoordinated attempts to make a dent on the statistics around backlogs in basic services like water, sanitation, health care, housing etc. We therefore need to assess how this approach is working on the ground, and whether we are indeed doing what we had planned to do.
Integrated Sustainable Rural Development and Urban Renewal: The Integrated Rural and Urban Renewal Programmes form a critical part of our programmes to push back the frontiers of poverty. The objective of the ISRDS is to improve the quality of life of rural citizens through alleviating poverty and providing sustainable livelihoods. It is premised on the understanding that the rural economy can and should contribute to economic growth. In many of the rural areas this opportunity is primarily linked to agriculture, small business development, provision of social services, land reform, access to finance, infrastructure development, mining and tourism.
The successful implementation of the ISRDS depends on integration across government departments through clusters; co-ordinated planning and implementation between national, provincial and local governments and by building institutional and other capacity, of especially the new District and municipal structures under the new local government dispensation. Such planning and coordination require the development of sound Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) for each locality. IDPs also give us a tool to understand what impact our development are going to have on deracialising our communities, and ensure that we create complete and cohesive communities, as all community facilities they require are made available at the same time.
The Cabinet Lekgotla in July 2002 noted that all the anchor projects in the initial seventeen ISRDP nodes are being implemented, but agreed that supervision of each node should be improved. New nodes are being identified for integrated projects to be launched. While progress is also being made in the Urban Renewal nodes, it was noted that this was much slower than had originally been envisaged. In these areas, only 50% of the anchor projects are up and running. This weakness should be rectified. The Lekgotla also noted that many of the IDPs that have been developed need to be improved and to take into consideration our PHP approaches in order to ensure that they are not just expert or developer driven, but they involve people. While IDPs are an important tool, we must acknowledge that they are a new approach to planning, and will therefore need to be given time to take off the ground as people get used to this way of working.
Housing: The NGC (2000) noted that we met our 1 million housing target for the first five years as set out in the RDP. It emphasised the need to ensure a housing programme that integrate and deracialise cities and towns, house the poor close to places of work, root out corruption in the system of housing delivery and to address issues around related infrastructure such as sport and recreational facilities. In 2002, 1.5 million people have shelter, packaged in a manner that provides electricity, access to water and basic forms of sanitation.
Having identified problems in the initial phase of the housing roll-outs, the department has concluded National Minimum Norms and Standards for residential development, the Housing Consumer Protection Measurers Act and The Rental Housing Act. In addition, the medium density housing was made a priority in the medium term expenditure framework and an increase in the housing subsidy, in order to promote social, rental housing and alternative tenure.
Social infrastructure: The challenge of deracialisation of our settlements still remains a big one. Our attempts to identify land which is strategic for this purpose need to be accelerated. We must however employ new approaches to the kinds of settlements we want to create for this purpose, and may have to look at rentals as potential mechanisms for this, as they force people to integrate and to create a commune.
Another challenge is the impact of new settlements on the value of property in the adjacent settlements. This is beginning to create difficulties in our communities, and seems to be more class related then racial, though its manifestations are still largely between areas that are predominantly white, and those new areas that are mainly black. Apart from the concerns about devaluation from the one side of the spectrum, there are concerns about the high rates that go with being in the same local authorities, as the cross-subsidisation of areas becomes a concern from some people. Reports about people abandoning their newly acquired houses because they cannot afford to pay rates are growing.
A government study in 1995 showed that there was an infrastructure backlog of R170 billion in our country. However since 1994, 2,8 million telephones have been installed, 1,3 million houses have been built or are under construction with a total budget of R16 billion, and 3 million homes electrified. Similarly over R12 billion has been spent on non-toll National and Provincial roads and the infrastructure budget for education facilities has increased from R501million in 2000/01 to R1.2billion in 2001/02. The Health capital expenditure has increased from R775 million in 1998/99 to R2.8 billion in 2001/02 while municipal infrastructure was in total allocated R2.4 billion in 2001/02 through Water Affairs, Consolidated Municipal Infrastructure Programme and the Public Works Programme.
Despite these successes, a number of challenges remain, including the steady increase of informal settlements, maintenance of infrastructure and the ability of the poor to pay for services. To address the latter, our 2000 local elections manifesto introduced a basket of free services (electricity, water) for everybody, and we are making steady progress with implementing this programme.
