[South Africa] Poverty, unemployment on ANC agenda

From The Mail and Guardian Online

Opportunities to tackle poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment have never been better, the African National Congress said on Monday.

All South Africans should throw their weight behind this task, the party said after the annual lekgotla (meeting) of its national executive council (NEC) at the weekend.

The ANC said the NEC discussed the task of ensuring accelerated economic growth and development to bring tangible and sustainable benefits to the country's poor and unemployed.

It welcomed work already done by the government to develop the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa.

"The NEC highlighted the importance of ensuring broad social mobilisation around this initiative, to ensure that all sectors of society are able to play an active role in ensuring the success of this critical effort.

"The lekgotla took the firm view that support for this initiative cannot be separated from the broader task of social mobilisation," it said.

The ANC will therefore, as part of its work to deepen popular participation, "popularise" the elements of the initiative among the people and mobilise communities to participate actively in its implementation.

"South Africa has reached a point in its political, social and economic development where it is presented with unprecedented opportunities to decisively tackle the challenges of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment.

"The ANC calls on all sectors and all South Africans to be actively involved in this task," the ANC said.

International relations
The ANC also intends to strengthen its international relations capacity, and engage branches and members more directly in international "solidarity work", the party said.

The NEC acknowledged that the prospects of ensuring sustained economic and social development in South Africa is dependent on the progress made towards stability, democracy and development in Africa as a whole.

"The meeting therefore identified some of the tasks which the ANC and the alliance need to undertake to contribute to meaningful change on the continent," the party said.

The meeting recognised the role the progressive movement in South Africa has played since 1994 in contributing to conflict resolution and post-conflict development in a number of countries, as well as the expectations that exist in a number of quarters for the movement to continue playing such a role.

The NEC undertook to improve the capacity of the ANC and the democratic movement more broadly to provide whatever assistance might be needed.

It also undertook to contribute to the strengthening of the various organs of the African Union as instruments of democracy, stability and development, and to engage more actively in the development of people-to-people relations across the continent.

"The meeting agreed that for the ANC to fulfil its responsibilities on the continent, it would need to strengthen its international relations capacity, and engage branches and members more directly in international solidarity work," the ANC said.

Voter turnout
The ANC also said it and its alliance partners are gearing up to ensure all registered voters turn out to cast their ballots in the March 1 municipal elections.

The ANC said a key area of work for the party and the broader democratic movement in 2006 is deepening popular participation in local government.

"Alongside this task is the challenge of improving the capacity of local government to fulfil its role in providing services to communities, stimulating economic development and tackling poverty," it said.

"The lekgotla therefore reaffirmed the central responsibility of the branches and cadres of the ANC to mobilise communities to participate more meaningfully in the identification of local priorities and programmes.

"This will be a central campaign of the ANC, not only during the course of the local government election campaign, but also after the election, as the new local councils begin their important work."

The lekgotla also paid attention to the work that needs to be done by national and provincial governments to give direct, hands-on support to local government, and to ensure there is effective coordination and coherence between the development programmes of all three spheres of the government.

"The ANC, the alliance and the broader democratic movement will dedicate the remaining five weeks until the election to an intensive and widespread programme of mobilisation to ensure that every registered voter in South Africa turns out to cast their ballot on Wednesday March 1," the party said.