Acceptance speech delivered by Comrade Marius Fransman, Chairperson of the ANC Western Cape, at the Provincial Conference, CTICC, Cape Town, Sunday February 13 2011
Members of the NEC
Newly elected Members of the ANC Western Cape Provincial Executive Committee
Representatives of Regional Structures
Branch delegates and guests
Alliance structures
Comrades and friends
Moving towards 100 years of self-less struggle to build a national democratic society, we bring this conference to a close cognisant of one critical question resonating from what the President said yesterday. That question must be carried to the length and breadth of this province; it must be the subject of deliberation, planning and action in every branch and in every community. That question quite simply is: what is to be done?
Two days ago on the 11th February we commemorated an historic event when just over a decade ago President Nelson Mandela took his first steps to freedom from Victor Verster Prison after 27 years of incarceration. His release spelt the dawn of a new age in our struggle for freedom, peace and democracy.
Ladies and gentlemen; Yesterday the 12th February 2011 likewise marked a momentous occasion in that continuum of struggle that we call the National Democratic Revolution. The people of Gugulethu have spoken; the people of Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain have spoken; the people of Central Karoo have spoken; the people of Overberg have spoken; the people of Southern Cape have spoken; the People of the West Coast have spoken; the people of Boland have spoken. From every corner of this province the call has gone out for unity, renewal and action. The question we must grapple with is what must be done to build cohesion and unity in action.
Comrades, the African National Congress in the Western Cape has held a successful and vibrant 7th provincial conference since the dissolution of the PEC in 2009. As a newly elected leadership we want to pay tribute to the Provincial Task Team and the NEC deployees for the sterling work in sustaining organisational momentum and making the conference possible against very trying circumstances. A key feature of what we must do, is to commit to working with all members of the ANC and to ensure that we do not water down gains made in the past two years.
We are indeed overwhelmed and humbled by the responses of people all over this province and indeed all over South Africa. We have received messages of support from the religious sector, the fishing sector, business, unions and civil society. Today, we celebrate not the defeat of one over another; Today, we celebrate not the triumph of one group over another. Today, we celebrate the triumph of hope over despair; today we celebrate the triumph of resilience over despondency; vigilance over complacency. Today we celebrate the triumph of renewal over dissension, decay and death. The ANC Lives, the ANC leads.
As I extend congratulations to my fellow cadres in the ANC leadership of this province, I want to remind all of us that the renewal of our organisation requires deep reflection and introspection on our historical strategic and tactical errors; it requires our collective resolve to do all that is necessary in rectifying these errors of our recent past by restoring our revolutionary values , rebuilding the trust and confidence of cadres and winning back electoral support through regenerating our structures and reconnecting with our communities; it requires deepening our roots and being rooted amongst the working class masses of our people.
When I reflect on how we have arrived at this victory and juncture, one element stands out very clearly. We have reached into the very depths of our abilities and drawn upon the collective wisdom, energies and resolve of our broader progressive movement. I must therefore acknowledge the work, support and contribution of leaders and cadres in the African National Congress, the revolutionary engagement and discourse of the South African Communist Party, the support and mobilisation of our cadres and workers in the labour movement, particularly COSATU; the energy and revolutionary vigilance of the ANC Youth League; and the wisdom and experience of the Veterans League and the support of our comrades in the Women's League.
In the days that lie ahead your task and revolutionary responsibility will not diminish. In fact, we are obliged to accelerate and expand our engagement so that the collective strength is brought to bear on our task at hand. In all these structures of our movement we must reach out to reconnect.
Whilst we celebrate we are cognisant of the fact that our work is not done. The 2011 local government elections are just around the corner and in fact, we have just entered into a new phase of struggle and action. This phase is characterised by the focus of our attention on three very distinct areas of work. Firstly, we will aggressively drive the internal renewal, hegemony and cohesion of our organisation. Secondly, we will shift the focus from fighting within to heightening the crisis for the real enemy. Thirdly, we will deliver value to our people through intensifying the mobilisation around community struggles and service delivery issues; identify and harness alternative delivery channels, intensify lobbying for empowerment and transformation.
