Issued by: African National Congress
CHALLENGES FACING THE ANC TODAY
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS TO THE ANC - PVDA SUMMIT
24 FEBRUARY 1997
THE HAGUE
By Cheryl Carolus : ANC Acting Secretary General
1. INTRODUCTION
I want to start off by thanking the many groups, persons and parties who had supported the struggle against apartheid at a time when it was not fashionable to do so; at a time when your support for our struggle for freedom, justice, equality and peace was questioned by some of your own compatriots.
Whilst it is quite clear that the central force for change had always been the people of South Africa, the contribution of democrats throughout the world is often underrated.
So, I want to use this opportunity to thank all of you for your work and sacrifices. I suppose that you must however be masochists, because your assistance has contributed to a situation of freedom where the tasks are sometimes even more daunting. And so, here we are with you today for even more support!
Hopefully we will also contribute through our contributions, in some small way, in our common pursuit to build a world which places the needs of the poor and vulnerable at its centre.
2. THE TRANSITION HAS BEEN REMARKABLE
The transition in our country has often been referred to as a miracle. It is partly true and also partly untrue.
It is true that for many of us the slogan of "Freedom in our lifetime" was just that a slogan. Whilst in exile, in prison or living on the run, none of us would have imagined that that slogan will become a reality.
When the bombs were going off days before the general election in April 1994, we had very serious doubts about the durability of the fragile deal brokered during the initial negotiations.
So then the fact that the elections happened with very few hitches and overwhelmingly peacefully, can indeed be hailed a miracle, because it defied all logic.
But the miracle theory is also not correct, because the quality of our transition, the determination of our people, was the result of hard work, blood sweat, tears and many lives. The extent to which we neutralised the forces opposed to change entailed careful, calculated work which included certain compromises.
The scars of the scarifices are still with us and we are reminded on a daily basis, through the TRC hearings, that in many cases the evil visited upon or people was sometimes far worse than the world ever wanted to believe.
We experience difficulties associated with some of the compromises which were necessary eg the GNU.
As cadres of the ANC we can say with confidence and pride that the leadership role provided by the ANC through the years of struggle was the major factor in ensuring that we learnt lessons from other struggles and which enables us to continue to be able to mobilise a large and broad constituency behind our perspective of change.
3. BUT MUCH WORK NEEDS TO BE DONE TO COMPLETE FREEDOM
We are however very award of the fact that the democratic elections did not herald in total freedom. We are painfully aware that when President Mandela and our newly elected MP's took up their seats in the first ever democratically elected parliament, the face of apartheid outside of parliament was still very intact. Black people still continued to live under the most appalling conditions, the inequalities were still there.
We understood that we had won one aspect of power - political power. The challenge is how to use that aspect of power to transfer other aspects of power to the people.
In many ways the struggle for freedom has entered a new phase - a phase where the outcomes will in a large measure (although not exclusively) be determined by us.
4. ALREADY MANY ACHIEVEMENTS
We are proud to say that substantial change has already occured in the lives of many of the most disadvantaged sections of our community.
Our constitution is one of the most progressive in the world.
Substantial work has been done to ease the burden of the most poor. The list is quite impressive against the consistently negative reporting about the achievements of government.
The emphasis has been on areas such as the provision of clean drinking water, sanitation. Lack of access to these are one of the major causes of infant mortality. The provision of free health care for children under the age of six and for pregnant and lactating women, reduces infant and maternal mortality even further.
The electrification of +- 10 000 households per month has profound benefits - coupled with water provision, it gives 6 - 8 hours a day back to a rural black woman who previously used to spend that amount of time looking for water and firewood.
Clinics and schools have been prioritised for electrification. In 1994 there were more than 1000 schools and clinics in an around Soweto which did not have water, electricity or toilets. Can you imagine the need in rural areas?
The first few communities have successfully reclaimed the land from which they had been forcably removed under apartheid. Government has a number of programmes to ensure their full reintegration.
After fierce opposition which saw all the White parties gang up, the Schools Act is in place and opens up a whole new chapter in the sensitive area of schooling in our country.
We have a new Labour Relations Act which charts a new course in places of work.
Six million school children get their only meal for the day through the school feeding scheme.
There are regular arrests for fraud in government and corruption in the police service. We are confident that this does not mean that there has been a real increase in those crimes, but that we now have the political will and the systems to bring the culprits to book.
5. THE ODDS ARE TREMENDOUS
We inherited all the irrationalities of the past which includes racism, fragmentation etc.
The apartheid regime entered into many last minute deals before the election eg handing over eighty per cent of land in KwaZulu - Natal over to a trust controlled by the Zulu king. Many government departments find themselves hamstrung by contracts entered into by former NP Ministers which are legally binding on the new government.
We have inherited a civil service which is inappropriate for the new tasks and culture.
We believe that one of our major stumbling blocks in dealing with rampant crime is a police service where key officials are corrupt. Training for police personnel in the past was focussed on repression.
On a daily basis, evidence is being unearthed at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of the continued existence of many of the covert operations which were set up by the NP government. They are involved in organised crime eg production and syndication of drugs, gang warfare - all of which constitute some of the key destabilisation forces in our new democracy.
The payment of interest on the public debt which we inherited is the biggest expenditure item in our budget this year - more than we spend on education, health or housing.
Hasty privatisation in the last days of the NP government saw the transfer of substantial resources, including a nuclear arms production facility, at ridiculously low prices to friends and associates of the NP. Government now has to use some of these services at inflated prices. The attempted privatisation of the majority of public schools in white group areas was a clear attempt to preserve the best schools for whites. (Hence the extreme care - and even suspicion - with which privatisation is being treated in our country.)
