Remarks by ANC President Cde Jacob Zuma to the Workers' Day Rally Galeshewe, Kimberley, Northern Cape, May 1 2013

The President of COSATU, Cde Sidumo Dlamini
Leadership of all COSATU Affiliates present
Leadership of the ANC,
Leadership of the SACP
Leadership of SANCO
Comrades and friends,

I bring you revolutionary greetings from the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress. The theme for this year, declared by the ANC NEC during the January 8th Statement is 'unity in action towards socio-economic freedom'.

It enjoins us to act together, as one people, in confronting the social and economic ills that continue to plague our country even after our political freedom.

This theme is truly in line with the theme for today's rally which is 'a united working class engineering radical economic shift'.

Today marks the 19th May Day celebrations since our historic democratic breakthrough.

We remember and salute the visionary leaders whose commitment and dedication to the workers struggle laid a firm foundation for the rights that workers enjoy today.

These are leaders who correctly believed that workers rights are human rights.

Their hard work, and the work that continues to be done today, has ensured that workers rights are enshrined in the Constitution of our Republic. 

These rights include:

• The right to fair labour practice.
• The right to form and join trade unions, strike and picket.
• The right to conclude union security agreements such as closed and agency shop.
• The right to collective bargaining.

These are very important rights which must not be taken for granted.

They came as a result of resolute struggles waged by millions of workers and led by committed worker leaders such as Elijah Barayi, J B Marks, John Gomomo, Stephen Dlamini, Violet Seboni, Jay Naidoo and others.

Comrades

THE ANC AND WORKERS

Let me reiterate our long held position that the ANC is a disciplined force of the left with a strong bias towards the working class and the poor.

The ANC's programme is and has always been about making better the lives of all our people, particularly the working class and the poor.

The ANC bias towards the working class does not mean we have abdicated our responsibility as a liberation movement to mobilize the broadest strata of society for fundamental transformation.

It simply means we have correctly understood that our democracy will not be stable, sustainable and successful if the plight of the working class, employed or unemployed, is not sufficiently attended to.

No organisation can advance the interests of workers better than the ANC because it is the ANC's historical mission to do so.

Comrades,

All of us must guard against any tendency which seeks to divide workers, weaken worker power, undermine collective bargaining and encourage action in contempt of democratic institutions.

Therefore, unity within COSATU is paramount. We need a united COSATU that is able to devote its attention to promoting the rights of workers. We need a united COSATU in the Alliance that will continue the tradition of working with the liberation movement to transform our country and consolidate freedom and democracy.

Thus we urge the labour movement to work seriously at uniting the federation and to resolve whatever differences there may exist.

Comrades,

As we celebrate this day, we must remember that workers are the creators of our country's wealth and must therefore get an equitable share in that wealth.

We must pay particular attention to the continuing plight of mineworkers and farm workers especially their living conditions.

This must be done bearing in mind that mining and agriculture form the backbone of our economy.

Thus we should accelerate efforts to implement all provisions of the Mining Charter and our rural development programme in order to improve the living and working conditions of the said workers.

As we focus on miners and farm workers, we also remember those workers who tragically lost their lives in Marikana in the North West and related violent incidents. We have to draw lessons from Marikana and ensure that this tragedy, which shocked the nation and caused untold pain, should never recur in our country.

THE ECONOMY

The ANC's economic vision rests on the Freedom Charter's call that the people shall share in South Africa's wealth. The equitable society we intend to build in which there is decent work for all can only be achieved through accelerated transformation of the economy.

Mangaung reaffirmed that the National Democratic Society must have a mixed economy, with state, co-operative and other forms of social ownership, and private capital.

Against that background, let me reiterate that if we are to genuinely say that South Africa belongs to all who live in it; then all our people must be able to equitably share in the benefits of a free society.

Our people are currently enjoying full political freedom, but we are yet to achieve full socio-economic freedom.

The triple manifestations of the apartheid legacy, poverty, inequality and unemployment, reaffirm our belief that political freedom must be accompanied by economic freedom for our people to truly participate in the national democratic society.

The second phase of our transition from apartheid colonialism to the truly national democratic society means that our main focus should be the radical transformation of the economy.

The economic wealth of the country must bring about fundamental change in the lives of the youth, the poor and the working class.

We must also ensure that our government takes even more decisive actions in transforming the economy so as to enable more participation and ownership by the formerly oppressed majority, Africans in particular and Blacks in general.

The African National Congress (ANC) is the leader of South African society. It is the most capable institution to ensure its transformation.

In this regard, the 53rd National Conference in Mangaung endorsed the National Development Plan (NDP), as our socio-economic development blueprint for the next 20 years.

We did this, recognising that the Plan is an appropriate and meaningful way of bringing together all South Africans closer to our forebears' vision and mission of a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

The National Development Plan is not a carbon copy of ANC policy. However, there is great resonance and similarity between the NDP and ANC policy, both in formulation and content. The Plan was discussed extensively in ANC branches in the build up to Mangaung.

In seeking to work with South Africans across race, class, gender and ideological persuasions the plan is consistent with the ANC's own ethos and values.

We reiterate that those who have views about the National Development Plan should feel free to raise them in the spirit of the democratic culture within the movement and the Alliance. Views cannot be suppressed. However, work is continuing to implement the NDP.

At a government level, the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, has already begun developing a draft Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) for 2014-2019, as the first five-year building block of the National Development Plan.

The MTSF will also include key targets from the New Growth Path, the Industrial Policy Action Plan, and the national infrastructure plan.

This work will result in the alignment of the Medium Term Strategic Framework, the delivery agreements, sector plans, departmental plans, and municipal Integrated Development Plans to the national plan.

The intention is to submit the first draft of the 2014-2019 NDP aligned framework to the 2013 July Cabinet Lekgotla. This can then be refined so that it can be submitted to the new Cabinet for approval as soon as possible after the 2014 elections.

This will enable Departments to include the new targets in their individual five year strategic plans, which they will be starting to work on later this year and in early 2014.

UNITY OF THE WORKING CLASS

Comrades,

Let me reiterate that the primary task is to commit to building the unity of the working class and the alliance. COSATU must continue its revolutionary duty to organize workers and defend their rights.

The SACP must continue to play its vanguard role and conscientize them.

This will lay a solid foundation for the ANC to fulfil its historic mandate to lead all our people to the National Democratic Society.

And central to all, is the unity of the Alliance as a whole. We must be able to discuss any issue within the Alliance and resolve problems before they escalate.

We should never allow anyone to divide the Alliance and divert us from the primary task of uniting our people and leading them to economic freedom.

Amandla!

Matla!

All power!

Issued by the ANC, May 2 2013

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