ANC NATIONAL WORKING COMMITTEE MEDIA STATEMENT
The African National Congress (ANC) National Working Committee (NWC) held its regular meeting on Monday, 07 March 2011. It is the last NWC meeting before the National Executive Committee (NEC) sitting scheduled for 11 - 13 March 2011.
The three-day NEC to be held at St George Hotel in Tshwane, will finalise the ANC candidates' list process for the local government elections, scheduled for 18 March 2011. The NEC will process the work of the regional list committees and conferences; the provincial list committees and the national list committee. In preparation for the NEC, the National List Committee will be engaging all the provinces individually over three days from 8 - 10 March 2011.
On the Employment Equity Amendment Bill, the NWC expressed satisfaction with the explanation given by the Minister of Labour that:-
- It is not factually correct that in the draft legislation, reference to regional demographics has been removed and reference to national demographics has been retained. Reference to both national and regional demographics has been removed and the Bill refers to "demographic profile of the economically active population".
- The intention is to resolve the complaint from employers that they are expected to comply with both the national and regional demographics.
- The amendment is meant to give employers flexibility of using either national or provincial demographics as long as they can justify their preference. A national company will be expected to use national demographics and a provincial-based company will be expected to use provincial demographics.
In view of the above explanation, the NWC agreed that the current public debate was false and based on disinformation. It re-affirmed the policy of non-racialism and non-sexism as a settled policy of the ANC. In implementing this policy, headcount will be necessary. The term Black is inclusive of African, Coloured and Indian. Any competition among these people who belong together must be eliminated. We should rather deal with the continued domination of management positions by white males.
The NWC further appealed to all ANC members to stop and refrain from behaving as if they are free agents who speak as individuals, reflecting comments that are not informed by policy.
On the South African Municipal Workers' Union's (SAMWU) comment that the ANC Manifesto "does not address working class needs", it must be put on record that the Manifesto was adopted by the Alliance Summit. In the Alliance Summit, the entire Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Central Executive Committee (CEC) was invited, with the SAMWU leadership having been part of the COSATU delegation. The statement can at best be regarded as grandstanding by the SAMWU leadership who want to eat their bread and still have it. We ask this union not to mislead its membership and fulfil its commitment of being part of the forces for change during the upcoming local government elections.
Statement issued by Gwede Mantashe, Secretary General of the African National Congress, March 8 2011
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