NOTE: These matters are discussed in more detail in the paper on Infrastructure development.
In the light of these observations made by the national workshop Government may need to consider setting up such a coordinating structure at national level and impress upon other Provincial Governments to do the same so as to address the challenges of post settlements that arise out the restitution process.
On redistribution, the workshop noted that the pace of delivery has improved. The product now delivered also addresses the concerns that were discussed and highlighted in the NGC ETC recommendations.
The Ministry of Land Affairs in its MTEF budget process put aside an amount for acquisition of land for farm workers and labour tenants from 2001 until 2003 in order to address the need of the landless poor individuals and communities. To date 2633 household have benefited with 30 471 hectors being transferred.
Municipalities have also received land for the establishment of commonages that are aimed at giving access to local communities who are interested in utilising this land for subsistence agriculture in order to intervene in reducing levels of vulnerability.
At its national workshop on land, the ANC noted that Government has made slow progress in the drafting of the land tenure legislation. The Ministry of Land and Agriculture was therefore urged to move with speed in dealing with this matter. It was however noted that a national consultative conference was to be held in Durban in November 2001 where broad principles of the legislation will be canvassed.
A National Consultative Conference on Tenure Reform was held and agreed on the current land policy on tenure reform that acknowledged diverse forms of tenure options for South Africa (See chapter, Land Policy. 1995).
Following this broad mandate a reference community that included all stakeholders was set up in order for the department of land affairs to liase with on and ongoing process. The Bill has been drafted and is ready for to be gazetted for public comment.
The bill seeks to address a number of problems inherited from Apartheid. Firstly, Laws involving arbitrary racial distinctions have been repealed, but land in the former homeland and the ex-SADT areas continues to be registered in the name of the State. This derives from the system of trusteeship, which locates the State as the owner and the administrator of land. Although most of the land in these areas is registered as 'State land', in some places, particular African traditional communities, other communities, groups, households, families and individuals have strong underlying rights to this land through the customary laws relating to occupation and use of the land or through purchase of land or through historical occupation of the land since time immemorial. These underlying rights in land have to this day not been registered in the respective right holders' names because of the inherited legacies in the land ownership patterns. Hence the urgent need to rectify this anomaly created by colonial and apartheid policies and practices.
The lack of clarity about the status of land tenure rights has not only led to these fierce political struggles between local government and traditional leaders and institutions but it has also inhibited investment, whether by outsiders or those who live in the area. As a result of the uncertainty as to who has what rights and who can take decisions relating to investments and developments on the land, both government and private sector projects are stalled. The uncertain nature and content of land tenure rights, a legacy of colonialism and apartheid, is one of the underlying causes of poverty and underdevelopment in these areas.
Human resource development is a key pillar of the RDP. The movement has therefore place major emphasis on investment in our people as our most important resource.
To our strategy of human resource development is the integration of education and training, in order to ensure a close relationship between the supply institutions and the demand sector. Some of the key tools for such integration are expressed in our policies, such as the Skill Development Strategy, which links training directly to the workplace, and forces employers to see training as integral to their business enterprise, our Outcomes based approach to education and training. But the key instrument we have chosen to use for this purpose is the National Qualifications Framework, which is to be developed and maintained by the South African Qualifications Authority.Our assessment of progress in integrating education and training will reveal that although we have made some advances in creating the infrastructure for this purpose, it is still early days to observe results. Nevertheless we can safely say that we need to move much faster on certain aspects such as putting in place proper mechanisms for the recognition of prior learning.
Central to our Human Resource Strategy though is the need to ensure that our education system works for us. All other interventions in human resource development have to work to complement an education system, and can never replace it. Therefore in order for us to move out of the vicious cycle of producing backlogs which we then address through strategic interventions, we must address the transformation of our education system
It is important to begin the policy debate on education within the ANC by identifying the specificity of the social and political project of education as distinct from the wider education policy debate. Our immediate strategic objective is to create a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. In this context two immediate and pre-eminent priorities emerge for education. First, to deploy education as one of the most significant weapons to ameliorate the relations that results in and reproduces poverty for the significant proportion of African people. In this context, redistribution, equity and access are key strategic priorities for education within the NDR. Secondly, to reshape and reconstitute the values, ideology and culture in a manner that will break down the colonial relations that was the mainstay of South Africa's political economy.
