CHAIRPERSON'S ADDRESS
Comrades
We meet here a few weeks after you, as branch members, elected us to lead the ANC in this province into the new millennium. We are humbled by the faith and confidence you have placed in us greatly humbled by your trust in us.
May we take this opportunity to promise that, consistent with the tradition of the ANC, we will exercise and carry out our duties with the diligence, humility and deep sense of responsibility that is required of us.
The time has come to affirm and celebrate the decisions that you have taken to put in place a provincial leadership collective that will take the ANC into the new millennium.
As your elected leadership we humbly received the baton in Belfast. It was a baton handed to us in a relay started by the likes of Makhanda, Mzilikazi, Moshweshwe, Khama, Sekhukhuni, Lobatsibeni, Cetshwayo, Nghunghunyane, Uithalder and Ramabulana.
A relay ran by such gallant comrades as Gert Sibande, Sol Mkhize, Sthuli Hleze, Portia Shabangu, Lassie Maduma, Elmon Mathonsi and Philip Radebe. Comrades who laid down their lives to defend the dignity and integrity of their being as a people.
When Comrade Nelson Mandela handed over the baton of President at our 50th Conference in 1997 this is what he said:
"Here are the reins of the movement. Protect and guard its precious legacy. Defend its unity and integrity as committed disciples of change. Pursue its popular objectives like true revolutionaries who seek only to serve the nation."
We pledge, as all of you today, that whatever we do, as leaders of the ANC in this province shall be to serve the nation. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.Precisely because we, as a country, came back from the brink of catastrophe huge demands are placed on us to share our experiences with other countries.
More and more we are called upon to intervene in regional and international peace efforts in the Middle East, Burundi, Angola, Northern Ireland and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A few days ago an ANC delegation flew to Luanda in what was a continuing effort to help establish peace in Angola. Countless of meetings have taken place at Luthuli House between the ANC leadership and warring factions in the DRC.
Comrades, there are other challenges facing us. We need to seriously grapple with the perspectives in COSATU regarding the role of different components of the Alliance and its own role as a trade union movement. What is Cosatu's role in a situation where one of its affiliates is involved in a dispute with government?
Is the state, in Cosatu's view, the principal instrument to achieve its economic objectives?
The ANC must commit itself to the urgent task of commenting unity and building the political and ideological cohesion of the Alliance. To that end, we need to: -
- As the PEC, assess the impact of our political education programme, including Umrabulo;
- Encourage all members of our leadership structures to participate in our political education programme,
- Develop guidelines on how to carry out dual and multiple mandates, particularly as it affect cadres of the ANC, SACP and COSATU.
That is why we need to approach the Alliance Summit as an important exercise in rebuilding our movement. We need to engage in discussions on the role of each component of the Alliance, within the structures of the ANC and with our alliance partners, in a manner which gives leadership and strengthen the confidence of alliance partners in our leadership;
Within the ANC and with our Alliance partners we need to discuss the state of the economy and how we need to tackle the policy challenges of growth, creating jobs, improving savings and investments, etc. This presents another challenge of even bigger magnitude. Are we, as the ANC in the province, adequately equipped to develop our own policies?
Is there at KwaMkholo to develop strategy and policy? Do we tap into or do we rely heavily on the Strategy Unit in the Office of the Premier?
These are difficult questions but they need to be answered honestly if we have to move ahead.
Policy review, Comrades. Is it not time for us to review the implementation of our organizational program of action adopted at the last Alliance Summit, to unite in action our local structures around the issues of crime, HIV/AIDS, literacy and unemployment?
We need, as Alliance partners, to provide guidelines on the issue of dual and multiple mandates as an important part of our mutual responsibility to build and strengthen each component of the Alliance. This should also address the problem of the escalating public altercations by leaders of the Alliance.
Is the Alliance in the province strong enough to play its role in the transformation process?
