Address by the ANC Western Cape Provincial Chairperson Cde Marius Llewellyn Fransman, MP at the Provincial General Conference (PGC), June 9 2012

Members of the PEC
Delegates and comrades

I want to start this important in-put by relating a story of a Berber North African General who led his troops across the entrance of the Mediteranean Sea that separates Africa from Europe leading to the ultimate conquest of Spain. Numbering a mere 7000 troops that landed at the Rock of Gibraltar they confronted a well-equipped army of at least 40 000.

As the gallant forces landed on European soil the General instructed that all ships be burnt and addressed his forces saying: ‘The sea is behind us and the mountain and the enemy in front of us, we cannot turn back as we have burnt our ships, we either stand together and defeat the enemy victoriously or we die a coward's death by drowning in the sea..'

I use this analogy because this leadership made a pact 16 months ago to burn all ships and rebuild and renew the ANC in this province, reconnect with and mobilize our communities, re energise the motive forces, drive the agenda of empowerment and economic transformation and take the fight to the DA. We committed as a collective leadership and rank and file cadres of our movement to regain our freedom by winning back this Province from the Democratic Alliance at all cost through driving a strategy for a People's Path to Power. 

Today, we convene as the highest provincial decision making body between conference. As delegates to this council we must take cognizance that we convene having full knowledge that we do so at a very critical juncture. 

Firstly, we do so after approximately 16 months since this PEC has been elected. 

Secondly, we do so with approximately 22 months left before contesting the National and Provincial elections in 2014. 

Thirdly, we are convening just more than a year after the watershed 2011 Local government elections.

Fourthly, we convene just prior to our National Policy Conference in approximately 2 weeks time.

Fifthly, and finally we convene as delegates to this council approximately 6 months prior to our National Elective Conference in December 2012 in Manguang.

Inherently all these dates occur within the context of our Centenary Celebrations as we commemorate and celebrate the survival of our movement as the oldest liberation movement in the World.

I raise these aforementioned dates and timelines as each of these are critical for and intrinsically linked to the future survival of the ANC nationally, provincially and locally and that the policy discussions we engage in, and the decisions we take at a strategic and tactical level, will lay the foundations for the political trajectory we follow in the short, medium and long term for our province, country, continent and broader international left agenda.

Ours is a province which has been tasked with an even more difficult revolutionary responsibility than others, in that we have the responsibility to act as a bulwark against the neo liberal right wing cancer penetrating our country through its mouth piece and instrument, the DA. 

Given the historical uniqueness of the political landscape of the Western Cape, as the only province controlled by the DA, our decisions also impact upon the national, continental and international political landscape within the context of the international neo liberal rightwing agenda being driven by the DA. This danger of the DA has been well documented in numerous previous Leadership discussions since our election and most recently articulated by Cde Vavi in his address to the NUMSA congress in KZN this week.

Therefore it is vital to note that the decisions we make and positions we take this weekend, could either reinforce the advances we have made over the past year in our attack against the DA and acting as the bulwark against its politics of deception. Alternately there is the danger of reversing all the victories and incremental political advances that we have built in our province over the past year and a half.

Equally important is the manner and spirit in which we debate and make these decisions, as the unintended consequences of our mannerism,style and conduct of debate and politicking has the propensity to impact either negatively or positively on the future of our organisation in the province and the country.

Cdes and cadres, therefore as we engage today we must do so robustly, openly and critically but also in a disciplined manner taking into account the rules, culture, processes and proud tradition of our movement and its history of democratic debate. 

Cdes let me re iterate that the purpose of this provincial general council is to reflect on our perfromance, assess our strategies and tactics and engage with our draft policies. We must therefore ensure that our debates deal with the policy perspectives and imperatives and that our arguments and decisions are based on the policies issues guided by the principles, history, culture and tradition of our movement. 

Today's council cannot be about so called succession planning and machiavellian plotting towards Manguang. We must be careful not to be lured into the politics of deception, deflection and destabilization. We have been down that road already and we know the result - the loss of our province and most of our municipalities.

Cdes, this is not to say that the leadership debate shouldn't happen, as the ANC we have pronounced on this, that the process for discussing and electing leadership too has its place. Our meeting this weekend is not a site of struggle for any so-called succession and leadership change of Mangaung, rather it is a space for ensuring that our policy perspective can be changed, and our strategy and tactics are enhanced.

Cdes and delegates, when we engage we must also understand that our conduct is as important as the substance. 