A necessary and critical condition for advancing the objective of the NDR is building the capacity of the black people, in particular, and that of the working class. This capacity must be multifaceted and would include the development of the following: the political consciousness to continuously analyse and understand the context; the intellectual capacity to apply and sharpen the theoretical underpinnings of the NDR; the skills necessary to mediate technologies in production for economic growth and development; the new values of a democratic society; and the mobilisation of the independent strength of the motive forces to rally around the change agenda of the ANC.
Our system of basic education already offers, on average, much more than the 12 years of general education coverage. The gross enrolment ratio is above 100% at both primary and secondary schools. Even amongst the most disadvantaged groups, average years spent in school is already more than 12 years. However, this does not translate into an average of 12 grades completed, because levels of learning attainment are low. This points to problems of poor quality and low efficiency in the system. It also suggests that the social distribution of quality is still unequal.
Thus, although much has so far been achieved that benefits disadvantaged communities, various barriers and blockages continue to impede the ability of these frameworks to improve the education achievement of the poor. Service delivery in other sectors, for instance in water, sanitation and electricity, have made visible and highly noticeable improvements to the lives of poor South Africans. However, the attainment of equality of quality education for all remains elusive and must be regarded as the key priority in the current period.
Our aim is to provide equality of opportunities to succeed. In terms of overall success rates in schools, we have improved since 1994, and we are getting better. This bodes well for overall human resource and national development. We have also improved in the field of maths and science, with pass rates improving. However the pedagogical efficiency of our system in terms of curriculum delivery and learner achievement is still weak, as is shown in international ratings. Many children, mostly rural, do not know enough at the end of school to study further, or to work. And success is clearly divided between rich and poor children. The value of social capital at this time is immense.
The enabling environment created by Government's education policies has allowed us to achieve significant gains in education improvements in the governance and performance of middle class schools. . The relative success of educational change in middle class schools combined with abiding shortcomings in service delivery in schools catering for the poor is beginning to reveal a fragmentation of the education system in South Africa. This trend needs to be arrested by applying strategies that are focussed on ensuring that the policy frameworks have the desired impact on education outcomes for the poor.
Addressing the challenges of poverty and equity in education: Poverty and, in particular, the racial basis of its manifestation, represents a considerable challenge to improving education and training for the poor. Even though education is a key vehicle through which we seek to overcome poverty, poverty in itself constrains the capacity of school and individual learners for effective teaching and learning.
There is a strong correlation between poverty and educational attainment in South Africa, as is the case in other parts of the world. Poverty affects learning, but the extent of the difference, and the gap between rural and urban areas, reflects a real problem. Teaching and learning are not taking place in some schools - either because it cannot or because there is no will for it by teachers, pupils and parents.
Chronic poverty combined with rising costs of education represents one of the single most important threats to the education and training transformation agenda in South Africa. This country has some of the most robust policies in the world for achieving equity in education spending. While the School Funding Norms, the Teacher Rationalisation and Redeployment process, and the School Fee Exemption Policy have all assisted in promoting equity, the reality on the ground is that the education of poor learners continues to be stifled on account of inadequate financial inputs.
The state has not succeeded in making education simultaneously free for all and of reasonably high quality. There are three key operational terms:- free - for all and - of reasonably high quality. We could make education of fairly low quality free for all, but then many would choose not to avail themselves of something that was free but was perceived to be of low quality. This would result in a two-tiered, highly privatised system consisting of those who are forced to access a poor quality system remaining in the public system, and those who opt out going to the private sector. South Africa has thus far managed to prevent the large-scale emergence of a private school sector. Maintaining a public school sector that reaches virtually the entire population is a key nation-building asset, which we should not endanger.
Too many resources are spent on unproductive activities at national and provincial levels, such as coordination, as well as activities that are very complex, internally contradictory or unsustainable. The consequence is that managers spend a great deal of time coordinating and consulting, instead of engaging in line-management supervision of actual delivery. Coordination and consultation tend to happen at levels of the system higher than the school; thus the more the system emphasises coordination and consultation, the less resources reach the school.
