ANC PROVINCIAL LEKGOTLA STATEMENT
The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal held a three days Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) Lekgotla from the 10 - 12 February 2012 in Battlefields outside Dundee. The PEC Lekgotla was attended by all PEC members, ANC Leagues, ANC Regional Executive Committees (REC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO), Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA), ANC Mayors and Speakers.
The PEC Lekgotla was convened to consolidate the organizational programme for the year 2012, emerging from the tasks outlined in the January 08 statement which was presented by the President J.G. Zuma during the centenary celebration held in Mangaung.
The Lekgotla received a political overview presented by the Provincial Chairperson, Cde Z. Mkhize which sets the tone for the Lekgotla. The overview emphasised the importance of unity and cohesion, adherence to the organisational discipline at all material times and the needs to serve people with humility. The Provincial Chairperson raised number of issues ranging from January 8 statement, state of the Nation Address, organisational matters and government related tasks of the ANC cadres.
The Lekgotla received the following presentations:
- Report of the State of the mining Industry, giving a detailed research conducted by the NEC on the issue of Nationalization of mines.
- National Vision 2030 from National Planning Commission.
- Provincial Development Strategy and Plan from the Provincial Planning Commission.
- Presentation on the review of the ANC Strategy and Tactics.
The presentations were thoroughly discussed at plenary and referred to commission for further interrogation. The commissions engaged on key programmatic areas to consolidate the programme of action. We emerged from this Lekgotla with a clear programme that responds to issues affecting our people and strengthening our organization.
On the Centenary
The PEC agreed that the centenary is not just a moment of celebration but provides a platform for the ANC to consolidate its task of building a National Democratic Society.
Once again, we congratulate the membership and leadership of the ANC at all levels for making the centenary memorable and inspiring to the Nation and world at large.
We are humbled by a political discourse that took place all over the world on the centenary of the ANC. Many institutions and the media in particular provided a platform for the public to engage on the historical evolution of the ANC and indeed began to define what should be it strategic tasks in the second century.
As part of centenary celebration, we will have a commemoration dedicated to mark the role of King Dinuzulu on the formation of the ANC. The role of Traditional Leaders and Religious sector played in the formation of the ANC and in advancing the struggle cannot be underestimated.
We will further use the 2012 Centenary Programme to preserve the Legacy of our revolution. We are ready for the Centenary Flame that will be in KZN in April 2012.
Our centenary programme reconnects us with the history of the organization but also helps to ensure that we build strong cadres of the revolution. This includes monthly lectures that are organized at Regional and Sub-regional Levels which intend to educate not only the ANC members but people in general about the ANC. The programme also includes advancing service delivery through thematic programmes on issues that affect our people.
As the ANC, we welcomed the State of the Nation's Address which unpacked the programme of the Government for the 2012. We concur with the State President that the tripartite challenges, namely: unemployment, poverty and inequality remain the main hindrance in the construction of the National Democratic Society. We thus congratulate President Zuma in his decisive approach in tackling the real economic challenges affecting our people.
Of importance is the programme of infrastructure development which the President unpacked in the state of the Nation's address which will go a long way in addressing poverty and underdevelopment. The programme will locate South Africa as a gateway to Africa and the world.
On state's capacity to deliver
The State should build its own capacity, not relying only on the external capacity to deliver its services. We call on the government to take charge of the implementation of this infrastructure programme. The Lekgotla resolved to encourage the government to review the tender system because continues to undermine the capacity of the state.
For the creation of jobs, we call on government to adopt labour absorption methodology to deal with the high rate of unemployment and destitution.
On Building a Vibrant organization
In line with the January 08 statement, we will re-activate our branches to take a lead on issues that affect our people by playing a leading role in civil society and community development structures.
Over the next two months we will complete the four outstanding Regional Conferences of Greater KwaDukuza, Okhahlamba, Moses Mabhida and eThekwini. In this regard we will continue working for unity of the organization. We will devise strategies to effectively manage our overwhelming growth in terms of membership systems.
The Lekgotla further agreed on balancing the growth of increasing the ANC membership with empowerment of members through political education in order to achieve the quality membership. Intense political education and cadre development will assist the ANC to transform the 244 900 membership into an active members who understand and adhere to the ANC principles, values and traditions.
On the Provincial Conference
In May 2012, we will convene the ANC 7th Provincial Conference and the next PEC will finalize the details and political approach to the conference, including the date, venue, theme and discussion documents. From the 15th February, our branches will start convening (Branch General Meetings) BGMs to elect delegates to attend the Provincial Conference and to engage on issues of conference.
