Political Overview by Comrade President J.G. Zuma to ANC National Executive Committee Lekgotla
6 June 2014, Irene, Pretoria
President Jacob Zuma
Welcome to this meeting of the National Executive Committee lekgotla, in which we are joined by Alliance partners and deployees from government
It is the first lekgotla of the fifth administration, following the overwhelming mandate we received from our people last month.
The NEC met yesterday to deliberate on the elections and also to plan ahead to the local government elections in 2016. Today we begin planning to implement our Manifesto, for which 62 percent of the electorate voted. We must now put our words into action.
Only the ANC has the political will, the history and the capacity to change South Africa into a truly united, non-sexist, nonracial and prosperous society. When people voted for the ANC, they were expressing their confidence in us to create a better life, based on the achievements of the past 20 years. At the same time, the frustration in many communities was evident through the service delivery protests that erupted around the country. The pace and quality of service delivery or even lack of delivery caused anger in many communities. We need to be more responsive to the needs of our people and this is not just a slogan. We must build a truly responsive and caring developmental state.
Therefore, the next five years are about implementing the ANC manifesto with vigour, commitment and energy, to change the lives of our people. This is no time for uncertainty or complacency. Out of this lekgotla should emerge a programme of action derived from the Manifesto and the resolutions of the 53rd national conference of the ANC.
The Mangaung conference in 2012 enjoined the ANC to boldly enter a second phase of the transition from apartheid colonialism to a national democratic society. We have thus entered that phase in which we must implement radical socio-economic transformation to meaningfully address poverty, unemployment and inequality.
In pursuit of these objectives amongst others, the ANC has embraced the National Development Plan as a platform for united action by all South Africans to eradicate poverty, create full employment and reduce inequality.
The New Growth Path, industrial policy action plan and the infrastructure development plan are key instruments within the NDP that we are going to use to effect radical economic transformation. Economic transformation in various forms will take centre stage during this phase and many programmes will be implemented in this regard.
A key priority is to deracialise the economy and build a more inclusive economy in which the black majority will participate meaningfully in the ownership, control and management. In this regard, we will improve the implementation of the newly amended Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act and the Employment Equity Act.
We will also prioritise key projects that will help us improve our growth rate and boost competitiveness. In this regard, we have identified energy as a key growth driver. Our message will be energy, energy and energy for the next five years and all sources of energy will be maximized from Coal, Gas, Nuclear, Solar and other clean energy options.
Energy will thus be a key component of our massive infrastructure development programme. Infrastructure will remain a key flagship programme. The Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission will continue to coordinate and centralize infrastructure planning and monitoring.
In addition to promoting access to energy, we will also prioritise water supply and sanitation which continues to be a key challenge for many communities. That is why we have a ministry and department dedicated to responding to this need of our people.
Other key infrastructure projects will include public transport as well as information and communication technologies. This includes ensuring that we meet the digital migration deadline of March 2015.
Comrades
We have made it clear that small business development is a key priority to promote inclusive growth and create jobs. We have created a standalone department to focus on the advancement of SMMEs and cooperatives and to deepen local economic activity.
The ANC government will also implement the decision to promote local procurement and to increase domestic production. This we said we will do by having the state buy 75% of goods and services from South African Producers.
The transformation of Development Financial Institutions and state owned enterprises to become engines of development remain a crucial part of the economic transformation agenda as stated in the manifesto.
The development finance institutions in particular need to support SMMEs and Cooperatives. This new imperative calls for bold and far reaching reforms in these state finance institutions. Youth employment and development is high up on the agenda of the fifth administration.
The youth employment accord partnership between youth formations, government, business and labour provides for youth employment and training incentive schemes which should be implemented by the social partners. The youth set asides of 60 % of employment and empowerment in infrastructure and other projects for the youth need to become a reality.
Comrades
We have also seen enormous value in the Expanded Public Works Programme. We will soon launch the next phase which should create 6 million work opportunities by 2019, as mentioned in the Manifesto. Also on the priority list is the need to ensure that the State implements the decision on the beneficiation of Mineral Wealth during the current term.
Comrades
We must also begin to fully exploit our rich resource, the vast coastline. We must develop a marine industrial base focusing on ship building, deep sea exploration and other activities. Central to achieving all these goals is skills development. These include developing technical and managerial skills in the country to manage and control the economy.
