ADDRESS TO THE MEDIA BY ANC PROVINCIAL SECRETARY, CDE SIHLE ZIKALALA, ON THE OUTCOMES OF THE PROVINCIAL GENERAL COUNCIL AND UPCOMING NATIONAL GENERAL COUNCIL
Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media.
We wish to, once again, thank you for honouring this media briefing with your presence. Indeed, we wish to reiterate our appreciation of your presence here and the role you play in our dialogue with the people of KwaZulu-Natal. Thank you very much on your continued role of being eyes and ears of the public.
As you are all aware, we have just emerged from a very successful Provincial General Council (PGC) which saw our movement crafting solid policy proposals that we will take to the 4thNational General Council (NGC). The NGC takes place at the Gallagher Estate, Midrand this week.
The PGC had delegates from all ANC branches which were joined by all the leagues of the movement, ANC Women’s League, ANC Veteran’s League and ANC Youth League and strengthened by MKMVA as well as our allies, the SACP, COSATU, SANCO and other components of the MDM such as COSAS and SASCO.
The main task of the PGC was to prepare for the ANC National General Council which is scheduled to take place this coming weekend in Gauteng. We thank our delegates who did not only show high levels of discipline and unity but also rose to the occasion and made the PGC a resounding success.
We thank our delegates who did not only show high levels of discipline and unity but also rose to the occasion and made the PGC a resounding success through their robust and frank engagements in debating the pertinent issues facing this glorious movement and, indeed, the people of South Africa.
True to the traditional of this gallant movement of the people, the PGC was solely used to discuss policy proposals. This was, off course, to the disappointment of the prophets of doom who had billed this gathering as a forum for position-mongering and for the settlement of personal political points. Indeed during this all important gathering our people behaved like true cadres.
The PGC re-affirmed the correctness of the 53nd National Conference that the strategic tasks facing the movement as it enters the second phase of the revolution is that of radical economic transformation and organisational renewal which should find expression through a thorough programme of a decade of cadre.
Name calling and trading of insults within the ANC
In the recent period, the ANC and the congress movement as a whole has been inundated with a number of inventions which delude the theoretical orientation of the movement. In most cases, such inventions are manufactured to label others than to give critical analysis of the prevailing material conditions.
The PGC resolved that the ANC must re-assert its theoretical orientation guided by the tools of analysis and give proper expression of both material conditions and new tendencies confronting the movement.
The invention of concepts of tenderpreneurs undermines the theory of the organisation and has the potential to undermine the programme of economic transformation. In this regard, we are not opposed to exposing and dealing with those who corrupt the black economic transformation programme.
The new characterisation such as the so called “Premier League” is equally uncalled for. If a person believes there is factionalism in the organisation such a person must engage relevant structures to expose factionalism than employing tendencies of labelling and caricaturing others. People who normally concoct divisive concepts and label others, they themselves, thrive through nothing else than factionalism and conspiracy theories. Labelling always undermines objective analysis and elevates factionalism.
Members of the ANC operate within and as part of structures and if they are involved in tendencies they should be engaged robustly and frankly through proper assessment within structures. Those who deal with factions outside organisational framework they are equally pursuing factionalism and project the ANC as a movement defined by constant competitions of factions.
KEY POLICY PROPOSITIONS:
On Radical Economic Transformation
- The PGC resolved that the ANC must re-asset its theoretical orientation guided by tools of analysis and give proper expression of both material conditions and new tendencies confronting the movement. The invention of concepts of tenderpreneurs undermines the theory of the organisation and has a potential of undermining the programme of economic transformation. In this regard we are not opposed to exposing and dealing with those who corrupt the black economic transformation programme. The movement has always defined such people as parasitic bourgeoisie and the invention of tenderpreneurs undermines the scientific analysis of this element.
- The PGC re-affirmed that government should establish state owned bank. The idea that post office should be transformed into a Government bank has only served to water down the essence of the need of a state bank. We call on government to transform Development bank of Southern African to include retail and investment in other all fields.