We also take this opportunity to indicate that unity, cohesion and organisational discipline remain the key pillars to ensure that the ANC is growing in the province.
The Lekgotla reminded members that issues of ANC Provincial Leadership should be discussed in the manner that does not undermine ANC processes. In this regard, ANC leadership issues should be left to ANC structures and we call on other formations to respect the ANC approach on leadership matters.
On the National Policy Conference and 53rd Conference
As we are going to the National Policy Conference, we will submit that:
The ANC must revisit the composition of its structures to ensure that it responds to the current tasks of our revolution. For instance, we should reduce the ANC NEC from 88 to 66 members which will help build integrity of the NEC as the highest organ in between conferences.
On the national leadership, when the discussion is opened, we shall engage our structures with a view of ensuring unity. Therefore, through this any effort that seeks to divide the organization will be undermined. The serious divisions that preceded the Polokwane National Conference should not recur.
Our approach will be guided by the principles enshrined in the policy document; "Through the eye of the needle" and we will continue to engage in a way that builds unity of the organization. In this regard open, frank and mature engagement will help in consolidating unity of the organization.
On Service Delivery
The Lekgotla agreed that service delivery remains the main task of the ANC led government. Our main focus should be on provision of basic needs and ensuring the creation of jobs. All ANC led councils and Provincial Departments must work together to fast-track service delivery to the people. Agriculture remains one of the key areas of focus in the struggle for food security but also is the source of economic injection in rural areas in particular.
Whilst all people need houses, our government should embark on vigorous programme to eradicate informal settlements in our province. The programme of Sukuma Sakhe should also help to identify the real needy people who have no houses.
This year, the Government will pilot the National Health Insurance (NHI); we will mobilize our structures for maximum participation in this programme.
The Education constitutes a critical part of building the future of our country. The PEC Lekgotla agreed to ensure that each branch of the ANC takes keen interest in the education campaign. These include ensuring that there are Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDC) and no child above four years who does not attend a pre-school, as this goes a long way in preparing for the primary and higher education. The improvement in matric pass rate requires that we should also focus on lower grades to improve on the later output.
On Corruption
The scourge of corruption remains a threat to our revolution. It is in essence sabotaging the progress of the service delivery to our people.
We must review the system of tenders and replace it with building the capacity of state to ensure that it drives the implementation of its programmes and services delivery.
We once again call on government to fast-track disciplinary cases in departments and in local municipality. There should be a ban on the employment of officials who facing disciplinary action resign and re-emerge in other departments or municipalities. We call on all departments and municipalities to do a security check of such cases before employment is confirmed.
We support the proposal in the vision 2030 of establishing dedicated mechanisms to fast-track cases of corruption, including having dedicated judges to deal with such cases.
We call on all ANC deployees to ensure clean governance and quality service delivery driven impact on all areas of their deployment.
On the Nationalisation of Mines
We welcome the report on the Nationalisation of Mines and believe that the research has gone far in providing sufficient information and knowledge on the state of mining and how the country can effectively utilize its mineral resources for the benefit of the people as a whole.
The report constitutes a basis for discussion leading to the National Policy Conference. The PEC will convene two days' workshop to deliberate in detail on this matter. Thereafter we will convene regional workshops to be attended by branches in order to take this discussion forward.
As the ANC, we will also engage on public discussion with an intention of galvanizing the views of all sectors on this matter. Our approach on this discussion is informed by a desire to get better ways of building our country's fiscal resources, skills development and creation of jobs through industrialization and beneficiation in a way that does not jeopardize any economic prospect of our country.
Due to the terms of reference, we have noted that the research focused only on Nationalisation of Mines while there are other monopoly industries that could be used for effective development. We strongly believe a further research on the role of the state in other economic sectors, in particular Financial Industry need to be explored.
Conclusion
The PEC Lekgotla resolved on the plan moving forward to convene further discussions on all policies of the organization in preparation for the National Conference. The PEC will consider a possibility of convening a Provincial Policy Conference to ensure enough time for discussion on policy issues.
The ANC's various sub-committees will convene specific summits to discuss issues further. The Unmediated forums, roundtable discussions, activist's forum and public meetings will assist the ANC to solicit further contributions and suggestions from the broader public.
All of these discussions will culminate into the Provincial Conference in May 2012.
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has committed itself in an ensuring that our structures especially branches play a central role in addressing daily challenges of the people. We will make our government work better, efficient and fast-track service delivery at levels.
Statement issued by ANC KwaZulu-Natal Communication Unit, February 13 2012
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