Noting the above as we embark on this historic meeting over the next two days our engagement must be guided by the words of one of our most revolutionary leaders of Africa, the late Cde Amilcar Cabral who famously said:'' Tell No Lies and Claim No Easy Victories''

As I have mentioned earlier it is a year and a half since we were given the responsibility to lead our national liberation movement, the African National Congress, in this significant province. The significance of the Western Cape is that it is the last outpost of conservatism, racism and backwardness, all of which is encapsulated in the Democratic Alliance, who are in control of the provincial and city administrations and many smaller towns. That this is the case is not due to the DA's strength or popularity. It is due to our own historical weaknesses and failures as an organization since 2005 until 2011. The sooner we come to grips with this reality, the sooner we can fix it and return the ANC to power in this province. Our strategy the Path to Power 2014, seeks to guide us in exactly that challenge and objective. 

Hence as we begin our reflection and assessment of where we have come from since the election of this leadership we must remind ourselves of what was the mandate of this leadership then, and what was the clarion call of conference in 2011.

Delegates let me remind you that this leadership was elected on a mandate to ensure organizational renewal and the rebuilding of our movement in this province. It was elected on a mandate to correct the historical aberration of history since post 2004 when we started our downward spiral from our electoral high of 46% due to division, factionalism and an historical tactical error by the leadership from 2005-2009 until it was disbanded. That was the mandate upon which conference elected us, the call at conference was for renewal.

Cdes, subsequent to the election of this leadership the mandate of conference was then developed into a strategy known as Path to Power 2011-2014.

Therefore as we engage and reflect on the current material conditions, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well our advances, retreats and errors over the past year we must do so cognisant of the key strategic objective as laid down in our strategy as well as the 4 pillars (strategic goals) of the strategy which includes

1. Organisational Renewal 

2. Mass Mobilisation and rebuilding the grassroots for peoples power by ring reconnecting with communities;

3. Alternative governance and national investment by national government into the

4. Strengthened opposition and Government 

What then is our strategic objective?

In the Western Cape as in the rest of South Africa the ANC's main objective is the transformation of society. This means creating greater equality by building non-racialism and non sexism, fighting poverty and deepening democracy. For this: 

Defeating the DA in the Western Cape by 2014 therefore becomes a pre-condition to achieving our objective as only an ANC led government can drive this transformation. Furthermore, as we reflect on the past 16 months we do so taking into account the 2 key critical success factors in rebuilding the ANC as laid down in our strategy. 

The indigenous African people who lived in the Western Cape, those who suffered the genocide of colonialism, the Khoi, the San, later classified as Coloured by the apartheid regime make up the majority in the province and therefore winning their support is a precondition to any electoral victory in the Western Cape.

 There is a perception that the ANC has not as yet sufficiently acknowledged this. This position does not detract from the ANC's historical commitment to a policy of non-racialism but rather speaks to the issue of the historically classified coloured majority as a target whilst clearly being a key success factor in rebuilding the ANC in the Western Cape is overlaid with levels of complexity. This includes the following:

• The failure of the Western Cape ANC in the past to position the coloured community as part of the mainstream of power and politics in the province; 
• Relative success of the opposition in painting perceptions of ANC as the "bogeyman" alias swart-gevaar; 
• Inability of ANC Western Cape to deflect responsibility for service delivery failures in the province to opposition government in the Province, Metro and key municipalities; 
• Opposition efforts to create perception that corruption is the preserve of the ANC;
• and the inability of the movement to highlight and exploit major failures of governance by the "opposition government" in the province.

Unity and Cohesion -The Centre must hold- 

‘'unity is the rock on which the ANC was founded,'' Cde, Nelson Mandela

Ensuring Unity and Cohesion becomes the underlying principle for all decisions 

- leadership, ideological, policy, strategic, tactical and operational. Whilst leadership and members will consistently disagree on strategy and tactics as well implementation of our plan and principals, all decisions must ultimately be based upon the premise that the centre must hold.

Every decision the leadership, branches and individual members take, we as disciplined cadres must consistently ask the question- ‘'what will be the fall out if we choose a particular route?'' The old dictum of united we stand, divided we fall must be adhered to at all times, since a divided movement will not be able to win back our province. Our movement's history has shown its very success was founded upon the principal of unity and cohesion. This however requires revolutionary discipline. 

Comrade Isithwalandwe Nelson Mandela's words epitomizes this principle when he wrote to the Kabwe National Consultative Conference in 1985, 

"We still remain a closely knit organization, 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 delegates to council and leaders of the most important unit of the ANC, the branch, you are entrusted with the revolutionary responsibility of being the principal guardian of the unity we are building.

