16 July 2008, Cape Town
Since the ANC National Conference in December 2007 there are many questions about the future, raising questions about the calibre of leadership the delegates to conference elected. Some see this leadership as just a group of leftists who pose dangers to the solid foundation built over the last 14 years.
The OECD report on South Africa is putting this same question in a sophisticated way calling it "uncertainty about maintaining sound fiscal policy". In anyway it is raising the questions and doubts about the new ANC leadership. This assertion seeks to ignore that the ANC itself has always described itself as a disciplined force of the left and an affiliate of the Socialist International, an international organisation of social democratic parties.
The success over the last decade tends to be attributed to individual leaders who led our movement from time to time. This deliberate distortion of facts makes analysts come to the conclusion that the change is of necessity a bad thing that should be associated with loss. In the process the African National Congress as an organisation and a party disappears in the shadow of either Mbeki or Zuma.
This is either a function of not knowing how the ANC works or a deliberate attempt to undermine the collective wisdom embodied in the structures of the organisation. Central to this description of the ANC and its leadership is the theme that Polokwane marked the beginning of decline and decay. The reality of the matter is that Polokwane rescued our movement from the control of both political and business elite. It therefore marked the arrest of stagnation with strong signs of decline. It was the beginning of the process of renewal and rectification. Depending on the effort that put to it we can see physical growth in the organisation.
It is the elevation of individuals over the organisation that leads to the question of what policies does Zuma as the President of the ANC has in a number of areas, ranging from the economic policy, to fighting crime right through to education and health. When he refers to the ANC policies analysts and commentators describe him as hiding his lack of knowledge and understanding of policies or absence thereof. This framework of individualism forces us to be consistently subjected to the comparison of Mbeki and Zuma. We then fail to appreciate that it is the ANC that produced Luthuli, Tambo, Mandela, Mbeki and now Zuma and not the other way round.
Linked to this is the expectation that the ANC must have no views on the developments in society and even those that affect it directly. One example is the famous " counter-revolutionary" judiciary misquotation by the Secretary General of the ANC. The issue is not what was said rather why commenting on this issue and highlight no the so obvious about our respected judges. I must reaffirm that it cannot be acceptable to us that in dealing with the supposedly delinquent judge the judges must create a storm over the pending pronouncement on the Zuma cases that are before them. Call that revolutionary if you like.
Now we have gone to the national conference, an elective conference, the Polokwane national conference. This conference has elected a leadership collective led by Jacob Zuma. The ANC will fight elections in 2009 on the basis of its policy positions. Over the the weekend the National Executive Committee identified the medium term priorities that will be used to influence the cabinet lekgotla to be held before the end this month. The medium term priorities will also be used to ensure that the Polokwane resolutions are built into the 2009/2010 budget. There was agreement that the medium term strategic framework should seek to enhance social, cultural and economic welfare of all South Africans by focusing on five areas:-
Accelerating the pace of growth and the rate of investment in productive capacity of the economy.
Advancing the involvement of the marginalised in the economic activity through job creation and promotion of sustainable livelihood. Developing a progressive social security net alongside investment in community sevices and human development.
Improving the capacity and effectiveness of the state particularly in the area of combating crime and service orientation of public administration. Building regional and international partnership for mutual beneficial economic growth and development.
This based on the Polokwane resolution and the review of the progress made since the Stellenbosch conference. The following areas have been identified as needing to be prioritised over the next five years starting with the budget of the next financial year;-
There is commitment that more resources should be directed on creating decent jobs. This issue should deal with the challenge of maintaining decent levels of earning without discouraging the absoption of the working people into employment. We should engage in the debate about the view that South African labour cost is higher that the peer group of countries at the same level of development as ours. What is the contribution of the apartheid spatial planning on this cost.
The industrial policy should be strengthened to ensure that the economic growth is based on clearly identified sectors for growth. This will enhance our capacity to direct private capital investment based on the clearly prioritised sectors.
Rural development, land and agrarian reform need to be put on on the priority list. The focus should be on food production and food security. The land distribution should therefore be underpinned by capacity development directed at ensuring that the new owners of land continue or improve the land productivity.
