Statement of the ANC Lekgotla held on the 12th - 14th January at the Gallagher Convention Centre, January 17 2011:

The African National Congress held its first NEC meeting for this year on the 12thJanuary 2011, this NEC meeting was then followed by a two day Lekgotla the 13th - 14th January 2011, at the Gallagher Conference Centre.

In his political overview, President Jacob Zuma re-affirmed the centrality of the Freedom Charter in guiding the work of the ANC led government.  He premised the discussions of the Lekgotla on the clause ‘The People shall share in the country's wealth'.  He also emphasized that this year we need to concentrate on the creation of jobs and meaningful economic transformation, and that the New Growth Path should be used as a framework for the creation of the much-needed jobs.

The ANC used its own NEC meeting and the two day Lekgotla to focus on job creation as a focal point of its activities this year within the five priorities identified in the 2009 manifesto. The discussions were guided by the ANC NGC that took place last year, ANC election manifesto of 2009 and the NEC 2011January 8 statement.

Guided by this understanding and having done its own analysis, the ANC is confident that in the next ten years the economy will be able to create 5 million new jobs and thus reduce our unemployment rate from the present 25% to at least 15%. 

These jobs will be achieved through five clusters of  ‘job drivers' namely; Infrastructure (energy, transport, water, housing and ICT), main economic sectors (agriculture agro-processing, mining and beneficiation, IPAP2, tourism etc), social capital(social economy and the public sector) and new economies that include the green economy and the knowledge economyspatial opportunities (rural development and the African region development)

Our envisaged contribution by sectors towards 5 million jobs to the economy is as follows:

• Infrastructure  - 250 000 (public investment - construction, operations maintenance and supplier industries
• Mining - 140 000 (up-scaling of mining output and beneficiation)
• Broad based manufacturing - 350 000 (sectoral manufacturing outside of agriculture)
• Tourism  - 225 000 (cultural industries and knowledge economy)
• Business services - 50 000
• Green economy - 300 000 by 2020, and 400 000 by 2030 (biofuels, solar and wind energy manufacturing)
• Knowledge economy - 100 000 (ICT, higher education, healthcare,, new technologies, mining-related technologies, pharmaceuticals & biotechnology)
• Social economy - 260 000 (non-profit producers, co-ops and social investment vehicles)
• 10% growth of the public service (EPWP, and new youth schemes)
• Rural Development - 500 000 (infrastructure, marketing institutions, education and skills)
• African regional development - 150 000 (exports of goods and services, business and logistics services

In addition the Lekgotla instructed all government departments in all spheres of government to come up with ways and means of creating jobs in their respective areas

The Lekgotla further instructed the Cabinet to act on the following as a way to facilitate job creation:

On the public service

• TransformPalama Institution of Training to be a government school that will be used to give meaningful training and empowerment to senior civil servants
• Standardization of conditions of service to facilitate the establishment of a single public service
• Engage unions to identify ways of delivering quality services

On agriculture and land reform and rural development

• Concrete plans for commercial farmers, emerging small-scale farmers and food processing
• Land reform programmes
• Revitalisation of extension services
• Revitalization and resourcing of agriculture colleges
• Support for three land holding options (leasehold  of state land, freehold with limited extent on private land and foreigners being allowed to lease land with ownership reverting back to South Africans at the end of the lease)

Infrastructure development

• Rail revitalization must be concretely outlined with clear targets.
• Water programmes that may look at how we dam some of our rivers for preservation of water.
• The agreement also emphasized the importance of linking national infrastructure to that of the region and the continent.

On state owned enterprises

• State Owned Enterprises must play a role in training and resourcing young graduates including the SETAs. 
• Professional councils must be used to give access professional registration of graduates.

On mining and mineral processing

• Process of operationalizing the state-owned mining company must be expedited.
• Down-stream beneficiation of minerals

On the financial sector

• The PosBank must be repositioned as a state bank that is duly licensed.
• Pay attention to the transformation of the South African Reserve Bank and the debate on shareholding

On health

• The need to appoint qualified professionals to manage public health facilities.
• Nursing colleges need to be re-opened and that practical bedside training be re-introduced. 
• The IMC and the Cabinet must approve the NHI proposed programme so that budget and therefore implementation can go ahead.

On Basic Education

• Urgent replacement of mud-schools with proper structures. 
• Schools that are in good condition but closed due to dwindling learner numbers should be used for other needs of the education sector including training of teachers. 
• Teacher training colleges must be re-opened and that they must focus on supplying teachers with skills on mathematics and science. 
• Skills upgrade for teachers must be stepped up

On Higher Education

• The need to resource historically disadvantaged institutions of higher learning to ensure quality education.  This will include Further Education Training Colleges and the former bush universities.
• The unbundling of Medunsa and reinstate it as a stand-alone medical university. 
• The department must develop concrete plans to build a Medical School in the University of Limpopo and the building of new university in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.
• The bursary scheme for students from poor families must be used as an incentive for performance.

On crime and corruption

• The departments must create facilities for whistle blowers and that they must be protected. 
• Our criminal justice system must ensure that those guilty of corruption and crime must be arrested, prosecuted and convicted as the only means to deter crime. 
• The tightening of tender processes

On sport

• The Lekgotla called on the building of a network of academies for the various sports disciplines in our various communities
• The re-introduction of schools sports
• Ensure mass participation in sports

On the international front

• The Lekgotla expressed its appreciation of the role of party-to-party relations that assisted with lobbying for South Africa to be admitted into BRIC to make it BRICS. 
• It was also resolved that struggle heritage sites will be identified in the continent.  It also identified the need to determine the role of the party in the debate about transformation of the United Nations and its institutions.

On organizational matters

• The ANC must build the necessary capacity to drive the implementation of its programmes. 
• Resume with the establishment of a fully-fledged monitoring and evaluation unit
• A Party school and the Policy Institute must be established this year.
• The Lekgotla reaffirmed the target of I million members by 2012 as a realistic and achievable goal.
• The ANC will launch its elections campaign for local government election in mid February this year

Other decisions taken by the National Executive Committee of the ANC relate to Western Cape and the North West.  The provincial conference of the ANC in the North West will take place at the end of January and that of the Western Cape will take place in the second week of February this year.  The NEC resolved to reconvene the regional conference of the Boland region (Western Cape) because of the number of irregularities that occurred at the conference.

The NEC approved the formation of two new sub-committees,namely, the Gender Sub-committee and the State Owned Enterprises Sub-committee, in addition to reconfiguring all the NEC subcommittees for the year 2011.

The Alliance Summit as informed by the Secretariat meetings and decisions will be held in mid February 2011.

The ANC Lekgotla was attended by the ANC NEC members, the Leagues of the ANC, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, Director Generals and the leaders of the Alliance.

Statement issued by, African National Congress Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe, January 17 2011

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