Cdes, upon reflection within the first year there has been a collective effort and momentum built to ensure unity and cohesion within our movement in this province. We have made a number of strategic and tactical advances during our first 12 months some of which include but are not limited to:

• Stopping of the downward trend in electoral support from 31.6% in 2009 to 34% in 2011 Local government elections.
• The incremental increase in our support in the rural areas in particular as was reflected in a number of bi elections even in the wards we did not win.
• Developing unity and cohesion within our movement in the province within the first 12 months both real and perceived albeit fragile; and we must guard that we do not slip back.
• Maintaining the momentum and renewed sense of energy by the return of a number of ex cadres who left the organisation and went other parties such as COPE, as well as activists who became dormant.
• The foundations being laid in our sectoral mobilisation of key constituencies such as the farm-dwellers, rural towns, Kaapse Klopse, and the Muslim community. Our active focus on the farm- dwellers and rural towns have already beared much fruit as has been evidence in a drastic increase in voter support over the past year evident from the bi elections. 

In addition there has been much work done with our local Palestinian Solidarity organisations through a range of international solidarity policies positions at our multi lateral institutions as well as localised policy decisions and campaigns to support the Palestinian cause. 

Most recently there was a decision taken by our Minister of Trade and Industry Cde Rob Davies to develop a policy that seeks to ensure that the State of Israel be forced to aknowledge which goods being imported to South Africa eminate from the Occupied Territories. 

In addition as a government together with India and Brasil we have also provided funding for the development of a sports complex to the youth of Ramallah. Finally as a government we continue to use our positions in all the multi lateral institutions we participate in to pursue the Palestinian cause for its own nation state based on the 2 nation solution. 

As a movement we have continued to strenghthen our relations with the leading Palestinian political parties including the PLO. Cdes the challenge however is to ensure how to we communicate our victories and battles in this regard to our constituents and in particular the Muslim community who constitute at least 6.5 percent of the Western Cape population most of whom reside in the metro

Having noted many of advances made, allow me to reflect and speak for a moment about what I call the elephant in the room. We may deny its existence but it nevertheless hovers around ominously posing a serious threat to our collective and the vision that binds us. 

We must be frank and say that since February 2012 there has been a few individuals within the leadership at all levels which have begun to involve themselves in divisive behaviour. The tendencies that have started to emerge most of which are alien to our Movement, over the past few months no doubt are linked to the succession debate as we advance towards Mangaung. 

In this regard we must beware that we are treading on dangerous territory and on a slippery slide to our divisive past and risk losing the ground we have built since February 2011.

As disciplined cadres of the movement delegates to this council we must consistently remind ourselves that the unity that we have started to build in 2011 was and remains a fragile unity which needs to be consistently nurtured and one that in the words of Cde OR Tambo during a speech given in1961 said that ''unity is like a flower and must be continuously nurtured because if left unattended it will die.''

Cdes, we need to acknowledge that the Elective Conference of Mangaung is a potential fault line that if not adequately addressed and carefully, sensibly and sensitively managed by each cadre and delegate it will result in our organisation being split once again.

Cdes and cadres each policy position we take must be based upon the historic principles of our movement which has successfully allowed it to survive for 100 years. Therefore in all decisions we take whether it is about policy or leadership we must at all times ask the question of what will be the potential fall out of the decision and what will be the impact on the ANCs future growth and hegemony both within our province and country.

We must guard against the dangerous tendencies by some amongst us as the reactionary and counter-revolutionary forces and enemies both within the movement and outside the movement represented by the DA eagerly hope and await the implosion of our organisation provincially and nationally, as they have seen the revival of our movement over the past year.

They also recognise that the revival and renewal that has been evolving over the past year within our province is the single biggest threat to the national and international neo liberal right wing agenda. In other words if we take back this province in 2014 we would be ending the spring board plan of the DA and its international agenda i.e. The City of Cape Town became a spring board for taking control of the Province, the Province becomes a springboard for attempting to take control of other provinces and country; and the country province the base and springboard for spreading the cancer of neo liberalism in Africa.

Cdes, we must not lose sight of the fact that the DA is currently at war with itself as it too has to deal with the unintended consequences of being a governing party. It knows that the only way manageable to hold onto power come 2014 is by creating new fault lines and exploiting historical fault lines in our movement by attempting to reopen old wounds.

Coupled to this it continues to consolidate its support base through racism and swart-gevaar campaigns as we have experienced in a number of bi elections including and most recently in Grabouw coupled with its racist service delivery campaigns and racist remarks by the Premier designating South African citizens as refugees in the land of their birth.

ABOUT THE DA

Given that the DA is our key threat to the renewal agenda and the National democratic Project both within in the province presently and nationally in the future it becomes imperative that we provide a more detailed analysis of its current state and project.

