Address by ANC President Jacob Zuma to Age of Turbulence International Investment Conference, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, June 24 2008

Programme Director, Fellow panellists, Chief Executive Officer of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Mr. Russell Loubser, Chairperson of Endemol, Mr. Moeletsi Mbeki, Dr Alan Greenspan, joining us through satellite link, Business leaders and Captains of industry, Distinguished guests,

We appreciate this opportunity to communicate with the local and international investor community.

Since the ANC�s 52nd national conference in December 2007, we have noticed a growing interest in the investor community to know more about the ANC and what our plans are for the future of our country. We appreciate that.

As business people you always want to know how safe your investments are, and whether the political and social environment are conducive to doing business. As the ruling party we are interested in knowing how your investments will improve the quality of life of our people, the majority of whom are poor.

It is possible for us to find the middle ground and harmonise our goals. We believe we provide a good investment destination for various reasons. On the political front, our founding values champion non-racialism and non-sexism, the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law, in which we all subscribe.

We underscore universal adult suffrage, a national common voters roll, regular elections and a multi-party system of democratic government, to ensure accountability, responsiveness and openness.

The separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary are some of the basic tenets of our democracy, which we promote and protect.

In addition we have our Chapter 9 institutions such as the Public Protector or SA Human Rights Commission, which protect the rights of citizens and further entrench our democratic values.

We started off on a sound footing in 1994 and now are a period of consolidation only. The democratic values will remain enshrined and will be championed regardless of which ANC collective is in government.

We are working very closely together, as the ANC cadres in government and those deployed at Headquarters at Luthuli House, to ensure a smooth transition in 2009. There is one ANC, and that makes preparations for the transition manageable.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am usually asked to spell out my economic vision for the country from 2009. There tends to be confusion with regards to where policy emanates, from an individual or the organisation. In our case, policy is crafted by the ANC as a collective, and we implement ANC policies, they do not belong to individuals.

We have said repeatedly that we do not anticipate policy changes as the policies we adopted in Polokwane in December 2007 will be valid until the next ANC conference in 2012. What may happen is the fine-tuning and providing emphasis in other areas.

As the ANC, we are calling for a mixed economy, where the state, private capital, cooperatives and other forms of social ownership complement each other in an integrated way to eliminate poverty and foster shared economic growth.

We would like to see an increase in productivity levels, encouraged by industrial growth, which absorbs labour, offering decent jobs. Jobless growth must slowly become a thing of the past.

We obviously want our economy to continue being connected to the world, and to benefit from vibrant and balanced trade with the rest of the world. It must also be integrated into the Southern African region and the continent, to promote African regeneration.

Our view is that the State must play a central and strategic role in the economy, by directly investing in underdeveloped areas and directing private sector investment. Therefore, we need an effective, democratic and developmental state that is able to define national priorities.

The State should also mobilise society to take part in the implementation of those priorities and direct resources towards realising these objectives.

There still exists skewed patterns of ownership and production in our economy, a legacy of the apartheid past. Change will not happen automatically. Decisive action is required to transform the current economic patterns in order to realise our vision for the future.

We will therefore continue to address the monopoly domination of our economy, which remains an obstacle to the goals of total economic transformation, growth and development.

We will continue to promote broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) aimed at broadening and de-racialising the ownership and control of productive assets by black people, women and youth. We will promote new black enterprises, which are engaged in the production of goods and services.

We will also prioritise skills development and education to support the BBBEE and affirmative action policies we are undertaking.

We have realised that most established businesspeople see value in our BBBEE policy, as it is an investment into the future. No economic growth can be sustainable if the majority of the population is excluded from the economic mainstream.

The magic word in BBBEE should be "broad based". We need to broaden the empowerment, and encourage new entrants into the economic arena. Another area of interest for most potential investors is our policy on property ownership, especially ownership by foreigners. Our country has in the past few years attracted many foreign property owners. Our policy as adopted at our 52nd national conference in Polokwane, took this into cognisance. We resolved that the state must, with immediate effect, regulate but not prohibit ownership of land by non-South Africans.

This regulation should take into account the country's commitment to land reform, restitution, redistribution and access to land. The ANC has also resolved that we should discard the market-driven land reform and immediately review the principle of willing-seller, willing-buyer so as to accelerate equitable distribution of land.

However, it is important to provide adequate support to communities that have been settled through land reform programmes. If this does not happen, the families or communities do not enjoy the gains of restitution.

Ladies and gentlemen, an area of serious concern to all is crime. On our part as a ruling party we are looking at additional crime combating methods including reviving street committees, strengthening Community Policing Forums as well as setting up Community Safety Forums in dealing with crime.

In all our efforts we will also need to be assisted by the criminal justice system, which must continue to send a very strong message to criminals, that crime does not pay. We need police to act very strongly against crime and corruption syndicates, and those who perpetuate violent crimes.

The police must be supported by the courts in proclaiming harsh sentences to those found guilty of violating the laws of the country.

While the police and the courts must work together on these matters, it is critical that their powers and functions must be divorced. The correctional services must play their role in keeping dangerous criminals behind bars. That chain of the criminal justice system must work together to help us deal with the problems of crime.

Ladies and gentlemen the question of rising food prices cannot be ignored, as it adversely affects all, especially the poor.

The major causes of escalating food prices are amongst others the soaring fuel price and the increasing prices of fertilisers as well as harsher drought patterns and climate change.

The long-term solution for South Africa lies in a programme of rural development and land reform. We believe that we have to urgently address agrarian reform in a manner that will make the best of both worlds.

We have on the one hand a community of very experienced farmers who produce food, who have vast tracts of unused land. On the other hand, we have a vast majority of poor people living in the rural areas.

Therefore the creation of food producers and rural economies lie in an agrarian reform programme with a great deal of central government investment at first. Government would need to invest in getting that first tractor, seed and land for the new entrants, to create this thriving rural economy. Price collusion is another mitigating factor in bringing down the prices of staple foods. Government has acted swiftly and charged bread producers for collusion on the bread price.

The impact of the food, fuel and other price hikes means that Africa should engage with the G8 and EU countries to ensure that they recommit themselves to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

South Africa and other African and developing countries should also urge the OPEC countries to take steps to ease pressure on the oil price.

We must also continue to push for a global trade deal that would favour African farmers rather than penalise them with punishing subsidies to enter the developed markets as the current regime does.

We are going through a period of turbulence, as the theme of this conference correctly states. We will survive the turbulence if we are more focused, and if there is active collaboration between the political, social or community and the economic spheres. We have a history of doing that in our country, through Nedlac and other forums.

There is strength in partnerships and we will continue that trend, for the good of our country and its people.

I thank you.

Speech issued by the African National Congress June 24 2008