Address by ANC President Jacob Zuma at a meeting with the Hellenic, Italian and Portuguese (HIP) Alliance, Portuguese Hall, Turffontein, Johannesburg, September 15 2008

Convenor of the Hellenic, Italian and Portuguese (HIP) Alliance, Mr. Stavros Nicolaou,
Members of the NEC, Gauteng PEC and all ANC leadership present,
Comrades,
Distinguished guests,

Good evening to you all and thank for affording us this opportunity to interact with you.

Our meeting tonight reaffirms the Freedom Charter, in which South Africans stated categorically that:

"We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know:

that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people;

that our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality;
that our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities;

that only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief;

"And therefore, we, the people of South Africa, black and white together as equals adopt this Freedom Charter;

And we pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won".

We have a history, culture and traditions that are well-grounded. We firmly believe in a society that is based on the principles of non-racism, non-sexism, freedom and democracy. We believe in a South Africa that is all-inclusive, and respects the rights of all individuals regardless of their historical and cultural backgrounds.

We believe in a society, which respects unity in diversity as is expressed in the preamble of our Constitution.

Let me also add that we are guided by what our Comrade President Oliver Reginald Tambo instructed us to do, when he said: "It is our responsibility to break down barriers of division and create a country where there will be neither whites nor blacks, just South Africans, free and united in diversity".

There should be no doubt by any South African, black or white, about their future or role in this country. We are in this transition together and we are going to make it work, regardless of how difficult it seems at times.

I must first and foremost emphasise that unity within the ANC remains our number one priority. We have since Polokwane been criss-crossing the country, visiting our structures to iron our problems and conflict, in order to restore order and stability in our movement throughout the country.

We are making a lot of progress, and by the time we launch our manifesto, the ANC should be a well-oiled cohesive machine.

We want an ANC that is united, strong and focused on winning the elections with a staggering majority. We owe it to the stalwarts and ancestors of this movement to keep the ANC together and fighting fit. We recall the words of Cde OR Tambo on his return to South Africa in 1990, when he said: "I have devotedly watched over the organisation all these years. I now hand it over to you; bigger; stronger - intact. Guard our precious movement."

Our 52nd conference in Polokwane helped the ANC to refine its policies and identify its key priorities for the next five years. We have a number of priorities to tackle such as crime, education and health, economic and social transformation, to name a few.

Our people nationwide are united in the call for crime to be dealt with decisively. We are paying the price for apartheid colonialism, in which the development of communities was neglected, and in which the police and the courts were actively used to suppress political and social aspirations instead of fighting crime.

The World Bank Report on Equity and Development released in 2006 states that improving crime and personal security requires breaking crime related inequality traps.

Implicit in this report is that, for as long as people do not have equal access to opportunities to improve their quality of life and be spared from deprivation, crime will continue to manifest in various forms in society.

International perspectives on crime and human rights offer two insights about the nature of crime. First, that whenever there is a major political change from an authoritarian regime, such as Apartheid, there is almost always a corresponding breakdown in law and order.

One of the reasons for this is that law enforcement agencies have to be completely restructured in both form and content to perform their normal functions in a democratic society. Individual criminals and syndicates recognize such gaps and move quickly to exploit the void.

Ladies and gentlemen, the breakdown in law and order in a democratic transition such as ours is always accompanied by a popular perception that the respect for human rights is an obstacle to effective law enforcement.

This perception has led to the belief that the objective of the human rights ethos in our legal system is to protect criminals. We are very proud of our country's human rights culture, which is designed to protect all of us, especially the vulnerable and marginalised.

Criminals are definitely not the intended beneficiaries of this human rights culture. We therefore remain unrepentant in our calls to the police to act mercilessly against dangerous criminals.

Our police officers need all the support they can get from all of us as communities, to ensure that they apprehend suspects and bring them before the courts. Our laws must bite, that is the only language that the criminals will understand. And our correctional services must ensure that they stay behind bars once sentenced and pay their debt to society.

It is imperative that we strengthen community-policing forums and continue establishing street committees. CPFs and street committees will provide much needed backing to our hard working but under-resourced police. Crime can be beaten if we all put our heads and hands together.