The DA was born in 2000 out of the collapsing of the DP and NNP's coalition to prevent the ANC from taking control of the Western Cape in 1999 and to act as a united opposition to ANC nationally. It represented and still continues to represent a conservative right wing and liberal white constituency. This is reflected in the mass consolidation of the white vote in 1999, 2000, 2004, 2006 and 2009 behind the DA. 

The historical glue that held it together was and is its message and unity of purpose solely based upon opposition to the ANC. Its tactics and strategy has been based on a sophisticated swart-gevaar and minority group fears philosophy coupled with afro pessimism. This approach is what has made it successful in growing the party since its inception and hegemonising the white vote and growing support amongst the fluid Indian and coloured population. 

However the DA itself has come to the realization that it has or is nearing its peak support nationally and provincially. Secondly, that its current strategy and white base alone together with the fluid coloured support base is not sustainable. It recognizes that it must hegemonise its black support (coloured and Indian) and grows its African support if it wants to survive.

Its strategy to grow is firstly to swallow up all the smaller opposition parties under its leadership which has been happening since 2006 i.e. the creation of a super opposition. Coupled to this is the active recruitment of former disillusioned ANC members and supporters in particular African and coloured working and middle class and the white left and liberals as well as the much younger African and coloured born free generation. Its recent tactical approach to attract disillusioned former ANC members and supporters as well as the African vote has been to develop a sophisticated communication campaign which seeks to claim some of the popular heritage of the ANC as its own. 

Whilst at the same time, it tries to portray the ANC as having lost its historical culture, principles and values. This strategy was a similar one used by COPE at its inception and with its rapid demise the DA has now assumed this space again. It has recognised that it needs to change its image and perception of the historical ANC vote and that to make it more palatable and acceptable for them to join and or support the DA if it wants to grow.

Secondly the DA ideology is continuously evolving from its liberal roots of the DP as it continues to swallow up supporters of other smaller opposition parties. Today it can be loosely interpreted as masculine liberalism, with a conservative social, religious, cultural and economic outlook. However its goal remains to essentially entrench the gap between white privilege and coloured and African poverty. This is based not only upon principal but also on the real politik of having to deliver services to its core constituency and hegemonic support- the white middle class. 

As a party it is now experiencing serious inherent race, class, cultural and social tensions as it attempts to grow its support base beyond its hegemonic white conservative support. 

The DA through its service delivery programmes and provincial and local government policy priorities parades and portrays the province as an independent land from the rest of South Africa and Africa as a whole. It has persistently perpetuated the perception that the province remains a laager for mainly white right wing conservatives through its continuous and consistent, crude and racist electioneering campaigns since 94 ( prior and post ) which actively and intentionally mobilizes and capitalizes on minority fears, its leadership which is largely white ,Its skewed allocation of resources and development with a bias towards the historically white middle class suburbs -Transport nodes, Health system, Safety and Education, reversal of most of the ANC policies and programmes which were geared towards building social cohesion and racial integration amongst Western Cape communities in general and amongst Africans and Coloureds in particular. 

The opposition campaign as confirmed by a number of analysts was based on a very sophisticated racist campaign which played on white fears and coloured insecurities in order to consolidate the minority vote. The campaign was broadly focussed on consolidating all minority votes and racists scare tactics were used to mobilise the minorities to vote for them.

The medium term effect of this campaign is that it has reversed much of the consistent hard work which started to lay the foundation for non-racialism amongst the population of the Western Cape in general and amongst African and Coloureds in particular. The long term effects are even more dire as it seems that the opposition DA is consistently maintaining its scare tactics in its actions and programmes beyond elections in order to ensure that the coloured vote remains mobilised against the ANC as it recognises that this vote is fluid.

The psychological effect of years of this racist social engineering project continues to haunt large sections of the minorities in general and coloureds in particular and has been thoroughly and opportunistically exploited by most opposition political parties contesting the ANC since 1994. The consistent use of racist ‘'swart gevaar'' (black scare) electoral tactics since 94 (by the NNP and subsequently the DA) will not only continue but gain momentum as long as the Province is being controlled by the DA. 

This tactic is currently being institutionalized in all the government service delivery programmes. The opposition now under the DA continues to rely more heavily on the fear factor of the minorities to maintain its support given that the coloured and Indian minority vote has proven to fluid unlike the white vote which is a hegemonic one against the ANC. 

The iniquities of Apartheid didn't only scar the infrastructural and spatial planning realities of SA, but in fact the Apartheid social engineering project had a devastating effect on the ''mind'' and psyche of our people, both African and Coloured.

As cadres of this movement we have been elected with a very difficult but not impossible task of correcting our historical aberration and ensuring that we are able fully implement our National Democratic Revolution in this Province by first taking it back in 2014.

