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November Political Overview By: Cde Senzo Dlamini (Willowfountein Ward 14) in Pietermaritzburg Introduction I would like to appreciate that you have read my October overview with understanding. Allow me to send you my November analyses. I would like to encourage discussions, debates and political talks with all cadres in order to understand both from the ideological point of view and practical terms what the movement led by the ANC stands for and how does it approach issues. International Affairs I would like to join all agents of change in congratulating the son of Martin Luther King comrade Barrack Obama for being elected first ever Black President of the United State of America few days ago. It is a political statement on its own that the Black people in America can have influence over the White in their country of origin. But to put differently it is a political statement that the people of America including whites can identify true leadership charecters within the Blacks and therefore mandates him to discharge the responsibilities as head of state. I believe that this is the achievement of the NDR to build a coherent and truly united world based on the principles of non racism, non sexism, and democracy. Personally I think comrades must not really think that the Presidency of Obama will change America from being the 'superior' state in the world, be the referee of other countries challenges, serve as barometer of the world's economy; but his election afford us the opportunity to have the USA President whom we can engage and agree on issues, who can listen and respect our views as the people of Africa and the man who understands the dynamics of the poor. The ANC and its led government should continue tirelessly to find solutions on the Zimbabwe challenges. I disagree with those who are saying there should be another election in that country. Equally I also disagree with those who are saying Cde Thabo Mbeki could have done magic to completely resolve those issues. From the position of SADC you will establish the kind of deadlock exist in the contending parties. I think solution is that Zimbabweans must find mechanism on their own and all of us with our structures monitor and appreciates their efforts to address their problems. The recent developments in DRC are not good at all and based on the demographics as explained by the South African President Cde Kgalema Motlanthe, I join those who say the two contending parties should stop fighting and discuss their issues on the table without killing and brutality manifestations. I say the struggle to build a better and just world is endless. We are mindful of the fact that our people were great beneficiaries of the struggles of the international community against apartheid as a second equally important factor in this regard international solidarity programs must always be at the center of the agenda of our movement. Martin Luther King Jnr had this to say about the international relations: "Justice is indivisible and injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Wherever there is a threat to injustice, it is a threat to a normal and stable world order since as humanity, we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affect all indirectly." In the event that there is a need for concrete position on matters of international importance, it is not enough that we must say the people of that particular country must find answers. While remaining autonomous, we will work with the most progressive forces and parties concerned. Forward to the 2009 Elections According to the IEC statistics released on 11 November 2008 there were more than 1, 6 million new people who registered themselves with the IEC as eligible voters. This tells us that some will be encouraged to register in their respective IEC offices and in February as they are still awaiting their IDs from Home affairs Department and I am told that special permit will also be issued conditionally to the people in order for them to express their position in the ballot paper next year. Comrades should start taking from what the President is doing because he is leading by examples. Cde Jacob Zuma is up and down mobilizing the people of South Africa to prepare themselves next years election to vote for the ANC. The president understand that there is nothing obvious in this revolution, he knows that in order to be a hero you should work as a slave, he also knows that the ANC does not exist in order to react on issues but is the leader of transformation and true servant of the people. Cdes should know that the ANC must be proactive and keep on generating the ideas of changing the lives of the masses of our people. As part of the going back to basis campaign the ANC afford the opportunity for the people of South Africa and its members to raise their views in the manifesto as it prepare for the elections. People may now raise these views through sms, e-mails, and so on. ANC vs. Opposition Parties As political opposition parties never stop discussing the ANC and its leadership in their campaign I think there are many votes we will also be getting from their supporters. I am saying this because those supporters do not hear what those parties are going to do but they are told how wrong the ANC is. It is my view that South Africa is running short of opposition parties but accumulating groups of political analyst who criticize the ANC at the expense of their own image and thus make the ANC to fight alone and recently gave birth to the so called disgruntled members who formed COPE to oppose/analyse the ANC. These disgruntled members decided to name their tuck-shop using the gathering of the progressive people who met in Kliptown on