On Demonization of Black Entrepreneurs
- The PGC as part of its discussions agreed that it should be added in the organizational renewal that of labelling comrades who take part in economic activities by giving them unscientific labels such as tenderpreneurs should be stopped as this seek to be slowing down the process of achieving the goals of the NDR in the domain of economy.
- That given the current and forecast subdued demand for South Africa’s key commodity exports serious diagnosis is required and new model must be interrogated as commodity export growth path is not sustainable and not ideal for job creation and declining inequality. South Africa must therefore enhance competitiveness of the domestic environment and government must intervene in regulating strategic commodity prices.
- As we move to the NGC, we reaffirm our call that South Africa should ensure that there is no further exportation of raw material which leave the country unprocessed. Any country which trade in South Africa, especially on steel and minerals, should ensure that they build their plants in the country and therefore the country should put a ban on exportation of raw material.
- The PGC took a resolution that the 10% collateral required from emerging entrepreneurs must be done away with
On Fronting
- The PGC took note that the recent review of B-BBEE policy will close a number of loopholes, and deal with firms who engage in ‘fronting’. This approach will better align our B-BBEE imperatives with the need to promote industrialisation of the SA economy. In this regard, the PGC resolved to urge for urgent steps to facilitate a more meaningful participation of black people in the mainstream economy government is now looking at various ways of developing and sustaining black industrialists, including a targeted incentive to support black entrepreneurs entering the industrial sector.
- The PGC further urged government to grow the pool of industrialists exporting to international markets.
On Education and Health
- The PGC urged government to establish a Cuban-South African University similar to the Angolan model whereby students are trained by medical professionals within the country than continuing sending them to Cuba.
- We affirm our commitment to deliver free education at least to a junior degree. The government must work to deliver free education by 2016 to be implemented by 2017.
- The PGC resolved to urge government to expedite the process of establishing state owned pharmaceutical company by 2017.
On the future of Provinces
- The PGC considered the on-going transition which our country has gone through. It re-affirmed that South Africa is a unitary country and therefore call on government to embark on ten year programme which should phase out the sphere of a provincial government and strengthen the Local Government into Regional Cities. This should include starting devolving some powers to local government, building the economic hubs and industrial parks and building the capacity to deliver.
- The PGC s on government to ensure that we build capacity of the state to deliver. All local municipalities and provincial departmental must build a capacity to deliver on services such as maintenance, waste removal. While at a sometime we continue building capacity to deliver on all.
On safety and security
- As part of fighting crime, there must be more synergy between organs that are part of the security cluster. This require a sustained programme to transform judiciary not only to reflect demographics of the country but also to have a commitment and capacity to do their work with diligence and required urgency. With regards to police service, we call for the rotation policy of police as it is clear that the permanent assignment of police does not help to fight crime.
On transformation of the UN
- The United Nations continues to remain untransformed as no major changes have been made since its formation in 1945. We therefore welcome and support President Jacob Zuma statement call for the international community to transform the UN Security Council into a more representative and inclusive body.
- We agree with the President’s view that if the UN does not engage on the issue of transformation of its institutions, South Africa will have to examine what it will do. We cannot continue to lament about the transformation of these multilateral institutions as if African states in particular have no legitimate rights to determine what is happening in the world.
On SA’s participation in the ICC and support for the oppressed
- The PGC endorsed the NEC resolution of reviewing South Africa’s participation in the International Criminal Court as recent events relating to the matter of President Bashir proved that our participation in the ICC can undermine our national interests and those of our continent. The PGC noted and wonder why those who have projected themselves as defenders of democracy and human’s right are not signatories and they cannot be held responsible by the ICC.
- We believe that the struggle for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara has reached a point where we can no longer talk of solidarity but should begin to discuss on what needs to be done to compel Morocco to terminate its occupation of Western Sahara.
These are the issues that we will be taking to the National General Council (NGC) as the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. We are not going to present numbers, but we will ensure that all the above is tabled to ensure concerns of transformation are taking place. The ANC as the leader of the society has a responsibility to ensure transformation for all citizens of the country.
Issued by Sihle Zikalala, ANC KZN Provincial Secretary, 7 October 2015