We must also invest in Science and Technology and improve our innovation capacity through research and development.
Comrades
At a continental level, we should implement regional economic integration decisions and participate in the massive projects such as infrastructure development that are aimed at boosting growth and competitiveness in the continent.
Comrades,
Economic transformation must also include improving the conditions of workers.
The Manifesto outlines some urgent tasks. We should investigate the modality for the introduction of a national minimum wage as one of the key mechanisms to reduce income inequality.
We also have to implement our resolve to enforce measures to eliminate abusive work practices in atypical work and labour broking. Also important during this term, the ANC and Alliance partners must find solutions that will correct and stabilise the labour relations environment in the country.
Our country has done well in developing a sound and progressive labour relations framework. This should be utilized to manage labour relations in a manner that is free of loss of life, violence and intimidation.
Comrades,
In 2016, the next local government elections will take place. Work begins now to fix the problems in this sphere. The provision of basic services to citizens and the listening to their grievances must become everyday activities of the ANC.
The improvement of capacity including employing staff with the right technical skills in municipality will remain a top priority. We must prioritise like never before, work such as fixing potholes, dealing with water leaks, provision of water, provision of electricity and good roads, waste removal, and ensuring that billing systems work.
We have to ensure that staff in municipalities and in frontline service stations handle community complaints with sensitivity, urgency and efficiency.
We have also made an undertaking to improve living conditions through programmes that provide 1 million housing opportunities for qualifying households over the next 5 years. We must therefore formalise informal settlements and provide basic services to informal settlements during this term. We will continue intensifying delivery in the other priority areas - rural development, education, health and fighting crime and corruption areas in pursuit of meaningful transformation. In agriculture and rural development, we must support smallholder farmers more than before, especially in the former homeland communal areas.
Other activities will include supporting rural cooperatives with marketing and markets and to promote food security in the country. There are expectations of faster land reform given the undertakings in the Manifesto. We should therefore deliver on the commitment to hasten the settlement of remaining land claims submitted before the cutoff date of 1998.
A key deliverable is to re-open the period of lodgment of claims for the restitution of land and to codify the exception to the 1913 cutoff date for the descendents of the Khoi and San, and identify affected heritage sites and historical landmarks.
On education and training, we must implement our undertaking to improve and expand education and training by making Grade R compulsory. We have to eradicate adult illiteracy and further improve the quality of basic education up to senior grade level.
We must expand FET colleges and pay attention to the needs of students. Already we are to build 12 new FET colleges and to refurbish two, which means we are poised to achieve our goals in this area. We have to expand our Childhood Development services and ensure that all private facilities meet regulated standards of operation.
More importantly we have to improve the quality of teaching generally in our schools. We must expand school and college infrastructure and repair and maintain existing schools and colleges. On health, we will enter a new phase on the implementation of National health insurance.
We have to expand and strengthen the primary health care programme, improve management of public hospitals and reduce the costs of private health care. We must also develop the state owned pharmaceutical capacity to enable cheaper medicines to be given to citizens.
Our successful HIV and AIDS campaign must be intensified. The next step is to ensure at least 4.6million people are enrolled in the anti-retroviral programme, while also improving our prevention programmes.
We have also made a commitment to ensure that chronic medication is available and delivered closer to where patients live. This will change the lives of many especially older persons.
We also have to work harder to improve the quality of Public Health Services in general and to reduce the maternal and child mortality rate further. In the fight against corruption we need to ensure speedy trials and convictions based on evidence.
We are also expected to implement the central tender procurement system that we spoke about during the election campaign.
We have also undertaken to restrict public servants from doing business with the State and to hold public officials liable for financial losses as a result of corruption.
We also undertook to pursue companies involved in bid rigging and price fixing as well as collusion. To further promote security, we must develop a strong independent intelligence capacity within the state. The strongest defence however, is for us to develop partnerships with communities to defend the gains of our revolution.
It is for this reason that the fifth administration must be characterized by a stronger focus on programmes that promote unity and social cohesion.
The administration will also be characterized by improved communication with the public. This fifth administration will know where our people live and what they need at all times. ANC leaders and also our senior deployees in government such as Ministers, Premiers, Deputy Ministers, MECs, Mayors and councillors will undertake door to door work and izimbizo as routine work in every region regularly not only during elections.