June 1955 to articulate on the needs of the people which resulted in the historical adoption of the Freedom Charter. It is not that the ANC has the monopoly over the words "people and congress" but those are the spine and nerves of the organization. The entire progressive democratic forces agreed to be led by the ANC in pursuit of the Freedom Charter which was adopted in Kliptown by the peoples' congress. In English to say people's congress is the same as congress of the people. As they keep on saying in their resignations presented to the media that the ANC has deviated from the Freedom Charter this is their way of claiming it from the movement and we can never be in the position to accept that. So these disgruntled members are hijacking the history of the movement led by the ANC. I therefore urge all cadres and South Africans to be vigilant, beware of the wage driver as Cde OR Tambo said when he was addressing the Morogoro Conference. However Cdes we must refrain from discussing these disgruntled members and their hypocrisy in our meetings. We have a long journey to travel in challenging the lives of the people for the better. Let us not even call them names because that will delay us on our long journey comrades. We need to accept that members and activists are joining counter revolutionary forces as if there is something that can substitute the ANC or the Mass Democratic Movement. The ANC is a very dynamic and strong organization it has faced some challenges before even typical of this nature, but it has remained the longest liberation movement in Africa. We are sure that the capacity those disgruntled members have was accumulated in the veins and spines of the ANC. If they decide to divorce the ANC there can never be that capacity and they will eventually perish sooner than later. Equally they should be prepared to divorce the ANC history, policies and tradition not to copy or steal those from the movement and ultimately use our values to rebel. The ANC will keep on cooking more and more cadres and revolutionary intelligentia in its well cooking pot in order to replace the disgruntled. There are ready cadres who will accumulate the required intellectual capacity, once any matters are before them their intellectual gears will begin to change and turn their wheels towards a better life for all. So there is no fear around the recent loss of our members. I am not trying to be "comrade I don't care" But I am trying to illustrate the kind of movement that I joined which is always produces all rounded cadres to push the struggle forward. I therefore take this opportunity to encourage cadres to stay in this movement, read its policies, its history, its strategy and tactics, and then participate in its programmes. It is important also to highlight that the ANC can make you to become popular and it is very to slash popularity at any time; within a minute you will be unpopular. The energy that we are wasting in disrupting the meetings of the tuck-shops we should waste it on making all our deployees to deliver to the people starting from ward councilors to the State President. We should also waste this energy to make the ANC stronger than yesterday and remain the only beacon hope for the people of South Africa. I am told that the so called opposition parties might form a collation prior or post elections next year, I still maintain that they only want to strengthen its capacity to analyse the ANC and its alliance nothing else. Education I commend that the delegates in Polokwane last year took a decision that the ANC should take education as the priority in as far as social transformation is concerned. I want to register my views in relation to the transformation of education in South Africa. I think we should eliminate the FET sector. All the FET resources should be taken to the high schools and grade 10 to 12 be treated as FET on formal note. I mean that from grade 10 a learner should choose his or her stream, be thought theory and pursue practicals at that level in order to produce matriculates who are better skilled and have the ability to do the work to contribute in our economy. The certificates should be accompanied by the statement which reflects the skills obtained from the respective stream that the learner chosen. This type of education will produce matriculants who are ready to be enrolled in the first level of academic discipline if the learner likes to pursue education in higher institutions (Universities). With regard to grade R to 9 there should be homogenous content under the outcome based education in order to involve parent to have contributions in the education of their own children. It is my concern that the government should make all the necessary recourses in schools in order to teach learners better and allow the learner to shape his or her career path at an early stage. This setup will also assist the programme of learnerships and internships to develop the skills of our youth. In the higher education there should be one content which is similar in all institutions with one tuition fees. I am saying this because there has never been a solid justification why the Law Degree is costing 38 000 in Wits and 21 000 in Zululand (just making an example). This set up should be discontinued we need one content and one funding formula in institutions. The Department of Education should pay Educators a better salary in order to maintain them and keep them motivated to produce knowledge and develop the skills of students. The access to this education shall be opened to all, not be based on the ability to pay; it shall be free. This education shall also be underpinned by the democratic principles of freedom, transparency, accountability, representative, and so on. Service