Policies that focus on an equitable sharing of existing resources are clearly not sufficient. It is now urgent to make a careful study of the adequacy of funding for the education and training of poor learners, who face the double challenge of poorly resourced environments at school and at home.
There are other alternatives. One could forbid fees in all schools, or one could forbid fees in poor schools. The first option would lead to a massive flight of the middle classes to the private schools, and result in a net privatisation of schooling in the country. Public schools would then tend to be for the poor. Unfortunately, the political economy of public goods is such that schooling for the poor tends to be poor schooling. When the political and public sector elites themselves flee to the private sector, the fate of the public schooling sector is sealed.
A second option would be to forbid fees in poor schools. This, however, might make the poor feel targeted as second-class citizens who are incapable of making their own decisions. A better sub-option here would be for the education departments to determine whether the community of parents in a certain zone is sufficiently well organised (and the school community not so poor) that they can be allowed to proceed to self-assess contributions to the school. In that case one is making an organisational judgement, not making the poor into second-class citizens. This might indeed be a workable alternative. It should, however, not take the pressure off actually allocating more resources to the poor.
Inequalities between provinces are also a cause for concern. Situations where equally poor schools on opposite sides of a provincial boundary receive vastly different levels of resourcing are an indictment of our vision of a united, post-apartheid South Africa. The constitutional arrangements often cited as the culprits are not insuperable. The space exists in the budgeting processes of the country to pay greater attention to inter-provincial equity. What is needed is more serious engagement with these processes by ANC and allies in the bureaucracy.
Achieving equality of quality through curriculum reform and improved teaching and learning: The apartheid regime in seeking to maintain its dominance and keep the oppressed majority in subjugation, sought to erode the capacity of the education system to reproduce a black intelligentsia. Its policy of Bantu Education was aimed at destroying institutions that produced African intellectuals and professionals, and replacing them with forms of learning that stifle critical thinking, creativity and innovation.
The foundation of the reproduction of these intellectuals and professionals was good high schools that were predominantly run by missionaries, and other township schools such as Orlando High. Over the last forty years, South Africa has witnessed a decline of well-run, functional and dynamic schools in the rural areas and in the townships. The resultant effect of these reactionary policies is that matriculation graduates who enter universities have been denied the basic foundation to grow and develop into well-rounded intellectuals and professionals.
Whilst curriculum innovation is a necessary condition for educational change, it is not a sufficient condition for improving the productive capacity of our learning institutions and the quality of learning. Real quality learning can be achieved by building dynamic and vibrant high schools with dedicated teachers who understand the moral purpose for teaching.
We have managed to push the agenda of education transformation forward through curriculum reform post-1994. These gains have been quite spectacular in some parts of the education system. However, in significant sections of the system, a shortage of vital resources that support learning at home and in school has prevented the poor child from achieving similar gains. Children who do not enjoy the benefits of books in their home, a computer, and the physical space to study have been at a disadvantage. This is the situation that prevails in the homes of the 40% of our households.
This must inform the way teachers teach and the materials they use. It is probably not debatable that the country's education system has placed insufficient emphasis on getting books to our poorest learners. Moreover, we must carefully weigh the potential benefits of introducing a core set of high quality books that would be used nationwide, in all schools, and that would transmit the core values of our emerging democracy, and of the elected Government. Misplaced arguments about local choice are used to dilute the fact that there is a need for some curriculum centralism, even in the materials we use, if we are to build a united country, and if we are to provide the poor with access to quality books. We need a greater focus on curriculum content rather than outcomes, with more standardised learning support materials. National values are best promoted by the existence of a uniform national system of education, which is equitable and comparable.
Skills development and improving the relevance of education for employment and job creation: The guiding principles of human resource development in South Africa is found in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), which highlighted the need for improving the quality of life of our people through training and development. Amongst the resolution taken in the Mafikeng conference in 1997 was the need to pursue human resource development through cooperation between state departments and with social partners in targeting, developing and funding training programmes. The HRD Strategy for South Africa which was launched with "A Nation at Work for a Better Life for All" as the driving message behind it - with a strong element of involving communities in developing themselves - in the spirit of Vuk' uzenzele.