Yesterday President Jacob Zuma asked some very thoughtful and decisive questions. He asked us to reflect upon the following:
1. What have we done since the last provincial conference?
2. What is or was the purpose of this conference?
3. What is to be done to address the many challenges that we face?
Over the days, weeks, months and years ahead we will embrace, reflect and act on the profound implications of these questions for the work that awaits us. As we forge ahead we are guided and fortified by the work that we have done over the past two years to develop the central core of our strategy for winning back the Western Cape.
Comrades, In calling on us to deliberate on these questions the President reflected on what Madiba meant when he said that "Unity is the rock on which the ANC was founded,'' The immediate implications of our tasks ahead is that we must begin to think about what do we really mean by unity in our movement. We cannot and will not be factionalist and vengeful to our comrades that did not support our position until today. Instead if our unity and renewal agenda is going to be successful our 1st task is to win our comrades over to the renewal agenda.
We call on all our comrades to embrace each other and respect the democratic decision of our movement. Now is the time to demonstrate that actions speak louder than words and that the lip-service that has been given to unity finds reflection in all that we do. I want to reiterate that whilst we are sensitive and sensible about how we handle and heal old wounds. We call on comrades to be disciplined and dignified. We will not however allow that the work and functioning of the PEC be disrupted through ill-discipline and factional behaviour. We will deal decisively with such misbehaviour.
This brings to a close a chapter in our history that has been bitter, divisive and far removed from the principles that we profess. This brings hope to even those who may not have been participating in conference especially activist that have been isolated and purged. There are many activists that have been waiting for this moment and we want to reach out to all of them and say that you belong in the ANC. It is our historic task in winning back the Western Cape to do all that needs to be done to mobilise the progressive forces of our movement and broader civil society.
At the National General Council in September last year the ANC leadership as it was reflecting on building a national democratic society sent out a very clear message when it said that: "The Western Cape is important for the ANC, not least because it is an important province in terms of population size and contribution to GDP, but also because of its impact on the national question."
In the run-up to this conference much has been said about the national question and its implication for our struggle here in this province. Some have said that race has got nothing to do with it. Others have said that being coloured or black has nothing to do with it. We are very clear though that the ANC in the course of engaging society and crafting a new path cannot work in a way that isolates and marginalises anybody. Over the past few weeks I engaged and addressed ANC comrades and cadres in the various regions. I have repeatedly called for a leadership that is sensitive and a leadership that is sensible.
As we heighten our sensitivities around this critical issue, we will also begin to engage more intensively with specific challenges that we face in this province as we engage the apparatus of the state that is not in our control at this junction in time. Our specific challenges are how to engage the struggle to deracialise the organs of state in this province and to some extent elsewhere in our country. Zille's free hand at reversing the gains of transformation over the past sixteen years must be challenged and brought to an end. We will draw on our collective power as a broad progressive democratic movement in partnership with civil society to heighten this site of struggle.
The DA honeymoon is over. One of our central tasks is understanding what must be done to play an effective role as the official opposition to ensure that our people are not left at the mercy of the DA. Our people have been given a raw deal. The open toilet saga, the marginalisation of African people in the province, the declining conditions of farm workers and job losses are the hallmark of the DA government.
Ladies and Gentlemen; We shall then also have to understand and work on intensive programme of what must be done to deracialise the ownership patterns in the economy of this province. The state in a post apartheid South Africa and in the Western Cape in particular cannot perpetuate old and antiquated patterns of ownership and beneficiation. We must challenge the DA government and ensure that the economy of this province becomes a catalyst for transformation rather than an accidental after thought or an instrument of white privileged patronage.
As we intensify these struggles our own organisational work will come into sharp scrutiny and the task of supporting each other to work together after many years of destructive engagement, marginalisation and isolation. I want to call on all old cadres and activists throughout the length and breadth of this province. You are an intrinsic part of renewal wherever you find yourself.