Cdes, this conference however is not only about the reflection and introspection of our performance of the past using hindsight and the current balance of forces i.e. present (insight) but it is also about robustly engaging and preparing for our national policy conference and renew and update our policy perspective as movement for the future (foresight). In doing this we must at all times ensure that our policy perspective includes the Key Characteristics of the ANC as well as its national programme.

What are some of these broad characteristics?

• To unite all South Africans to build a united, non-racial, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.
• the liberation of blacks (Coloured and Indians and Africans) , the majority of whom are poor and female; In this context to appreciate the fact that Africans in particular, had a very raw deal under Apartheid.
• Building Non Racialism & Non Sexism within our leadership and structures
• The multi-class character of the ANC, with its bias towards the working class and the poor.
• The strategic centre of power, within the Alliance, 
• A disciplined force of the left, and a mass movement with an internationalist and an anti-imperialist outlook.
• Leadership through direct engagement with and working to ensure that transformation benefits all the motive forces, especially the working class and the poor.
• Building the consciousness and capacity of the emergent black business class to be productive and play a progressive role in the transformation of the economy, especially in pursuit of our agenda for decent work, job-creating growth, equity and empowerment.
• Building Grassroots people power 

During this critical phase the ANC has developed a programme based upon the five pillars of social transformation in which the ANC must intensify work and lead: 

1. The state. 

2. The economy. 

3. Organisational work. 

4. Ideological struggle.

5. International work. 

On the state

As we reflect upon the first pillar of social transformation we need to ask the critical questions as to whether the state has been sufficiently transformed to address the current triple challenges of poverty, inequality and underdevelopment. We need to reflect upon whether our state is sufficiently geared towards addressing the historical legacies of Colonialism, Imperialism and Apartheid. 

Has the state been sufficiently equipped to address the historical legacies of Apartheid spatial, social, cultural, class and racial inequity? Does the state have adequate legislation, policies, strategies, systems and resources to address these challenges?

What policy paradigm shifts are required? A brief reflection since the post ‘94 era indicates that there has been much progress in transforming the state from an Apartheid era dinosaur which was geared towards only serving the white population to a state that now is able to deliver services to the whole population. However, there remain a number of challenges in the delivery of services including ensuring that it moves from a state characterized by fragmentation and silo orientated to one that is based on synergy, synchrony and intergration.

On the ideological front 

We are a generation witnessing one of the worst financial, economic and development crises ever recorded. It is instructive to note that capitalism has become so sophisticated that this crisis unfolds silently, except for when it threatens the rich, the powerful, the elite, those who caused it. We need to characterize the crisis correctly if we want to address it and resolve it. It is a capitalist crisis and it manifests as financial instability, economic uncertainty and the reproduction of the iniquity of development and underdevelopment that is one of the dominant features of capitalism.

Imperialism and the new world disorder are the consequence of this chaos and corruption. The world's former colonial superpowers are using this moment to reintegrate the developing world into continued relationships of subservience, exploitation and modern day slavery. From Libya to Venezuela, from Cuba to Syria, from the Sudan to Palestine, from Iraq to even Greece, the working class, peasants, the poor in general, all experience the brutal iron fist of Imperialism.

On the International Front 

Ours is a different choice. Guided by our glorious history of struggle and solidarity, we in the ANC choose solidarity, peace and justice through our international role, rather than violence, plunder and destruction under the cover of 'diplomacy'. We stand with the people of Iraq, of Palestine, Western Sahara, of Kurdistan, of Cuba, of Bolivia, of Venezuela, of Afghanistan and of the Sudan. We stand firmly against the bombing of civilians, of the military intervention in the affairs of sovereign nations, against the use of unmanned drones and the use of technology to maim, kill and subdue us.

We are proud that this stance has been vindicated in the way in which our continent, Africa and its Renaissance, are being manifested. Today, economic growth is taking place on our soil, while the developed world experiences economic shrinkage. Our minerals, our land, our people, are the new engine of growth in the world's economy. Together with our BRICS partners, we are leading the new economic revolution. Our task is to make sure this revolution benefits the many, the poor, the marginalized, in short those who have borne brunt of capitalist exploitation

We face this challenge, comrades, in a national context where no real opposition to our revolutionary program of action has been proposed. Opposition parties-the DA, COPE and others, all have to adopt our policies and programs to have any relevance. Our people, the masses of our country know and confirm time and again, that the ANC lives and that the ANC leads.

But we face one significant risk- ourselves! The manner in which we conduct ourselves can create the very real threat of divisions, of factionalism and of chaos. How we contribute to important issues and debates, including that of leadership, will determine whether we remain a coherent, united and powerful force for change. Especially in this province, we cannot allow differing views on leadership to deter us from our destiny-our path to power. 

