East London, 3 March 2005
Smuts Ngonyama, Head of The Presidency, African National Congress
Thank you for inviting us to speak on the topic 'The second decade of a democratic South Africa - the ANC's vision'.
As you know, this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Freedom Charter. At the Congress of the People in 1955, delegates representing the poor, the marginalised and the disenfranchised, adopted the Charter in Kliptown.
Twenty five years later, on January 8th 1980, our then President, Comrade Oliver Reginald Tambo said, "The Freedom Charter contains the fundamental perspective of the vast majority of the people of South Africa of the kind of liberation that all of us are fighting for. Hence it is not merely the Freedom Charter of the African National Congress and its allies. Rather it is the Charter of the people of South Africa for liberation ... Because it came from the people, it remains still a people's Charter, the one basic political statement of our goals to which all genuinely democratic and patriotic forces of South Africa adhere."
These words remain true to this day. The Charter embodies a vision of an alternative society to the society we inherited. It constitutes the programme of the people of our country for the creation of a truly democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, united and prosperous country. It guides us about the broad outcomes we must pursue to achieve the strategic goal we have set ourselves - to eradicate the legacy of racism, sexism, colonialism and apartheid, as we said when we marked our 90th Anniversary.
A decade ago, we adopted the Reconstruction and Development Programme as the instrument we would use to pursue the broad objectives contained in the Freedom Charter.
During our First Decade of Freedom, the period since we adopted the RDP, we have put in place the necessary specific programmes to bring the objectives of the RDP and therefore the Freedom Charter, into reality. We have achieved a great deal of progress as we implemented these programmes.
As we have done this work, we have not lost sight of the heavy responsibility that falls on the shoulders of our movement to lead our country and all our people towards the creation of the society visualised by the masses of our people when they adopted the Freedom Charter.
Comrades and Friends,
The Freedom Charter articulates a powerful political, social, economic and moral vision. Our challenge in the Second Decade of Freedom will be to translate the ten clauses of the Charter into solid progress towards the realisation of a better future.
Towards this end, we have set ourselves clear targets our work leading up to 2014, when we will celebrate our Second Decade of Freedom. Some of the most important targets and objectives making up this vision are as follows:
These are the specific tasks we have set ourselves over the next ten years as we seek to build a society that is truly united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic.
Comrades and Friends,
Central to this vision for the Second Decade of Freedom is the creation of a single and integrated economy that benefits all. Once again, it is the Freedom Charter that guides our progress. It proclaimed that we should strive to realise a future in which "the national wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africans, shall be restored to the people".
Colonialism and apartheid robbed our people of productive property, and created an education system designed to confine them to the perpetual status of 'hewers of wood and drawers of water'.
The democratic state must take the lead in the transformation of our economy away from the fetters of the past, which constrain growth and development. Among the mechanisms that the developmental state deploys to restore the national wealth of our country to the people are the following
As we have said, achieving these goals requires a powerful developmental state.
This does not mean importing models from other eras of development in other parts of the world. Rather, it means creating the capacity within the state to lead and direct development in the context of South Africa's unique realities. Some of the developmental states in Asia pursued their vision of economic development in the absence of democracy. With powerful support global powers, they were able to dragoon and coerce society towards their developmental goals.
But the Freedom Charter envisages both an integrated, developed economy, and a vibrant and diverse democracy. We are absolutely committed to achieving both, since we believe that these two parts of our vision are inextricably linked. Only in conditions of democracy can development truly flourish.
Therefore, our challenge is to convince all South Africans to willingly and selflessly contribute towards the realisation of this vision. We must mobilise the whole of society around a common notion of shared growth, with specific emphasis on poverty eradication and job creation. This is the idea which underlies the 'People's Contract to Create Work and Fight Poverty". In other words, the unity of purpose of all South Africans is essential to the realisation of our vision. One aspect of this unity is the unity of the ANC itself. Our movement was established as 'the parliament of the African people'. It exists to unite all of those forces that are committed to thoroughgoing transformation of our society. It is a non-racial movement, which accepts all South Africans within its ranks. It unites men and women from numerous ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
We frequently take this national unity for granted. In the post-liberation period in Africa, one of the most enduring curses that militated against growth and development was precisely the failure to build national unity. Tribalism, separatism and regionalism often undermined the capacity of the state to lead development. In other cases these forces tore countries apart in an internecine conflagration. The 'national question' continues to burn in the conflicts that we see in Africa today.
But in South Africa, it is the conscious work of the African National Congress over 93 years to overcome the demon of tribalism that has enabled us to begin our work on the sure footing of a nation united.
The continued ability of the ANC to unite our society, and to provide leadership towards the realisation of our vision, is a fundamental condition for success.
But these heavy responsibilities cannot fall on the ANC alone. Workers in the trade union movement, as well as business people have an essential role to play. Government can create an environment for higher rates of investment. It can create some employment in the public service and public works programmes; and it can encourage labour-intensive methods in parts of the economy. But long-term employment depends largely on higher rates of private investment; it depends on strategies for growth in key sectors of the economy; it depends on joint skills development and learnerships in both the public and private sectors to provide work experience.
All of us have a contribution to make.
Comrades and Friends,
Realising our vision will not depend only on South Africans. More than ever before, ours world is a single global village. Developments across the world, both political and economic, will have a direct bearing on our ability to succeed.
Therefore, a central task of the developmental state is to negotiate global space for our own national development. In the last half of the twentieth century, the developmental states were able to trade off on super-power rivalries. But for the last decade at least, the world has been characterised by uni-polarity. The emergence of China as a global economic power, and the ongoing malaise in US economic fortunes may eventually give rise to a more polycentric world order.
But the tasks of the developmental state in its global interactions remain awesome. These include our responsibility to:
We are convinced that peace and democracy in South Africa, by virtue of its very existence in the largest African economy, will be an irresistible force for peace and democracy in Africa.
Of particular importance to us is the resolution of the problems in Zimbabwe. The elections at the end of the month will be an important event. It is vital that, once the elections have taken place, we are able to act in order to assist Zimbabweans in resolving the problems that their country faces. We must assist in building a national consensus in Zimbabwe on how that country should move forward. In order to do so, South Africans must continue to offer assistance to all sides.
Comrades and Friends,
Over the past ten years, working together, we have built South Africa into a land of peace and harmony, a land of expanding opportunities. We have built a stable and growing economy. We have created the possibility to release more and more resources for social and economic services, while building a modern and competitive economy.
As we enter the Second Decade of Freedom, at the core of the challenges we face is the task to speed up the creation of work and further to strengthen the fight against poverty.
Our goal is to create a South Africa in which all can experience an improving quality of life, enjoying equal human rights, with access to opportunities that freedom has brought us, and bound together as a nation by our humanity. Our goal is to create a South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it.