The mobilising slogan of the democratic state "A better life for all", can only be realised though the improvement of the productive capacity of the economy. A key element in raising the productive capacity of the economy is the skills base of our people. Historically, black people and Africans in particular have been denied access to key skills and professions. The legacy of racial stratification of the labour market and the effects of the racist policy remain persistent in our economy.
Millions of adults in and outside employment remain unskilled. Millions of young people have passed matric, yet cannot gain access to higher education, or they have failed and their learning has been terminated. The HRD Strategy calls for the development of foundational competencies, including functional literacy, as well as intermediate skills (technicians) to manipulate the technologies involved in production.
Progress in the transformation of higher and further education and training and in the area of skills development through SETAs and the Skills Development Fund are vital components of our collective strategies for meeting the challenges related to skills formation and improving the relevance of education and training for employment and job creation.
Building the black intelligentsia - improving high-level skills and capacity for research and development: The development of a massified higher education system, i.e. one that is increased in size to absorb a greater proportion of eligible 20-24 year olds, broadened to accommodate increasing numbers of mature learners, women and those from rural communities and the disabled, has long been a goal of the democratic movement.
While recognising that access to higher education cannot be viewed in the same way as universal access to general education or to further education on an incremental basis as resources become available, the need to make the higher education system representative of the race, class and gender profile of our society must continue to frame our transformation agenda in this sector.
However, the call for increased and broadened access must be linked to concerns for equity of outcomes and to the development needs of the country. In this regard, the system currently falls short. The number of black students entering the system has increased and the system has become more representative, at least as far as students are concerned. This has to a considerable extent been made possible through the investment made in the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
But, the shortfalls remain glaring. In particular, students still continue to enrol, in large numbers, in programmes that ill prepare them for the labour market. As a result, the potential for graduate unemployment and under-employment increase and student success rates are unacceptably low. The flow of competent graduates, especially in professional areas, has thus not kept abreast of economic and social development needs. This has the potential to reach crisis level in some key areas such as teaching.
Two other areas need to be highlighted. The first is the failure of higher education to ensure that it contributes to the development of the next generation of black academics, professionals and intellectuals. The majority of the country's researchers remain white and male. Furthermore, this group of researchers is aging and, if not replaced will result in a crisis for the research and higher education systems of the country.
The second is the concern that research in higher education has not adequately responded to the political, social and economic imperatives confronting the country. Similarly, the teaching curriculum in many areas remains blind to the changing social and political context of the country. This, in turn, impacts on the prevailing values and ethos of higher education institutions, which in some instances, has not responded to either the changing composition of universities and technikons, or the transforming nature of society.
These and other concerns have shaped our transformation agenda that includes far-reaching measures to restructure the higher education system. While there has been much in principle support for the need to restructure, the proposals of Government, which are firmly based on a policy, which places equity, redress and development at the centre of change, have been met with resistance.
This has taken different forms and served different agendas. There are real concerns about, for example, the potential for job losses, the ability to successfully manage large-scale change, etc., which must be addressed. Many of the responses are dressed in the guise of institutional autonomy, but are little more than the protection of vested interests. Similarly, while we need to be sensitive to historical values, names and reputations, these should not be used to hold the transformation agenda hostage.
Creating a cadre of teachers as key agents for change in education: Schools and other education institutions need to be staffed not only with competent teachers, but also with teachers who understand the agenda of the new democratic state and the role that education and training must play in processes of social and economic change. Teacher organisations, and SADTU in particular, have a moral and strategic responsibility to raise the consciousness of teachers and define their central role in this drive for quality education. Regrettably many teachers currently in-service have no service ethos, and are resistant to any form of performance standards.
Teachers are entrusted with the upliftment of the African majority, and are on the forefront of the war against poverty, ignorance and disease. Thousands of our teachers execute their duties selflessly and with an outstanding sense of commitment. However, too many display serious lapses in discipline and commitment. The apartheid inheritance of poor training and isolated, poorly equipped infrastructure is undoubtedly a part of the problem, but cannot be used as an excuse by those who betray our children through sub-optimal performance.