On the Economy

Addressing a crowd in the Botshabelo stadium on May Day 2012, President Jacob Zuma said; "the alliance needed unity within its individual partners which then needed to be transferred into the tripartite alliance. Zuma said the alliance needed to lead South Africa."We have a huge task of the alliance. There are those against us working hard so that we do not achieve success."

Two decades of freedom has seen our young nation grow in leaps and bounds as our political transition has unfolded since 1994. However, the pace of economic transformation has not met the expectations of the masses of our people as envisaged by our Constitution, Bill of Rights and Freedom Charter that articulates a vision that ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.'

To fully understand and appreciate the moment that we are currently living through, it is important to acknowledge the achievements over the first 18 years guided by the vision of the national democratic revolution that seeks to build a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. We must also be brutally honest and say much more needs to be done but more importantly, we must understand the material conditions that have led us to where we are.

Comrades and friends, as our transition unfolds, the contradictions created by our negotiated political settlement, loom ever larger on the political radar screen. Debates on this seem to be ever more polarised, but the reality is that it is not something that we can wish away as a nation. Our lived reality is that we are among the most unequal nations in the world-poverty is endemic, unemployment rife-and this despite all our efforts to date. 

The United Nations Development Report ranked South Africa 123rd out of 187 countries in the UN Human Development Index for 2011. The Income and expenditure survey rated South Africa's Gini Coefficient at 0.67 incredibly high by global standards and reflecting the extreme levels of income inequality. Post 1994 income levels rose by 45% between 1995-2005. The poorest 20% of our population earned 2.3% of national income, while the richest 20% earned 70% of the income. The majority of low income households are black (African, Indian and coloured). In 1995, median per capita expenditure amongst Africans was R333 a month compared to whites at R3443. By 2008, median expenditure per capita for Africans was R454 a month contrasted to whites of R5668 a month. It is therefore clear that the levels of inequality have exacerbated to more serious levels.

This coupled with other risks poses a major challenge to the 1994 project of nation building and social cohesion and the implementation of the National Democratic Revolution. If we do not address this matter head on, it will unravel the political settlement reached that put in place the constitution we all claim to support. Beyond that moment lies political uncertainty and most likely, increasing social pressure and dissatisfaction of one sort or another, even political anarchy.

Comrades and friends, the current socio-political and socio-economic reality of South Africans is such that unless one is totally denialist or naive, it is impossible not to understand that while the end of apartheid in 1994 was a step forward, the failure to adequately address the legacies of colonialism, imperialism and capitalism remains our biggest challenge as a nation. 

These are separate legacies. Colonialism dispossessed the indigenous people of the their land and wealth, imperialism cruelly integrated the South African people as a whole into the global economy on specific, disadvantageous terms and capitalism as we know it today, has for centuries reproduced and still reproduces these unequal relationships and the terms of by which they have been established.

There are some who may not agree with these assertions, but that does not make them any less real. Sadly, most will repeat them without any real commitment to the way forward and the choices that need to be made. There are real sacrifices that have to be made to address poverty, unemployment, inequality and the structural economic problems of our economy that relate to these, such as pricing, supply and demand levels, productivity and innovation.

 Cdes, this current moment in our nation's history is both a challenge and an opportunity. How we choose to address it will determine our future. We must make collective sacrifices. We must collectively benefit. Our history has been one where for the most part, sacrifices have been made by the Black majority and benefits have been experienced by the White minority. It is time to change these terms of relating and our policy positions as we advance towards National Policy Conference need to reflect these changes. Our leadership that we elect in December need to have the will, skills and organizational understanding to implement these changes.

Our economy is an incredibly rich one, full of potential. Our country is uniquely endowed with mineral resources. Yet we are a country in which those who take out the platinum, gold, diamonds and rare earth minerals, live like beggars. We are potentially self-sufficient in energy, yet there are homes that experience darkness and cold after sundown. We have land that can produce fruit, vegetables, sea food and meat that please the palates of those in Sandton, Clifton, London and New York, yet these fruits of our land and sea are never experienced by the vast majority of our people.

Comrades and friends, ours is a land in which anywhere between 25 and 45% of the population who can work, are unemployed. Most of these unemployed people live on less than US$1.25, or R12 a day. 22 million of us are poor and 90% of these are Black, Coloured and Indian. 60 percent of the population earn less than R42,000 a year. 2.2 percent of the population earn more than R360,000 a year and South African children will go to bed hungry. Less than 1% of the land in our country has been transferred to those whose ancestors used to own it. Such inequality can never be justified, least of all in a country with a Constitution as advanced as ours. It confers the rights to each citizen to political, social and economic freedom. 