Your collective experiences, wealth of insight and profound understanding of communities, their unique characteristics and nuances, is required to take us forward. Many of you have over the past few years in the face of provocation and isolation just taken a back seat and left the terrain to those of lesser talent, capabilities and capacity. You have a historic responsibility to reclaim your place and to make your contribution.
Ours is not a struggle of myopic opportunism. Our struggle is rooted in the ideological foundation of the Freedom Charter and the National Democratic Revolution. This requires that every cadre must grasp, and understand the nature and characteristics of the society and struggles that we engage. We must therefore nourish and reenergise the work to deepen the political and ideological education of our cadres and the masses of our people.
Recent developments on our continent in Tunisia and Egypt have heightened awareness of the power of mass mobilisation and people's popular struggles. This holds many lessons for us in mobilising communities and engaging the various sites of struggle.
The ANC has a historic role of identifying with popular struggles all over the globe and of being a powerful voice in global forums for advocating for the rights of the poor and downtrodden masses of our world. The ANC Western Cape must be mindful of the important connect that many in our province have with these struggles including our consistent position in supporting a peaceful resolution to the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.
As we bring this historic ANC Provincial Conference to a close the agenda to renew can only be forged through absolute unity in action. Let us then be reminded of Comrade Nelson Mandela's words which epitomizes this principle when he wrote to the Kabwe National Consultative Conference in 1985,
"We still remain a closely knit organisation, ever conscious of the crucial importance of unity and resisting every attempt to divide and confuse us... unity is the rock on which the ANC was founded, it is the principle which guided us down the years as we feel our way forward... in the course of its history the ANC has survived countless storms and risen to eminence partly because each member has regarded himself or herself as the principal guardian of that unity"
As the newly elected ANC chairperson of this province, I want to announce the following 10 point Programme of Action that I will put to the structures of our organisation, for immediate implementation. Our theme should be: "What is to be done", focusing on implementation:
1. Unity
Despite the doomsayers, we have held a successful Conference, albeit under difficult circumstances. Our immediate task is to unite our structures in the province. We need to convene special branch meetings within the next month, to discuss only one issue: what is the task of every branch in the province to unite our organisation. In this regard, I wish to acknowledge the call from the COSATU General Secretary, comrade Zwelinzima Vavi, this morning. He has advised me that COSATU has kept a close eye on developments at this Conference, that the federation is encouraged by the progress, and endorses the leadership election outcomes. He has specifically asked me to convey to Conference that a key task now is to focus on unity and to put in place programmes to advance our responsibility of job creation and poverty alleviation.
I am aware that there are many comrades who currently struggle to join the ANC, either as new members or simply to renew there expired membership. I call on our structures to work in the next week to resolve this problem, and over the 3 weeks thereafter, call on all our supporters to join the ANC or to renew their membership, as part of our organisational renewal agenda in this province.
In this regard, the provincial secretary will in due course announce a venue for a provincial celebration party, to help cement our unity renewal program.
2. Marginalised communities
For too long has the Western Cape politics been focussed on the metro. Our task in the period ahead is to broaden this focus, and to reclaim our rural constituency.
3. Youth
The challenges facing youth are enormous. This includes unemployment, lack of skills, crime and drugs. Our experience in intervening in Mitchells Plain over the past year provides an excellent model for engaging youth throughout our province. Branches will be tasked to implement a programme of action to give them hope, employment and development. I call on our structures to make this a key focus of their work. We will convene a youth summit that will inter-alia provide access to vital career guidance services for young people.
4. Jobs
Our main priority, as reflected in the President's State of the Nation Address, is on jobs. In this regard, I wish to announce that I will seek an urgent audience with the Minister of Trade and Industry, with the specific intention to secure commitments to create at least 5 000 new decent jobs in the food and canning industry, subject to national government protocol and procedures.
In particular, I will also explore what assistance can be provided to clothing and textile workers in this province. I challenge employers in this province to commit to grow employment by at least 10% over the next 12 months. We must ensure that R20 billion rand government incentive to create jobs is also accessed by the SMME sector and emerging black business more generally.