Ladies and gentlemen, we must emphasise that the creation of decent work opportunities is the primary focus of our economic policies. The transformation of the economy to serve the interests of all our people requires of the ANC that we mobilise all sectors of society - communities, civil society, labour and business, in particular - behind a national agenda for accelerated and shared growth.

Part of economic transformation that will help us achieve the growth we speak of, is the promotion of broad based black economic empowerment, which enables the participation of the majority in the economy as owners and not just as workers.

We have also made it clear that we need more foreign and domestic investment. We also encourage our domestic business community to invest in the local economy to encourage the international counterparts to do the same.

While growing the economy, we need to continue providing a safety net for many households and communities who remain trapped in poverty. We have done exceptionally well in this regard. More than 12,6 million South Africans receive social grants.

We resolved in Polokwane that we should explore methods of linking the grants to economic activity to enable the able-bodied and younger beneficiaries to augment their income and also to eventually exit from social assistance once their economic situation improves.

We must bear in mind that most of our unemployed are also unemployable due to lack of skills. Our private sector should play their part on skills development and invest in their workforce.

Government appears to be making progress in this regard, through having regular intakes of interns in government departments annually. We urge our state-owned enterprises to play the role they played in the past and train young people as artisans.

We also emphasise that we remain fully committed to our position that the exclusion of black people from management positions and other critical areas within organisations can only be addressed through a vigorous and sustainable affirmative action policy.

We have not reached a stage where we can say affirmative action should be on its way out.

However as said to many concerned organisations especially those representing the white community, we will listen to those who have concerns to raise to ensure dialogue and promote understanding regarding implementation.

We resolved in Polokwane to make education and health a central part of our social transformation process. Our education transformation plan is comprehensive and seeks to improve learning and teaching in our schools. We have to invest in our children in an early age. As a result we want to expand access to state-subsidised early childhood development centres in our country for all children, including those in rural areas who are often neglected.

We want to improve the performance of our children in languages and mathematics in the foundation and intermediate phases. We have about 600,000 children in Grade R currently, who will start Grade 1 next year. We have to be ready to take them on a journey that will produce confident adults who will be well grounded in all subjects and spheres including life skills, when they reach matric.

When we launched the education and health campaign on the 15th of August, we stated clearly that we want to improve our health care system in a comprehensive manner. We want to revitalise our health care facilities such as hospitals and clinics. Nurses, doctors, clerks and all administration staff must be friendly, accessible and helpful to those seeking healthcare. We must improve the availability of medicines.

We must mobilise communities around the Healthy Lifestyles Campaign, including the anti-tobacco campaign and the campaign against alcohol and substance abuse. We will mobilise ANC branches to play a visible role in providing care and support to individuals and families in distress due to HIV and AIDS, and to work to eliminate stigma attached to HIV and AIDS.

We must promote awareness in communities about services available for prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, antiretroviral treatment and all means to improve nutrition. We are an organisation at work for a better life.

In our January 8 statement we reaffirmed our commitment to the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law, and the principle of equality before the law.

Our faith in the judiciary has no doubt been given a further boost by the ruling by Mr Justice Chris Nicholson in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

The judgement has re-emphasised the independence of the judiciary and the critical role it plays in interpreting our Constitution to protect the rights of individuals against for example, the State and its apparatus.

But most importantly, the Honourable Judge opened the eyes of the nation to the critical task at hand, to transform and protect our democratic institutions and prevent their abuse to further political agendas.

We also have a responsibility to promote the freedom of the media, another key element in our Constitution.

Our country needs a media that is free of political control and influence. We need a media that will go behind the scenes and thoroughly investigate claims made by people in authority; to provide the public with independently obtained factual information. A subservient media is dangerous to our democracy as it allows those in power to abuse the rights of others at will, knowing that they enjoy the full backing of the media.

Ladies and gentlemen, the ANC joins the whole world in celebrating the conclusion of an agreement in Zimbabwe. We have always emphasised the need for Africans to solve their own problems, and we have been vindicated. We wish the Zimbabweans well as they begin the long path forward towards rebuilding and uniting their country.

Brothers and sisters, South Africa belongs to all of us, black and white. We are called upon to work together to build this country, make it prosperous and successful in all respects.

I thank you.

Text of speech issued by the African National Congress September 15 2008