Since 1994, the ANC has fought hard to realise these rights. Yet despite all its efforts, the patterns of ownership of property, of income distribution, the control of capital, the distribution of skills and the nature of economic networks in our society means that the vast majority of Black, Coloured and Indian people (to use the categories apartheid gave us) as well as women, youth and people who live with disabilities, are marginalized and pushed to the periphery of the economy.

It is for this reason that President Jacob Zuma called for economic transformation in his January 8th Statement. As the President of the ANC, Jacob Zuma said in January 2011 at Polokwane. "Political emancipation without economic transformation is meaningless, that is why we have to commit ourselves to economic freedom in our life time".

Comrades, Economic Liberation is about the economy, but the economy for the people, by the people, of the people. It is about forging reconciliation between the haves and the have-nots. Just as we did in political terms, so must we in economic terms. The alternative is economic warfare, because the poor, the dispossessed, the marginalised, the exploited and the downright ripped off are not going to take the current situation for much longer.

Comrades and friends, how do we bring about economic liberation in our lifetime? It is not through sloganeering, populist rhetoric and quick fix solutions as argued by some. It requires extremely nuanced solutions to highly complex problems in a globalised multi polar world. The wholesale importation of implementation solutions of the 20th century to addressing our current problems may no longer work. For example we cannot pretend that nationalisation of mines will bring economic justice. Or that land grabs will bring restitution. But we can equally claim that the current status quo will also not deliver these things. We need to find a new growth path, as the ANC policy process has mooted. But this new growth path will only come to fruition if we have an honest engagement about the radical policies we need to implement to ensure;

Shared ownership of our natural and mineral resources. In this regard, a sovereign fund such as other mineral rich countries have is a possible mechanism for ensuring all citizens benefit from our natural heritage. The establishment of a Socialisation Fund, that seeks to co-invest and co-own the wealth of our country, could ensure that 50% of the value of the JSE, in 2006 this was worth us$290bn, is owned by the people of our rich, but unequal society.

• The development of public infrastructure, such as affordable, quality, public transport, health care, education and recreational facilities, for example. In this regard, we must radically improve the capacity of the state to deliver such public goods and services.
• The creation of decent work for the unemployed, the under-employed and the modern day slaves who produce the wealth of our economy. To ensure this we must ensure that policies of government augment that of the private sector so that interventions to create jobs, such as the youth wage subsidy, do not destroy formal jobs.
• Black Economic Empowerment opportunities and promoting Black entrepreneurs. This must ensure broad based empowerment and the support for hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs.
• A policy mix that addresses these challenges will lay the basis for a new social compact a new deal, for all South Africans. The current deal is not working. We continue to ignore this reality at our peril.

Having said that, it is equally important to realize that the ‘opposition' to socio economic transformation not only comes from various national or social strata and classes; indicators of societies in decline are characterized by:

- Rising corruption

- Weakening of state and civil society institutions

- Poor economic management

- Skills and capital flight

- Politics of short-termism, ethnicity or factionalism

- Lack of maintenance of infrastructure, service standards

Our quest for economic transformation is also impacted by a set of global realities including:

- Shifting economic power, changes in global productive forces and the current crisis of capitalism

- The challenge of climate change, resource shortages (water, energy, etc) and environmental degradation.

- Challenge to neo-liberalism and its hegemony:

- The African renaissance: growth, regional and continental self-determination and development

- Demographic growth in the world.

- Globalisation as gendered phenomenon

As we approach the third decade of democracy we must ask the question why the issue of economic transformation cannot be stalled any further. As Lenin said the question before us is: what must be done?

Firstly, we must re-assess our strategy and tactics in the light of the emergent challenges of socio-economic transformation. This may require some radical interventions in the way we have implemented the NDR with a sharper focus on economic transformation in its entirety. Reassess our strategies for dealing with backlogs in infrastructure as a major obstacle towards unlocking economic capital. Review and intervene in augmenting in a drastic manner our implementation capacity and resources.

Cdes, as we grapple over the decade ahead with shaping our National Democratic Society described as "a democracy with social content" we must pay serious attention to:

• Needs of poor and vulnerable top national agenda; 
• Social floor through social wage;
• An intense role of the state in economic life; 
• Pursuit of full employment; 
• Quest for equality;
• Strong partnership with the trade union movement; and 
• Promotion of international solidarity, especially our continental connects with Africa and economic consolidation of this 1 market of 1 billion people.

