Political Overview by ANC President Jacob G. Zuma to ANC's National Executive Committee, September 18-19 2009

In his opening and closing input, the President directed the National Executive Committee to the following matters:

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MANIFESTO

In the Manifesto we stated that our country needed to change the way government relates to our people and in the delivery of services.

"We are committed to a service delivery culture that will put every elected official and public servant to work for our people, and ensure accountability to our people"

We must remain true to this statement. We must work to improve the quality of life of our people, and this must not be just a slogan. We have also said many times that the ANC leads. Our structures can therefore not be detached from service delivery.

In the last NEC we spoke at length about service delivery protests that had only just begun then. All sorts of reasons have been advanced to explain the wave of protests.

However, we cannot avoid the fact that in some areas, the protests arise from lack of, or inadequate service delivery.

For example, my visit to Balfour in Mpumalanga indicated that the protests arise from lack of basic services as well as the impact of demarcation. Balfour used to fall under Gauteng province before the new demarcation of municipal boundaries. The nearest service centres such as schools and health facilities are in Springs and Heidelberg with a distance of about 30km. When the area was demarcated to Mpumalanga, the nearest centre of services, such as health facilities and schools became Standerton, which is about 75km away.

Our municipal audit process should be able to give us an idea of what we need to do in order to effect a turnaround on the ground. We cannot afford to ignore local government any longer.

In line with our call in the Manifesto to build an accessible and interactive government, and in response to our election undertakings, we have launched our Presidential Hotline, which we hope will go a long way towards rebuilding the confidence of our people in the ANC government.

Comrades deployed in all levels of government need to open (a) two-way communication line with our people. If we open channels of communication to allow people to state their frustrations and solve them, we may minimise the build up of anger.

Comrades, we have also witnessed unprecedented lawlessness that has accompanied some of the strikes and protests. The chaos and violence that accompanies strikes and protests lately cannot be allowed to continue. We praise our police force for responding accordingly to those who seek to violate the rights of others or who break the law.

We also praise the manner, as well, in which our structures responded to the resistance to the launch of the Bus Rapid Transit system. We cannot allow ourselves to be held to ransom by those who do not want development and progress.

Other similar but perhaps more serious occurrence was the violent march on the Union Buildings by soldiers in August this year. We have condemned the action and our view is that soldiers are not public servants in the classical sense, and should be treated differently. The ANC needs to discuss this matter thoroughly including the implications. We need a sustainable solution, which will put national security first.

ORGANISATIONAL MATTERS

"One of the abiding strengths of the ANC has always been to be truthful to the people and never to hide our shortcomings or the extent of the challenges we face"(Declaration of the S2nd National Conference, Polokwane).

It is this honesty and truthfulness to ourselves that will forever guide this movement and make it grow from strength to strength.

It is less than two years since we came back from Polokwane. We had gone through a painful and taxing process for the organisation and the country as a whole. We undertook at Polokwane to work for unity and renewal and to ensure that we never, ever again subject this organisation to the type of protracted internal wrangling that it went through over the past few years.

However, lately, some tendencies are creeping in that are cause for serious concern. We said at Polokwane that we must take the ANC back to the branches. We also said we must emphasise political education.

The politics in theANC must be corrected; we can no longer just pay lip service to political consciousness and cadre development. We must prioritise political education, as this would help us ensure that our members are not easily influenced by tendencies and behaviour that would be detrimental to our movement. I am saying this because of what we see in leadership tussles in the provinces, including in our provincial conferences. Our organisation is deeply democratic, yet at times some comrades become susceptible to using the very mechanisms, which protect our internal democracy against the ANC.

Our audit procedures and verification of membership procedures are intended to ensure that only branches in good standing with members in good standing have the ability to determine the policy and leadership direction that we will take.

Within the ANC lobbying has been a long-standing practice. It took the form of informing branch delegates about the characteristics of who could be considered to lead. It cannot and should not take the form of an instruction on who to vote for and thereby creating a culture of despising the will of the ANC branch members in good standing. We have allowed forms of negative lobbying which includes smear campaigns in the media. This does not serve the progress of the National Democratic Revolution. It serves the narrow interests of a few articulate and vocal people only.

We said at Polokwane "give the ANC back to the branches". My observation is that in many instances this is not the case, some branches are the members of a member. Our task is to ensure that the branches of our movement understand the ANC's policies and know our traditions and history. There are branches in some provinces that regard the ANC as good networking places, which enable them to get business opportunities. This may well be the truth, but it is not the purpose of the branches of the ANC.