Resourcing and training must be accelerated, as well as the need for the ideological and moral strengthening of our teaching corps. Most teachers in the country are ANC members or supporters, and the biggest teacher union belongs to our Tripartite Alliance. A failure of the teaching corps as a whole to take up the challenge to rebuild the education system, mainly through hard and committed work, has to be seen to a large degree as a result of our failure to create a true cadreship of teachers. At the same time it must be recognised that the necessary policy changes since 1994 have had a destabilising effect on education, and teachers have been required to deal with many difficult issues.
These tasks, therefore, requires a consistent engagement with teacher organisations on the need to move away from developing only a narrow trade union consciousness, i.e. the conviction that it is necessary to combine in unions, fight the employer/state, and strive to compel the government to pass necessary labour legislation, etc.
Improving the capacity of the bureaucracy and school governance: Educational transformation is not just a technical process of managerial efficiency, or a cultural one of understanding and involvement. It is in essence a political process and as such the change agenda is always contested. The contestation arises because education and training is the greatest gatekeeper of opportunities and a powerful distributor of life chances. Under apartheid education and training was defined to favour the white minority over the indigenous African people in particular and the black people in general.
Eight years into our democracy, transformation of the education bureaucracies is now not only a matter of challenging practises lingering from the apartheid past, but also a matter of challenging some of the bad practises that have emerged post-1994. We need to recognise that there has been a tendency for the education departments to prioritise everything, and excel in nothing. Whilst politically we need to acknowledge that all education priorities deserve attention, it is also necessary to signal to the bureaucracy where the absolute priorities lie, and then to hold the bureaucracy accountable for focussing its limited resources in a rational and sustainable manner, without spreading its focus and resources out too thinly. Above all, it should be the focus of the bureaucracies at this point to focus on delivering quality education to the poor.
The bureaucracies are severely limited in their research capabilities, especially in terms of the more technical planning questions. This is a serious shortcoming, as the education system is massive and complex, and requires sophisticated management. The ANC should insist that the energies of the country's best progressive planners and education managers be harnessed by the bureaucracy in the interests of improved planning.
We have been true to our promise of democratisation of education through popular local participation in school governing bodies. However school governing bodies have not been systematically capacitated to undertake this important role. The SA Schools Act did not envisage a total abdication of the role of the state in schools governance, as is happening in some provinces. Devolving power to poor schools without the necessary sustained and systematic capacity building, leave schools vulnerable to a number of unscrupulous forces. We need to ask ourselves whether our excitement to achieve our medium to long-term goals of popular local participatory governance has detracted us from our short-term delivery objectives of increasing the quality of learning and ultimately the employability of the disadvantaged and the poor.
The structure of school governance is a conceptual and practical problem. In practical terms, school governing bodies have either failed to use their powers or abused them. Poor schools collect little or no fees, so most of the real powers are effectively nullified. And because these are often homogenous rural communities, choices of school policies are hardly contested. The existence of SGBs has not been felt by poor communities, and has added little value, although a large amount has been spent on the election and training of 80 000 school governors.
By encouraging self-managing schools, we inherently promote an isolationist approach to education, instead of favouring co-operation. Instead of sharing scarce resources, we are forcing every school to be fully self-sufficient. A collective approach, such as a single School Board aligned to Local Government demarcations, should be considered. District offices of the Department could take over many of the functions of the School Governing Bodies (SGBs), and ensure a better distribution of resources, pupils and teachers. The time has therefore dawned for us to look at providing a structure of district or local authority based governance for especially the poor schools. We need to ensure that we do not abdicate assistance to poor through a "one fits all" solution of school governance.
It is recommended that a comprehensive review of the SA Schools Act should be undertaken. The current policy and associated legislation is often viewed as being essentially one of appeasement, and not designed to address the needs of the disadvantaged and poor.
Values in education: The formation of values is a shared task for parents, education, and society at large. Education can only attempt to influence these, and reinforce those of parents and society. We have active programmes that promote the values of the South African Constitution, the national symbols, History, Heritage Day and other national days. We work with the Moral Regeneration Movement, and promote sport, music, arts and culture.
Values are best demonstrated and promoted by the behaviours of the new cadre of teacher, which we sought to develop. We have in place programmes and institutional arrangements for initial teacher education. The incorporation of Colleges into universities and technikons has created possibilities for more effective central planning. The Ministry of Education's work on Values in Education must be supported and accelerated.