Finally, we are now living through a very unique period in global history. When we started our political transition to democracy in the early ninety's we witnessed an unprecedented collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. Today, we witness capitalism in crisis and all over the developed world is being squeezed by the economic downturn and the impact on ordinary women and men is immense. 

In South Africa the pressure to speed up the transition towards ‘economic freedom in our lifetime' grows day by day. Our commitment as the ANC and our Alliance with Cosatu, SACP and SANCO considers this leg of our National Democratic Revolution critical to the fulfillment of the aspirations of our people and an element of this phase of our struggle that is beyond compromise.

Comrades, this PGC also takes place in a historic year in which we commemorate the centenary of the founding of the ANC. We must therefore ask ourselves the question: how do we want to remember this historic moment and how would we want future generations to look back and reflect on the legacy that we are creating today?

What will history remember this collective for? Will we demonstrate the resilience, courage and determination to succeed against all odds? Are we prepared to burn the ships of cowardice, myopia and narrow self-interest and instead commit to do whatever is required to take us towards the path and goal of People's Power in 2014? 

Is it worth to sacrifice that goal at the altar of short-term expediency and to be side-tracked by anything other than what is required to win back this province from the DA in 2014? There have been many heroic moments in our history; tales of courage in the face of apartheid brutality; the lone stand of Anton Fransch in the face of the fiercest firing power; the heroism of Basil February in the Wankie Campaign; the courage of a Solomon Mahlangu and defiance until his hanging on the gallows. These were momentous and great choices but they are not the choices and heroism that history asks of us today. 

Today, we are asked as a collective to keep focus and in the face of distraction and peripheral struggles to recommit to liberating and reclaiming our hard-earned freedom in the Western Cape. We cannot and must not compromise nor be distracted from this goal. The results of such myopia cost the ANC from growing from forty six percent of electoral support in 2004 to 2009 due to infighting, factionalism and internal implosion. 

As a collective we have a historic choice to remain committed to the course of action that brought us together in the struggle for renewal, unity and action. We also have a choice and it is not a difficult one-we can choose division, schismatism and discord in our ranks-for such a choice the prize is defeat in 2014 and the inability to deliver on the aspirations of our people and our historic responsibility of delivering economic freedom in our lifetime.

As we approach this historic responsibility we have identified key strategic tasks for the year ahead:

a. Consolidate unity within the ANC and with Alliance around a common programme of action.

b. Take the fight to the DA by being a vibrant and radical opposition

c. Unmask the politics of deception by exposing the DA as racist, neo-liberal and take head on the racist attitude of councils in Grabouw, Mosselbay, Blaauwberg etc

d. This PGC must agree on the urgent convening of a summit with all stakeholder regarding "race, class and gender contradictions in the western cape.

e. Take forward the struggle of the indigenous African people of the Western Cape, The Khoi and San

f. Focus on skewed service delivery and resource allocation with the delivery of water-cuts, non-collection of refuse and poor sanitation to the townships (Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Delft, Bonteheuwel etc) and the delivery of world class services to the affluent seaboard, Bishops Court, Constantia and the Northern Suburbs.

g. Mobilise against substance abuse, and tik in particular, as well as other

h. Prepare for the commemoration of the 100 years since the passing of the 1913 Land Act and the alienation and dispossession of our people from the land, the issue of willing buyer willing seller must be scrapped.

i. Prioritise sectoral mobilization especially address the continued plight of farm-dwellers and tackle the issue of farmdweller evictions.

j. Roll-out of a massive skills development programme for young people.

In conclusion, comrades and friends; on this very day, the 9th of June 1983, three members of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), were executed at the gallows in Pretoria Central Prison. Marcus Motaung, Jerry Mosololi and Simon Mogoerane were charged with treason, with alternative charges of terrorism, murder and attempted murder, among others.

Despite an international campaign to save their lives, the apartheid government went ahead with the execution. We pay tribute to these three brave heroes of our struggle: they stayed the course, made the ultimate sacrifice and paid with their lives.

Let this Provincial General Council stir up in us that revolutionary spirit of selfless sacrifice and struggle for the greater good. Let this be a watershed moment in which we rally all progressive forces in our ranks and our broader community at large towards liberating the Western Cape from the hands of a government that deems us refugees in the land of our birth; who render us economic slaves suffering under the yoke of white privilege and under-development.

Let me remind you of the quote of the General from North Africa as quoted by me at the beginning of my input:

‘The sea is behind us and the mountain and the enemy in front of us, we cannot turn back as we have burnt our ships, we either stand together and defeat the enemy victoriously or we die a coward's death by drowning in the sea..'

Forward to unity, renewal and action;
Forward to economic liberation in our lifetime;
Forward to People's Power!

Issued by the ANC Western Cape, June 9 2012

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