6. JANUARY 8TH IDENTIFICATION OF KEY TASKS
On the occasion of our eighty fifth anniversary on 8 January this year, we identified our key tasks for this year as the consolidation of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) and the affirmation of the ANC cadre.
7. CONSOLIDATING THE NDR
We need to safeguard our gains and make substantial further progress. Central to this remains the implementation of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). The completion of key government policy papers and legislation marks a new phase. The hotly debated macro economic framework, the Growth, Equity and Redistribution (GEAR) document is a key aspect of this.
We want to see improved delivery. Real constraints had existed till now because of the policy vacuum, the inappropriate structures of government. Much progress has been achieved in these respects.
Lack of capacity is however a very real problem at all levels of government, and most acute at local level.
Effective governance is also crucial. Corruption is still a problem. We are also grappling with questions around levels of remuneration for public representatives eg what is an adequate level of payment which will ensure that not too many MP's are open to bribery and corruption, which will ensure that we continue to attract MP's of high calibre, but which is not too exhorbitant compared to the very low levels of pay in South Africa.
The NP walkout from the Government of National Unity (GNU) signified the victory of the rightwing forces in the NP and it does not bode well for the future.
Recent newspaper reports confirmed what we suspected for some time i.e. that the NP has maintained clandestine groups with links to powerful groups in banks, businesses, the security forces, the media and that they are consistently finding ways to chisel away at an ANC led government with the hope to ultimately destroy confidence in the transformation process. It is further hoped that this group will ensure the ultimate restoration of power for the NP in the 2004 elections.
We hope to deal with this through a series of new initiatives to build a patriotic opposition.
We are however confident that the threat of neo-nazi rightwing violence which characterised the pre-election period has been substantially reduced.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has to succeed in its work. As you will appreciate, it was not an easy decision for us to take to convince our people to forfeit justice for reconcilia- tion. We remain convinced that it was the correct decision. We are co-operating fully with the TRC.
8. Building the ANC
A strong ANC is crucial to the consolidation of democracy in South Africa. This is especially true because we do not have any credible political opponents which can serve as checks and balances for us. With the exception of a very weak PAC, all the other political parties represent one or the other vested interests of the past. The answer therefore lies in building a vibrant organisation with the necessary structures and processes for vigorous debate and criticism within.
The ANC continues to set the tone for change. It has to provide leadership to its members, the tri-partite alliance, the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) and to society at large.
It has always been our view that the ANC has to continue to earn that leadership and not decree it.
The mass exodus of leadership into national and provincial governments in 1994 and subsequently into local government in 1995 and 1996 has taken its toll on the organisation. This is an issue which will be addressed by the ANC national conference in December this year.
Since the election a lot of focus has been on government with not much direction for the role of members of the ANC and its allies for quite some time. As a consequence, branch structures fell into a state of disarray. The local government election campaign gave purpose to the work of branches again. This was reinforced by Provincial Conferences which were held last year and one which was held this year.
Our structures are up and running again. We are also gearing up for reconnecting our elected representatives in government, leader- ship at all levels to ongoing development work in local areas. We have started a complex process of education and training to build the capacity of the abovementioned groups to fulfill their role competently.
This process will reach a high point on the weekend of 21 - 23 March when we will be holding a series of "People's Weekends" across the country to revitalise the "Masakhane" (let us build together) campaign at local level.
9. KEY CHALLENGES FACING THE ANC
This will be gone into in much more detail by my comrades who are experts in these fields. Broadly it includes:
9.1 our determination to remain the leader of the broad libera- tion movement in our country. As stated earlier, there is still much ground to be covered in our march towards total liberation.
9.2 building new layers of leadership and ensuring ongoing cadre development. Apart from the obvious political education, we are placing considerable emphasis on skills development.
9.3 building cohesion in our ranks. Political education is obviously central to this. We have had a few rather bruising episodes of asserting organisational discipline. We are currently reviewing our different codes of conduct to bring it in line with new situation.
9.4 reorganising our policy making capacity. We have scaled this down substantially since going into government. We believe that this was correct. But we are still grappling with conceptualising how and what needs to be set up to ensure that our comrades in government implement policies which are in keeping with the perspectives of the ANC. We will value some input on this.
9.5 another area which we are grappling with conceptually is the processes and institutions necessary for us as an organisation to ensure effective research and information gathering.
9.6 co-ordinating work between what we call different sites of deployment viz, between ANC structures and government, between different levels of government, in government, between legislatures and government.
9.7 ongoing accountability to members and the electorate especially because of our electoral system for public representa- tives at national and provincial level and in part at local level.
9.8 ensuring financial sustainability.
9.9 communication internally and with the public.
9.10 winning the 1999 election.
9.11 dealing with the consequences of a fully democratic government after 1999.
9.12 correcting the urban bias in our country and indeed in the ANC.
9.13 making further progress on full and equal participation of women in the ANC.
9.14 retaining vibrant links with our allies and civil society. The ANC had been noted for the inclusive manner in which it arrived at major decisions in the past.
9.15 improving our role in the world:
9.15.1 strengthening ties with progressive forces of which party to party relations is critical. So too is links with the NGO sector.
0.15.2 identifying ourselves firmly with and playing a constructive role in the Southern African region and as part of the African Continent.
9.15.3 dealing with the impact of globalisation. We need a progressive understanding of and a proactive programme of action which is guided by a progressive perspective.
10. CONCLUSION
So, as you can see, we still have many tasks in our pursuit of freedom. There are still many contradictions which are being thrown up in the course of transformation.
South Africa nevertheless remains an exciting country; a country which is well worth the sacrifices which we have made and will continue to make.
We ask you to continue to walk the last mile with us. We thank you.