Government departments in all three spheres will have active izimbizo units that ensure continuous direct communication with the public. All the pre-election hotspots around the country must be visited and the problems raised by the people must be attended to. In most cases the protests arise from genuine grievances which have been ignored.
The new Department of Communications, formerly known as GCIS, will spearhead our public interaction programme. It will coordinate the development and implementation of the national communication and publicity strategy for both local and international audiences.
ANC MPs and MPLs will work closely with members of the executive so that they can best look after their constituencies. Our parliamentary constituency offices will be sites of service delivery information. They will be centres where our people go to obtain assistance and information on government services.
Our arts and culture as well as sports programmes need to assist us to mobilise the South African public and promote unity. In this regard, we must during this term seriously apply ourselves to developing the country’s sports potential.
We have to promote school sports, and formalise the appointment of school coaches.
We must develop recreational and sports facilities in communities including rural areas.
To build social cohesion and stronger communities, we must work harder to provide communities with the means to tackle social evils such as drug abuse, domestic violence and race-based hatred. Community mobilization will thus be a key function of our arts and culture departments nationally, provincially and locally.
During this term we will also expand the arts and cultural activity and promote inter-cultural exchanges to assist our diverse citizenry to respect each other’s customs and traditions.
We must expand heritage in terms of new museums, language development and cultural activities support.
Achieving all these goals is interlinked with strengthening the organization. We declared the period commencing 2012 as a decade of the cadre. We committed to a decade long programme of organisational renewal to safeguard the core values of the ANC and build its transformation capacity as a strategic centre of power and driver of fundamental change.
We also remain mindful of the fact that at the core of our capacity to transform our society, is the strength of the Alliance with Cosatu, and the SACP as well as a significantly enriched strategic relationship with SANCO. Working together as the Alliance, we will move the country forward and achieve the transformation our country requires.
In whatever we do, there must be visible and urgent change. Our people deserve that after giving us such an overwhelming majority against all odds.
I wish you successful deliberations at this lekgotla that will help us to take the country forward.
I thank you.
 |
| South African President Jacob Zuma. |
President Jacob Zuma
Welcome to this meeting of the National Executive Committee lekgotla, in which we are joined by Alliance partners and deployees from government
It is the first lekgotla of the fifth administration, following the overwhelming mandate we received from our people last month.
The NEC met yesterday to deliberate on the elections and also to plan ahead to the local government elections in 2016. Today we begin planning to implement our Manifesto, for which 62 percent of the electorate voted. We must now put our words into action.
Only the ANC has the political will, the history and the capacity to change South Africa into a truly united, non-sexist, nonracial and prosperous society. When people voted for the ANC, they were expressing their confidence in us to create a better life, based on the achievements of the past 20 years. At the same time, the frustration in many communities was evident through the service delivery protests that erupted around the country. The pace and quality of service delivery or even lack of delivery caused anger in many communities. We need to be more responsive to the needs of our people and this is not just a slogan. We must build a truly responsive and caring developmental state.
Therefore, the next five years are about implementing the ANC manifesto with vigour, commitment and energy, to change the lives of our people. This is no time for uncertainty or complacency. Out of this lekgotla should emerge a programme of action derived from the Manifesto and the resolutions of the 53rd national conference of the ANC.
The Mangaung conference in 2012 enjoined the ANC to boldly enter a second phase of the transition from apartheid colonialism to a national democratic society. We have thus entered that phase in which we must implement radical socio-economic transformation to meaningfully address poverty, unemployment and inequality.
In pursuit of these objectives amongst others, the ANC has embraced the National Development Plan as a platform for united action by all South Africans to eradicate poverty, create full employment and reduce inequality.
The New Growth Path, industrial policy action plan and the infrastructure development plan are key instruments within the NDP that we are going to use to effect radical economic transformation. Economic transformation in various forms will take centre stage during this phase and many programmes will be implemented in this regard.
A key priority is to deracialise the economy and build a more inclusive economy in which the black majority will participate meaningfully in the ownership, control and management. In this regard, we will improve the implementation of the newly amended Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act and the Employment Equity Act.
