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New Age2.png Busy with long-term changes The National Development Plan is firmly institutionalised with strong support Dominic Tweedie, The New Age, Johannesburg, 8 May 2015 South Africa's national elections of May 7 last year confirmed a solid overall 62% parliamentary and provincial majority for President Jacob Zuma and the ANC in his second five-year term of office. What has he done with it so far? What are the prospects of continuing support for the liberation movement, including in the local authority elections that are only a year away? The South African media have paid little attention to the strategic thrust of the Zuma administration that has been in office since 2009. Newspapers and electronic media have highlighted sensational events but the large-scale, long-term changes being made by this government are hardly discussed in forums accessible to the general public. Future historians will be obliged to notice that the Zuma administration has, since its inception, been primarily concerned with long-term changes. Even now, the long-term progressive guidance of the government is felt and appreciated by the public. That is why the slogan of "a good story to tell" is significant, although furiously resented by a nagging opposition that has contributed very little to the country's strategic gains. Yet the ANC government's longer term successes remain at risk from electoral challenges based on relatively minor and demagogic "issues", controversies, "debacles" and "furores" loved by the popular mass media. The drama of South African politics comes from the imagined threat of such an electoral upset, arising from a sudden surge of unpopularity, or from the rival popularity of a new pretender. Such a change of government could be followed by a reversal of the country's direction, and by the dismantling of the strategic position carefully nurtured by the ANC administrations of President Zuma and his three predecessors since 1994. The ANC has remade South Africa from a pariah into a major diplomatic power, with, for example, more embassies in Pretoria than in most other capital cities in the world. South Africa's benevolent and progressive role in the continent (especially via the AU and SADC), in the UN, and, since 2010, in the new BRICS group of cooperating powers, is unprecedented and widely acknowledged. In its first year of office, the 2014 ANC government has continued to play this role to the full. Repeated manifestations of xenophobia in our country have not merely been left to burn out, as was the case before. The 2015 bouts of looting and violence have been positively extinguished by law-enforcement, and by political leadership, so their magnitude and duration have been far less than was previously the case, for example in 2008. In the internal economic development of the country, Zuma's government is, in its second term, guiding what has become a large and sophisticated economy through its growing pains, with confidence and determination. The National Planning Commission - created by the first Zuma administration immediately after the 2009 general election - has this month been retired with honour. Its National Development Plan is firmly institutionalised, with strong support from all quarters, including opposition parties. There is now no serious force in the country opposing the idea that the government must govern in a planned way. In a world ravaged by the effects of anti-government neo-liberalism, this is an extraordinary political achievement. It effectively reverses the submissive 1996 Gear policy. At last, South Africa is a sovereign and independent state. Huge developments are on the way in infrastructure, and in large-scale productive industry, that will exploit the new infrastructure. The Zuma government is doing everything that it set out to do, but its work could still be derailed. A year ago, The New Age published an article headed "How ANC Gauteng lost the plot". It pointed to the potential loss of control by the ANC of the three major Gauteng metros of Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. ANC support in these economic and administrative powerhouses of the country was in the low 50% and trending lower. Loss of these three cities in the 2016 municipal elections could be the beginning of the end for the ANC in the province and then nationally, with the two richest provinces in opposition hands, and the ANC would be in a precarious position at the end of the Zuma presidency in 2019. The ANC had two years to rebuild its support in Gauteng before the 2016 local authority elections. Has it done so? The short answer is no. Only in the last week or two have there been signs that the ANC is beginning to seriously work for electoral success in 2016. There are many examples in history of governments that did great, foundational work, only to be rejected by a fickle electorate. Whether this will be the case in South Africa is the open question of the Zuma administration. . Dominic Tweedie is a member of the Gauteng provincial executive committee of the South African Communist Party From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/ -- -- 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. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . 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