The purpose of having an ANC branch in every ward is, amongst other activities, to communicate the needs of the people to those in leadership and to convey to the people what those in government are doing. The contestation of power based on the ambitions of any individual, is futile and short term. The branches will make the choices based on the realities they face.

Another very worrying trend that we must deal with before it is too late is the very premature discussion and lobbying for the 2012 conference. The questions we ask is why are people starting the succession issue so early? Who is behind this? There is an accusation that some ANC leaders are behind this. If that is true, whose interests are they serving? Since they know that we have come from such a horrible and painful period leading up to Polokwane, why are they doing this?

While we have a right to our own preferences democratically speaking, the right must be exercised maturely. Let us not exercise our democratic right to the detriment of our organisation. The problem with such tendencies is that we then stop concentrating on the work before us. We also disadvantage the organisation by undermining its cadres. It is as if we are saying to our cadres that they are no longer wanted in the tasks they have just been given. It undermines the confidence of the people in them. We are saying to our structures on the ground that they must not take the leadership seriously. This is destructive and it must stop. Unfortunately the information in the corridors is that business interests are driving some of the people talking about succession.

Part of the problem we have is the failure of the Alliance partners to help the ANC to unite, and the failure of the ANC on its own, to entrench the political understanding that the ANC is above everything else. We cannot have a situation where people develop business interests, which are stronger than the ANC. This NEC must provide guidance as to how we must deal with this emerging phenomenon.

THE ALLIANCE

Comrades, our Alliance is a strategic one, forged out of decades of struggle for the same purpose. Our revolutionary goals have not all been realised and our challenge to transform the economy and to build a nation of South African people requires the unique combination of all the progressive motive forces in this country.
We need to strengthen the Alliance, and not weaken it through public bickering or through inviting the media to be part of our internal debates. The engagement with the Alliance is more urgent than any other time. We have always stressed that Alliance partners must treat each other with respect.

It cannot be correct that as Alliance partner we begin to abuse our relationship of mutual trust and respect. One glaring example is the recent Eastern Cape provincial conference where you have candidates who are supposedly Alliance candidates and not ANC candidates. This would mean that we have a new development where people stand for positions as deployees of Alliance partners rather than as ANC members. How do we deal with that? We seriously need to reflect and provide leadership on the matter.

THE NATIONAL QUESTION

The debate on the national question has been with the ANC for decades. We must reaffirm that we are a non-racial organisation. We are defined by the principles of leading our country to a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. We also know that our policies should seek to affirm Blacks in general and the Africans in particular.

We would need to constantly debate the implementation of these policies within our structures, without necessarily seeking to exclude others. That debate must take into consideration what steps we need to take to ensure that African people are affirmed, without dismissing the reality that other Black South Africans face or to exclude White South Africans from the debate.

LIAISON WITH OPPOSITION POLITICAL PARTIES

We have remained true to our undertaking to promote social cohesion by engaging with political parties represented in parliament on a regular basis. The Deputy President and I, in our government capacities met the parties in Cape Town on the 27th of August. We discussed various issues including the need for us to find common issues that we can work on that promote the interest of the country. It was also agreed that the parties would form part of national celebrations to promote social cohesion and inclusiveness.

We will continue to engage the parties whenever we can to promote good working relations.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Last year we started intensive provincial visits to speak to and listen to our people. We continued this right through the election campaign. After elections we decided to continue the interaction with our people in order to make them part of the implementation of the ANC Manifesto.

We continue to hold Siyabonga programmes throughout the country. The Siyabonga visits have now been transformed, moving from the theme of generally thanking voters to reporting back on service delivery. We are also able to engage with key sectors as well as local government deployees in particular to assess progress and challenges.

We will next month visit Northern Cape, Limpopo and the Western Cape. Our visibility on the ground will continue. We must not be swallowed by government work to the extent that organisational mobilization work suffers.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Next week, we will address the 6iVh United Nations General Assembly in New York. South Africa will again argue for the need for reform within the UN system, including in the Security Council, to ensure that it is more representative, transparent and responsive to the needs of developing nations.

After the UN General Assembly, we will travel to Pittsburgh for a summit of the G20 nations. This meeting will need to review the implementation of the measures agreed to in London earlier this year to respond to the global economic crisis. South Africa will continue to promote steps to transform international financial regulatory mechanisms, to ensure that the current crisis is not likely to recur.

Following the G20, we will travel to Venezuela for the 2nd Africa South America Summit. This is an important meeting, not only for the historic ties of kinship between these two continents, but because of the strategic partnerships that can be formed. Economically, politically and socially there is much that can be derived from closer cooperation between the countries of Africa and South America.