We will also prioritise key projects that will help us improve our growth rate and boost competitiveness. In this regard, we have identified energy as a key growth driver. Our message will be energy, energy and energy for the next five years and all sources of energy will be maximized from Coal, Gas, Nuclear, Solar and other clean energy options.
Energy will thus be a key component of our massive infrastructure development programme. Infrastructure will remain a key flagship programme. The Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission will continue to coordinate and centralize infrastructure planning and monitoring.
In addition to promoting access to energy, we will also prioritise water supply and sanitation which continues to be a key challenge for many communities. That is why we have a ministry and department dedicated to responding to this need of our people.
Other key infrastructure projects will include public transport as well as information and communication technologies. This includes ensuring that we meet the digital migration deadline of March 2015.
Comrades
We have made it clear that small business development is a key priority to promote inclusive growth and create jobs. We have created a standalone department to focus on the advancement of SMMEs and cooperatives and to deepen local economic activity.
The ANC government will also implement the decision to promote local procurement and to increase domestic production. This we said we will do by having the state buy 75% of goods and services from South African Producers.
The transformation of Development Financial Institutions and state owned enterprises to become engines of development remain a crucial part of the economic transformation agenda as stated in the manifesto.
The development finance institutions in particular need to support SMMEs and Cooperatives. This new imperative calls for bold and far reaching reforms in these state finance institutions. Youth employment and development is high up on the agenda of the fifth administration.
The youth employment accord partnership between youth formations, government, business and labour provides for youth employment and training incentive schemes which should be implemented by the social partners. The youth set asides of 60 % of employment and empowerment in infrastructure and other projects for the youth need to become a reality.
Comrades
We have also seen enormous value in the Expanded Public Works Programme. We will soon launch the next phase which should create 6 million work opportunities by 2019, as mentioned in the Manifesto. Also on the priority list is the need to ensure that the State implements the decision on the beneficiation of Mineral Wealth during the current term.
Comrades
We must also begin to fully exploit our rich resource, the vast coastline. We must develop a marine industrial base focusing on ship building, deep sea exploration and other activities. Central to achieving all these goals is skills development. These include developing technical and managerial skills in the country to manage and control the economy.
We must also invest in Science and Technology and improve our innovation capacity through research and development.
Comrades
At a continental level, we should implement regional economic integration decisions and participate in the massive projects such as infrastructure development that are aimed at boosting growth and competitiveness in the continent.
Comrades,
Economic transformation must also include improving the conditions of workers.
The Manifesto outlines some urgent tasks. We should investigate the modality for the introduction of a national minimum wage as one of the key mechanisms to reduce income inequality.
We also have to implement our resolve to enforce measures to eliminate abusive work practices in atypical work and labour broking. Also important during this term, the ANC and Alliance partners must find solutions that will correct and stabilise the labour relations environment in the country.
Our country has done well in developing a sound and progressive labour relations framework. This should be utilized to manage labour relations in a manner that is free of loss of life, violence and intimidation.
Comrades,
In 2016, the next local government elections will take place. Work begins now to fix the problems in this sphere. The provision of basic services to citizens and the listening to their grievances must become everyday activities of the ANC.
The improvement of capacity including employing staff with the right technical skills in municipality will remain a top priority. We must prioritise like never before, work such as fixing potholes, dealing with water leaks, provision of water, provision of electricity and good roads, waste removal, and ensuring that billing systems work.
We have to ensure that staff in municipalities and in frontline service stations handle community complaints with sensitivity, urgency and efficiency.
We have also made an undertaking to improve living conditions through programmes that provide 1 million housing opportunities for qualifying households over the next 5 years. We must therefore formalise informal settlements and provide basic services to informal settlements during this term. We will continue intensifying delivery in the other priority areas - rural development, education, health and fighting crime and corruption areas in pursuit of meaningful transformation. In agriculture and rural development, we must support smallholder farmers more than before, especially in the former homeland communal areas.
Other activities will include supporting rural cooperatives with marketing and markets and to promote food security in the country. There are expectations of faster land reform given the undertakings in the Manifesto. We should therefore deliver on the commitment to hasten the settlement of remaining land claims submitted before the cutoff date of 1998.