5. The Cape Minstrels
In pursuit of our historic role of being a people's organisation we will work closely with organisations of civil society to challenge the emergence of the liberal agenda in the province that continues to marginalise the majority of our people. The annual Minstrel carnival is an important part of our history and heritage and has been observed for nearly 150 years. We want to tell Zille hands off our heritage. Your victimisation and divide and rule tactics in dealing with the Cape Minstrels will not be tolerated.
Your efforts to throttle the survival of the minstrels and replace it with a Rio-style carnival reveal your true colours. We will identify ways in which we can actively support their annual events as the ANC. I call on the Provincial government to immediately commit to more resources for the minstrels and demand that they grant the minstrel marches freedom of the city, especially given the linkage with the 2nd January celebration of the emancipation of slaves.
6. Rebuilding our communities
We express and reiterate our solidarity with the community in Houtbay, who have so tragically lost much of their possessions and homes in a fire two days ago. I call on the people of the Western Cape to help give them comfort and on the ANC structures to help render practical rebuilding assistance.
In particular, I call for broader support for the stirling work done by civil society organisations, such as the Proudly Manenberg Campaign and the efforts in Hanover Park, Mitchell's Plan Khayelitsha and elsewehere. I also support the commitment of President Jacob Zuma to finalise and conclude the resettlement of District Six within the next three years and will ensure that we engage those responsible and monitor the way the DA government will support or attempt to delay this reality.
7. Health
When the ANC was in power in this province, we initiated the building of 2 new hospitals. The DA is now claiming credit for this important delivery project. We need to focus on a campaign to improve services at day hospitals and strengthen health care delivery services co-operation with such excellent services as being rendered by the clothing and municipal unions, through their industry based health care clinics.
8. Drugs and substance abuse
President Jacob Zuma's visit to the Sultan Bahu Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Mitchells Plain earlier this week indicates the high importance that our government attaches to the problem of drug abuse. I call on ANC structures in communities to support community initiatives to address this problem. We there are no such initiatives branches must develop a program of action to combat this serious problem. We will further engage the President and relevant government departments to ensure that national government renders practical support to combat this serious scourge.
9. Sport
I am saddened to note that our school sport support system is collapsing. We need to revitalise this. It is an important programme to steer our youth away from drugs, gangsterism and substance abuse. I call on ANC branches to engage this with much vigour and energy and also to determine how we can leverage sport as an instrument for job creation and entrepreneurial development.
10. Our national priorities
It is important for us to focus on implementation of our Polokwane resolutions. The Conference has set out our key programmes. I call on all branches to focus on what they can do in their communities to ensure implementation of our agreed POA, as decided at Polokwane.
We also recommit ourselves to:
- Continue recruiting new members into the African National Congress
- Deliberately and consciously build and strengthen the alliance in the province
- Initiate a dedicated Community Outreach Programme to reach all the citizens and communities in the province
- Work with haste in ensuring that the candidate selection process is expeditiously concluded and the election campaign goes into full swing
- Strengthen non-racialism and non-sexism in the ANC and the region
- Work tirelessly to reclaim all the municipalities in the Province, with outright majorities
- Have a dedicated media and communication strategy that ensures that people get to hear about our achievements, stories, plans and policies.
In conclusion, this is not a theoretical call to unity but a call to action and one which must find resonance in all that we do. We will put in place the organisational machinery to drive this in order to achieve our goals and objectives. Finally I want to re-iterate what Cde President Jacob Zuma said at the 66th anniversary of the ANC Youth League in Stellenbosch last year when he said that we must "set a target that by this time next year, much progress would have been made to build the ANC on the ground in this province.
There must be no part of South Africa where the ANC does not lead our people towards a better life. Let us build the ANC, the ANC Youth League, the Alliance and the entire mass democratic movement, for us to take the national democratic revolution forward. The ANC Lives, the ANC Leads! Amandla!"-.
I thank you!
Issued by the ANC Western Cape, February 13 2011
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