What about the MDM structures in the province. Do they exist only when they are nearing a conference? Is it correct to hear from them only when they need money for one or the other project? Indeed Comrades, we need to formulate a strategy on how we as the ANC provincially help these components of the MDM. How do we support them?
How do we consolidate the mass, democratic and movement character of the ANC?
Does the ability to shift the balance and to make use of the opportunities presented by the last five years, depend on the ANC?
Does it depend on our capacity to be amongst our people, to lead local struggles, to implement the reconstruction and development program and to represent the aspirations of our people in its morality and lifestyle?
If that is correct, what is the role of the civic movement in all this? Must the ANC branch concentrate on issues around housing, water, sanitation, roads, education, health, and local economic development?
What is Sanco's role in the transformation process at local, provincial and national level?
The debate seem to center around whether Sanco becomes a fully-fledged political party; operates in the civil and political arena; operates in a confusing and haphazard manner; operates as a self-sustaining, commercially-focussed and mass-based development agency, without any genuine political agenda or becomes a revolutionary social movement?
Let us put these issues on the agenda.
A few weeks from now we will be celebrating January 8, the anniversary of the founding of the ANC. What form must our celebrations take?
The PEC has tasked Comrades Siphosezwe Masango and Lassie Chiwayo to look at a creative way of celebrating January 8. Comrades, if you have any inputs to make regarding this matter please approach the two comrades.
Finally Comrades let us work out a program of action that will help foster unity in the province. I firmly believe that if there is work for us to do, like there is, there will be little time to engage in acts and activities of disunity.
Let us bare our soul comrades. Speak up. Let each one of us undergo what the President calls the RDP of the soul. Let there be an honest introspection on the role that you as an individual have played in building the ANC and fostering unity and building the ANC.
Comrades, we MUST build the ANC, the SACP and COSATU. We need to transform the majority we obtained on June 2, into active membership. Each one of those people who voted for us is a potential member. It is on us to go out there and bring them home onto the fold of the only organisation that can guarantee a better life for all.
As a start why don't we start by building around issues like Community safety and security, including protection of community infrastructure and resources, women and children through participating in Community Policing Forums?
Why don't we deploy Comrades into school governing bodies, water committees, and hospital boards?
Is it asking for too much when we cal on comrades to defend vulnerable communities such as squatters, farm workers and migrant workers?
Let us help foster community investment, social housing and social insurance initiatives such as co-operatives and stokvels which will help to build and develop the local economy;
We should as comrades take the lead in the HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.
To carry out all these measures will require a committed ANC and a determined government. We need strong minds, strong hearts and true grit. We can and must get this province back to work.
We must do more than work - we must slave on
We must do more than just hear - we must listen to the cries of our people. We must do more than speak - we must say something meaningful and constructive whenever we address our people.
We must do more than just look - we must see the determination of our people to improve their lives.
We are leading the province today by virtue of the will and the sacrifices of the people. We have a special responsibility, over the next five years, to serve the people faithfully, honestly and to the best of your abilities.
Comrades, we committed this democratic government to working in partnership with the people for a better life. We promised that we would be a government that is in daily and respectful contact with the people; a government that listens and learns from the people.
In a few weeks time we will embark on a campaign of taking government to the people. Listening and learning from the people because of our firm belief that communities must take full responsibility for their upliftment in partnership with government.
We will visit all seven regions taking cabinet to the people and accounting fully to them. This will require discipline and responsibility whether we are at work or at leisure.
As custodians of the ANC you will need to protect these forums being used by dubious characters for their own nefarious ends. This calls for vigilance and discipline.
We have no doubt that you will support these efforts. The demands on your time will therefore be great, but we are certain that building on the experience of the last five years, we will be able to plan so that everything that needs to be done is done.
If we make these demands on you, it is because you accepted the burden of responsibility when you decided to enter the ranks of this leading movement of fundamental change. You responded to the call of destiny to bring into reality the day when the people can indeed govern.
We dare not fail.
I thank you.