This month we worked to take the Zimbabwean peace process forward. We visited Zimbabwe to attend the country's agricultural show, and used the opportunity to speak to the protagonists there to implement the Global Peace Agreement. The SADC Summit naturally discussed Zimbabwe and impressed upon the government and all parties to fully implement the agreement. It was agreed that an extraordinary Summit would be held to discuss the matter in detail.

We went to the SADC Summit on 8-9 September in the DRC. The Polokwane conference resolutions strongly recommend the consolidation of SADC as a Regional Economic Community as a first step towards the development of the African Union Government. We emphasized the need for regional integration in our message.

It is acknowledged that the current global financial and economic crisis and the climate change impact harshly on developing countries. The irony is that SADC member states, together with all other developing countries, played no role in precipitating this crisis. We put our view across that we need to ensure that the global economic crisis does not undo the great strides made in the region such as the deepening of democracy, the improvement of trade, economic and investment incentives and the enhancement of the lives of SADC citizens.

As you are aware, locally we are implementing the Framework agreement reached in February this year between the Nedlac social partners. Several concrete programmes to implement the framework decisions have been developed. These include:

• A mechanism to support ‘training layoffs' as a sustainable alternative to retrenchment.

• A programme by the Industrial Development Corporation to provide support for distressed companies in instances where it will save jobs or productive capacity and ensure genuine sustainability, as well as local procurement proposals.

As you are aware we undertook our first State visit to Angola last month. It was a very important visit politically given the historical ties between the two countries. We felt we needed to work hard to kick- start a new relationship based on our historical ties and the potential for very strong economic relations that will benefit our country. Angola as everybody knows, was our pillar during the struggle. We need to engage on a party-to-party level soon to further deepen relations between theANC and the MPLA.

CHALLENGES

In conclusion the President highlighted the following challenges to be met by the ANC:

Alliance

• As the leader of the Alliance, we will go to the Cosatu Congress to help to build a strong federation. We have a responsibility to provide leadership, and to work to strengthen the Alliance.

• The NEC discussions indicate that we need an urgent meeting of the Alliance to deal with various issues including protocols, rules of engagement, mutual respect and issues related to dual membership.

On the Organisation

• Electoral politics: We need to look into developing a code of conduct on lobbying, and regulate what is permissible and not permissible in the context of building unity within the organisation. This must ultimately find its way into the Constitution.

• Political education: We must go back to the basics and deepen political education and activisms amongst all our structures.

• Campaigns: We must have campaigns that keep comrades busy doing work that builds the organisation. We could have campaigns that involve our people in the implementation of our five priorities.

• Business interests: The ANC must not be sold to the highest bidder. There must be a clear distinction between business interests and politics. The declaration of business interests is therefore crucial, and these must never be allowed to be above the ANC.

• The synergy in communication between government and the ANC is critical on strategic issues.

• There needs to be clarity in the relations between the party and the State in all three spheres, to avoid micro-managing of government by the organisation to the extent that work cannot be done. This hampers service delivery as comrades end up fighting. The ANC, as the centre of power, must give strategic leadership and then allow space for government to implement. The development of guidelines on this matter would be useful.

• Western Cape: We need to support our task team to double its efforts. As part of the ANC programme to visit provinces and for purposes of mobilisation, we will spend three days in the Western Cape. We will be there on 17 and 18 October and also on the 31st of October.

Local Government

• The Secretary General noted that each year the Auditor General mentions many ANC-run municipalities controlled that fail to get clean audit reports, and that we must look into this politically not bureaucratically.

• We look forward to the ANC municipal audit report, which will be ready for the November NEC. In focusing on improving local government, we must invest in our councillors.

• We must seriously begin to train our councillors and provide them with the skills that will make them perform better. We must also avoid perpetuating a stereotype that all councillors are bad, because some do their work exceptionally well. We need to find ways of publicly acknowledging councillors who are outstanding in their work.

• We must also pay careful attention to the selection of candidates for local government.

• Creating a responsive government

• The Presidential hotline launched two-way communication with the people.

• Constituency offices as well as ward committees need to be strengthened to serve as a reference point. Once they are fully functional, there will be a reduction in the number of calls, as people will obtain assistance at a local level.

Special Projects

2010 FlEA World Cup: We fully support the recommendation for a comprehensive report on 2010 preparations, so that we are also certain about our state of readiness as the ANC.

Source: ANC National Executive Committee, NEC Bulletin, September 2009

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