Rebuilding the mass movement in education: The education transformation agenda is fundamentally a political project. Given the role of education in the NDR and Reconstruction and Development, it is vital that this project of education is inserted into the wider discourse on education policy and transformation in the country.
The ANC is presently unable to effectively lead this discourse and exercise stewardship over the political project of education. It is therefore vital to reconstitute the political center for education in the ANC. This center will have to comprise of a permanent institution located within the organization and subjected to its discipline. This political center must also fill the important gap of articulating the political project of education within the organization and stimulate the active involvement of ANC Branches in education matters at a local level to strengthen education governance, which probably one of the most serious blockages to achieving effective gains in education improvement for the poor.
Some issues for Consideration by Conference: The drive to create a single nation, with a national education system, has resulted in numerous compromises, including the constitutional framework of education itself. But we have retained the belief in and the integrity of a national education system. We have reached a plateau, supported by an infrastructure of laws and policies. But beneath the plains, there are thousands for whom the infrastructure is meaningless, and who are largely untouched by educational policy changes of the past 8 years. This makes the system extremely vulnerable, and we must continue to improve the system to allow for all to share in its design.
In doing so we must either discount the private schools, or ignore the cries of their lobby; the former seems more appropriate given the undue attention they have been given to date. The existence of a black middle class has effectively de-racialised most of these schools, and they serve an economic and social purpose. We must give attention to the interests of the many, and focus unambiguously on the vast majority of public schools, which are poor.
Better facilities and more forceful management of personnel would contribute much to improving the benefits of education. Changes in governance and more definitive curricula would ensure that these benefits are more equitably shared and enjoyed.
The challenge of nation building is central to achieving our strategic objective of a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. The Strategy and Tactics document (1997) alludes to our diversity and our heritage, and charges us to harness it in the interest of building a unified South African identity. We therefore have a duty to mobilise our resources in this regard.
Our definition of nation building is captured very well by our President in his speech at the opening of a debate on the subject of reconciliation and nation building in 1999 where he said, " with regard to the first of these, our response would be that nation-building is the construction of the reality and the sense of common nationhood which would result from the abolition of disparities in the quality of life among South Africans based on the racial, gender and geographic inequalities we all inherited from the past".
The ANC believes that the starting point is the reconstruction and development of our country, which will create the material base for nation building. As long as our people are divided by a wide social and economic gap, which is reflected in racial, geographical and gender terms, nation building will be difficult to achieve. Therefore our efforts at creating a better life for all and addressing the legacy of our immediate past are fundamentally about creating a non-racial, and non-sexist South Africa in whose wealth all its people share.
National symbols: As we address these fundamental questions, we must also work hard at creating symbols of our identity and nationhood. The development of all our languages so that they truly have equal status is critical to nation building. So is the promotion of our national symbols. It is our duty as cadres of the movement who understand the historic need to promote non-racialism to take the lead in the promotion of our national symbols such as our national flag, our Anthem, and our coat of arms. The government has to promote these symbols, and draw from our diverse heritage to build a new nation. Amongst the programmes to encourage a common national identity is the promotion of our national symbols in all our schools.
Heritage: The Legacy Project, which involves the development of sites and institutions that express both colonial (e.g. Ncome Museum) and post-colonial (e.g. Mandela Museum) struggle history, is near completion, with the exception of the major multi-year Freedom Park project. The Robben Island Museum has made major strides forward since its inception in 1998. Particular landmarks have been the declaration of Robben Island as a World Heritage site and the completion of the Robben Island Gateway facility at the Waterfront in Cape Town. The recent return from France of the remains of Sarah Baartman forms a cornerstone of the Khoisan component of the Legacy Project. The extremely important heritage of Umkhonto we Sizwe finds a natural home at Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, which we are in the process of acquiring for the purpose of establishing a museum.