This will require the establishment of government wide centre of economic planning building on the capacity that ahs been built in the policy unit of the presidency. In our view this should be graduated into an advanced centre of planning.
The commitment in making South Africa attractive for investment remains strong.. The massive infrastructure development and improvement programme of government will continue as there is understanding that the quality of our infrastructure is critical for sustainable economic growth. Our definition of infrastructure is broad; it covers the physical, social and institutional infrastructure. We can partner in ensuring that the development and maintenance remains a priority.
The electricity crisis is taken very serious by the ANC. We had a choice between being ashamed of differing with our government and allow a 53% tariff increase and keep quiet or to openly engage with both Eskom and government and we chose the latter. Our argument is that the economy cannot afford the sharp spike in the electricity tariff. The better option is to smooth out the increase over a period of time so that the economy can adapt.
We put forward the proposal that the state must absorb the costs related to wrong and delayed implementation of decisions by government. The accelerated demand side management interventions must also be funded by the state. The coal mining industry must be engaged on the structure of coal price. We objected to the attempts by Eskom to recoup under-recovered revenue over the last two financial years. We welcome the award by NERSA on this matter although it has not totally eliminated the increase. We are investing in ensuring that the ANC reinstate its activist role as a liberation movement and a party leading government.It should be where people are and take up issues that affect people directly.
We have prioritised crime as an issue that needs urgent and serious attention. There is agreement that laws must be tightened against criminals and be made to be biased in favour of victims. This requires the strengthening of the whole criminal justice system. We agree that the capacity of fighting organised and serious crime and corruption need to be improved. It is this commitment to the improvement of this capacity that informed our most vulgarised resolution, the resolution on the Directorate for Special Operations known as the Scorpions. Let mention a few of the underlying reasons for the decision to incorporate the scorpions into the South African Police Service. The need for a single police service that is capacitated to fight and defeat crime. The separation of powers that of investigation and prosecution. This will minimise the tensions between the Scorpions and the South African Police. The Ginwala commission has laid these tensions bare for every South African to see including who sort to distort our resolution. The illegal collection of intelligence linked to the inconsistent administration of justice as highlighted in the Special Browse report.. We also acknowledged that the scorpions house about six hundred investigators investigating about 325 cases per annum while the SAPS is housing about 20000 detectives investigating about 2,5million cases per annum. We further found that it costs the taxpayer 50 times more for the scorpions to complete a case. The conclusion we came to was that high profile as the scorpion cases may be investing in this small unit is will not be a winning formula in the long term. Hence our acceptance of the proposed organised and serious crime division being put together in the SAPS pooling together all the resources that are aimed at fighting crime.
We have prioritised education over the next five. In addition to identifying the non-negotiables we have opened the discussions in a number of areas. Our sub-committee on education and health has been directed to do a detailed analysis on the impact of mergers of the institutions of higher learning. The intention is to identify those that ended up being a disaster so that
appropriate interventions can be made and strengthen the models of success. The debate about reopening of the teacher training colleges dealing with the short supply of teachers. We are debating whether it is optimal to have one department of education or should we split it into one ministry dealing with primary and secondary education and the other handling further and higher education.
Closely linked to education is health as an area of priority over the next five years. The focus is universal access to quality health care. We have resolved that the National Health Insurance scheme has to finalised during our term of office. Our HIV and AIDS programme has to be implemented aggressively because it is comprehensive and progressive. The communication of this policy should be more positive than it has been thus far. At the end of the day this will come down to the appointment of the political leadership that reflects this seriousness.
We can go on and on because the ANC continues to think about a whole range of issues. But we want to emphasise that society must expect a dialectical combination of continuity and change. There is going to be a stronger focus on practically addressing the plight of the working people and the poor. It is our considered opinion that if we don't address the deepening poverty, growing inequality and high levels of unemployment success and prosperity will alienate a big section of society. We should avoid counter posing the need to address these pre-eminent problems facing society to the need for the creation of a conducive environment for the economic growth. What we can assure you of is that the ANC leadership is not reckless nor is it going to behave like a victorious faction. We are going to engage any sector in society because we appreciate that we do not have the monopoly of wisdom. The interventions in both the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape are serious attempts to get it right or get punished by the electorate. I will answer questions on all these matters.
THANK YOU.