A key deliverable is to re-open the period of lodgment of claims for the restitution of land and to codify the exception to the 1913 cutoff date for the descendents of the Khoi and San, and identify affected heritage sites and historical landmarks.
On education and training, we must implement our undertaking to improve and expand education and training by making Grade R compulsory. We have to eradicate adult illiteracy and further improve the quality of basic education up to senior grade level.
We must expand FET colleges and pay attention to the needs of students. Already we are to build 12 new FET colleges and to refurbish two, which means we are poised to achieve our goals in this area. We have to expand our Childhood Development services and ensure that all private facilities meet regulated standards of operation.
More importantly we have to improve the quality of teaching generally in our schools. We must expand school and college infrastructure and repair and maintain existing schools and colleges. On health, we will enter a new phase on the implementation of National health insurance.
We have to expand and strengthen the primary health care programme, improve management of public hospitals and reduce the costs of private health care. We must also develop the state owned pharmaceutical capacity to enable cheaper medicines to be given to citizens.
Our successful HIV and AIDS campaign must be intensified. The next step is to ensure at least 4.6million people are enrolled in the anti-retroviral programme, while also improving our prevention programmes.
We have also made a commitment to ensure that chronic medication is available and delivered closer to where patients live. This will change the lives of many especially older persons.
We also have to work harder to improve the quality of Public Health Services in general and to reduce the maternal and child mortality rate further. In the fight against corruption we need to ensure speedy trials and convictions based on evidence.
We are also expected to implement the central tender procurement system that we spoke about during the election campaign.
We have also undertaken to restrict public servants from doing business with the State and to hold public officials liable for financial losses as a result of corruption.
We also undertook to pursue companies involved in bid rigging and price fixing as well as collusion. To further promote security, we must develop a strong independent intelligence capacity within the state. The strongest defence however, is for us to develop partnerships with communities to defend the gains of our revolution.
It is for this reason that the fifth administration must be characterized by a stronger focus on programmes that promote unity and social cohesion.
The administration will also be characterized by improved communication with the public. This fifth administration will know where our people live and what they need at all times. ANC leaders and also our senior deployees in government such as Ministers, Premiers, Deputy Ministers, MECs, Mayors and councillors will undertake door to door work and izimbizo as routine work in every region regularly not only during elections.
Government departments in all three spheres will have active izimbizo units that ensure continuous direct communication with the public. All the pre-election hotspots around the country must be visited and the problems raised by the people must be attended to. In most cases the protests arise from genuine grievances which have been ignored.
The new Department of Communications, formerly known as GCIS, will spearhead our public interaction programme. It will coordinate the development and implementation of the national communication and publicity strategy for both local and international audiences.
ANC MPs and MPLs will work closely with members of the executive so that they can best look after their constituencies. Our parliamentary constituency offices will be sites of service delivery information. They will be centres where our people go to obtain assistance and information on government services.
Our arts and culture as well as sports programmes need to assist us to mobilise the South African public and promote unity. In this regard, we must during this term seriously apply ourselves to developing the country’s sports potential.
We have to promote school sports, and formalise the appointment of school coaches.
We must develop recreational and sports facilities in communities including rural areas.
To build social cohesion and stronger communities, we must work harder to provide communities with the means to tackle social evils such as drug abuse, domestic violence and race-based hatred. Community mobilization will thus be a key function of our arts and culture departments nationally, provincially and locally.
During this term we will also expand the arts and cultural activity and promote inter-cultural exchanges to assist our diverse citizenry to respect each other’s customs and traditions.
We must expand heritage in terms of new museums, language development and cultural activities support.
Achieving all these goals is interlinked with strengthening the organization. We declared the period commencing 2012 as a decade of the cadre. We committed to a decade long programme of organisational renewal to safeguard the core values of the ANC and build its transformation capacity as a strategic centre of power and driver of fundamental change.
We also remain mindful of the fact that at the core of our capacity to transform our society, is the strength of the Alliance with Cosatu, and the SACP as well as a significantly enriched strategic relationship with SANCO. Working together as the Alliance, we will move the country forward and achieve the transformation our country requires.
In whatever we do, there must be visible and urgent change. Our people deserve that after giving us such an overwhelming majority against all odds.
I wish you successful deliberations at this lekgotla that will help us to take the country forward.
I thank you.
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