More problematic, however, has been the transformation of the heritage infrastructure that the ANC inherited from the previous regime in 1994 (e.g. the Military museum in Johannesburg). Because of limited resources, the focus has obviously been on previously neglected and transformational areas, such as those expressed in the Legacy Project. This has meant that other museums, such as those forming the Iziko Museums of Cape Town, have not received the same attention, although from both a tourism and a heritage perspective they are significant. It was Iziko Museum scientists who recently discovered the Blombos stone, on which appears the earliest example of human "writing" and scientists from the Northern Flagship Museum, together with those from Wits University, have been at the forefront of palaeontological work relating to the Cradle of Humankind.
We must also encourage as part of heritage, local community heritage societies, whose responsibility it is to encourage the discovery, recording and popularization of local history and heritage sites in their communities. In addition, we also need different sectors to contribute to our overall heritage project of documenting the transition of the last decade or so. Amongst the things we must consider is a dedicated agency, that will be responsible for consistently collating, assessing and produce in popular form our heritage and history.
Language: National policy and legislation on language is due to be finalized only at the end of the year 2002. It has been difficult to balance the imperatives of the Constitution against practical principles such as the cost and user-friendliness of new policy. The focus has therefore been on practical measures to promote language. The Pan South African Language Board (PSALB) has a programme to develop dictionaries in all languages. The Telephone Interpreting and Answering Service of South Africa (TISSA) is enabling South Africans to obtain key emergency service advice (e.g. from the SA Police Service) in their own languages. The Human Language Technologies programme is using new software being developed in South Africa and elsewhere to develop word processor spell checks in South African languages, to produce automatic translation and voice recognition software.
A key issue in the development of indigenous languages, are the issues of language in education - including mother tongue instruction at entrance levels, encouraging multi-lingualism and language in higher education. The Public broadcaster, as does the publishing industry, too have important roles to play in the promotion of African languages.
Archives: A new National Archives Act has been implemented since Mafikeng. Two basic principles inform the mandate of any archives: good governance and national memory. The challenge with respect to good governance in South Africa has been to establish solid provincial archival structures (this is only partly complete) and to keep abreast of international developments in electronic record keeping. Regarding national memory, there are still huge challenges in incorporating previously neglected (e.g. oral history), previously hidden (e.g. TRC records) or of the transition (CODESA, post 1994) into the national archival record. The Archives project of the ANC, as well as the project to record the 90 years of ANC history will be important contributions to the process of ensuring that all aspects of our history is recorded.
Heraldry: Significant progress has been made with the adoption of a new national coat of arms and more recently a new set of national orders.
Performing arts: This has been one of the most difficult areas to make progress in. In order to release funds for artists not funded by the previous regime, it was necessary to cut subsidies to established institutions such as the major theatres in Cape Town, Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Durban. These funds have been channelled via the National Arts Council (established in 1998) to a wide range of artists and projects. However, the funding cuts to major institutions have generated a significant backlash from vocal elements of the arts community. Moreover, during the struggle years, when international donors were prevented from funding political organizations and trades unions, arts bodies were recipients, almost by default. This source of funding has clearly dried up, and so many artists find themselves worse off than they were before 1994. One weakness in our approach may be insufficient leveraging of private sector resources.
Despite these limitations and challenges, the entrepreneurial activities of young musicians, producers, designers, poets, sculptors, comedians, writers have unleashed not only a flurry of activity asserting a distinct African identity, but also points to the large pool of untapped talent in our country. Also, a transformational development has been the formation of a National Dance Troupe under Jonas Gwangwa and Nomsa Manaka. The aim of this initiative is to develop indigenous dances and dancers in a culturally faithful way to the point where they can compete with the world's best on national and international stages.
An assessment of South Africa today indicates that the lives of the people are by and large gradually changing for the better. Access to a number of basic services such as housing, land, energy, education, health care, water and sanitation etc. has been extended to millions of our people. This indeed suggests that our broad policy thrust in many areas is correct, and should be affirmed.
Perhaps this may also point to another weakness we may need to address,
which undermines our social transformation agenda. The ANC should carry
out its agenda primarily through its structures, the branches. Any weakness
in these structures leads to our failure as an organisation to fulfil our
mandate. Many of our social policies do not succeed to take off in implementation
because they are underpinned by the logic of a strong ANC.
Without this strength they do not succeed, and the forces opposed to us
then find space to undermine them.
Less than eighteen months after we hold our 51st National 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.