Delivery It worth mentioning that the ANC led government machinery since 1994 has done many things to change the lives of the people for the better. This include the provision of electricity, water, roads, houses, freedom, human rights, democratic institutions, peace keeping, and many other things. I however like to reiterate as we resolved in the Polokwane Conference that the work still far from complete. We still need to do more than we did over the last years. There is a threat in this machinery of the ANC named as Tenders. These days service delivery is elevated by contract and service providers. Cadres are no longer interested on when the services will be rendered to the people but how much are they going to make out of that service. These cadres are recently referred to as patriotic bourgeoisie, small business entrepreneurs, petty bourgeoisie, etc. This is a very dangerous threat to this machinery. The so called tender politics is the one that is causing unnecessary divisions within our structure and thus frustrate the service delivery through out the term of office of our government. >From the Action plan of government structures more that the half will not be implemented because people will be fighting over tenders and signing of contracts. It is very difficult to deal with these tendencies because they have found a place within the movement and are couched under revolutionary slogans. A leader would surround him or herself with people who do not question his or her leadership style because they know that they would not get contracts neither their friends will get contracts nor be employed in key positions within the government structures. This is a real threat comrades we need to strategies in order to fight it, we are determined to heal in this phase, so let us stand up. The other challenge is that this thing result into lack of service delivery making people to suffer while giants are fighting over the signing of these contacts. The membership of the ANC within communities will get divided as if there are any burning political issues which comrades do not agree on. This will then lead to factionalism, camps, cliques, cabals and unnecessary tensions. Members will have to take sides in ANC structures as they would think that there is any political argument while there is no such. These comrades who will be fighting over tenders will start finding political terms in order to label others and thus promote themselves as real cadres within their boundaries. The senior leadership structures will find it difficult to establish the real cause of the division because those who will be good in labeling will always be believed when they state their political case against others. The issue of conspiracy theories will also emerge and conflict is inevitable. This is a very political threat within our structures. These Tender comrades are donating to the ANC and recently in the friends of JZ in order to position themselves in a better place to be part of government activities next year. All what they are interested on is to maximize the profit through the use of this machinery. They accumulate profit at the expense of service delivery. This is unhealthy to the life of the ANC; I condemn this practice. Character of our Movement I agree the ANC is a broader church which represents the interest of all people from various perspectives namely socialists, workers, poor, minority groups, business people, cultural societies, sports participants, religious groups, and everyone. However scientifically we know that whatever class dominates our community will and should dominate the movement. Whatever class position we have in society will be the position we will belong to in the movement structures while sympathizing with others. This is the reason the ANC adopted RDP in 1994 to redress challenges of houses and so on. That is why towards 1999 the ANC adopted GEAR in order redress economic growth. That why towards 2004 it adopted BEE to bring Black to the ownership of businesses and then adopted ASGISA as a follow up in redressing social and economic challenges. This was also among other things informed by the domination of the classical persuasion within our structures. Equally people should accept that we are a broader church, the election of the so called pro-socialists in the NEC/NWC is the demonstration of the domination of the kind of membership we recruited over the years. I concur with the responses of progressive cadres led by Cde Jeff Hadebe that Terror Lekota and others are telling lies when they say it is foreign in the ANC to have leaders of the communists party leading the ANC. They are all pretending as if they do not know the ANC and its former leadership; thus they think South Africans are not mindful of the leaders like Harry Gwala, Moses Kotane, Moses Mabhida, and many more. It is important to remind people to handle issues of the ANC in the ANC way in order to maintain its character as the broader parliament of the people. There is not socializing the ANC as others speculate what is happening is that the class dominates our community will and should dominate the movement. Conclusion Let us recommit ourselves in making the ANC stronger than yesterday. The ANC is my vision and future. The ANC shall continue to live and lead. Let us go in our numbers to encourage people to vote the ANC in the 2009 elections. When paying his last tribute to his friend Karl Max, Frederick Engels said: "my friend first discovery was that human being must first eat, have job, have shelter, before he pursue education, politics, economy, etc. Let us provide these services to the people comrades. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. 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