NOTES ON THE INPUT BY THE PROVINCIAL CHAIRPERSON, DR ZAMANI SAUL, AT THE ANC PEC LEKGOTLA, KIMBERLEY, ON 24 JUNE 2019. VENUE IS HORSE SHOE MOTEL
The Chairperson
The PEC Members
Leadership of the Alliance
NEC Members
MPLs, MP and NCOP Members
Leadership of the Leagues and YCL
The Mayors, Speakers and Municipal Managers
The HODs
Ministry staff
All Deployees of the movement
We are just a month after the 2019 elections. The people of the Northern Cape gave us a strong mandate to continue working with them to grow the province together. If one had to make the comparison between the 2014 and 2019 election results, it is quite apparent that there is an erosion of the electoral strength of the ANC in the province. In 2014 election we garnered 64% and with the last elections we got 57%. This electoral victory, the consequent decline in our electoral support and the low voter turnout calls for a frank, rigorous and honest introspection by all of us.
The voter turnout was 64% down from 72% during the 2014 elections. This was a highly competitive elections and we need to investigate why our supporters decided to stay away.
Our electoral support was reduced in all five regions:
Pixley ka Seme in 2014 we stood at 62.2% and in 2019 we got 58%
Frances Baard in 2014 we stood at 63.5% and in 2019 we got 56%
John Taolo Gaetsewe in 2014 we stood at 73.2% and 2019 we got 62%
In ZF Mgcawu in 2014 we stood at 60.8% and in 2019 we got 54%
In Namakwa in 2014 we stood at 57% and in 2019 we got 50%
This was a difficult election campaign as it was compounded by commissions of inquiry that revealed scandalous information on our leaders and the government. As if this was not enough, there was strategic incoherence in our messaging which was predominantly fueled by factional battles, and this actually made people to doubt our sincerity. As leaders, and particularly senior leaders, we must know the bounds of our ego trips so that we do not embark on a conduct that disrespects the integrity of the organization. There seems to be no ending in sight, if we look at the clumsy way we managed the communication on a critical decision on the South African Reserve Bank.
Sadly, in one election, that is 2019, our electoral support in the Northern Cape was reduced by more than 7% down from 64% to 57%. Presently our majority is sustained by 7%. This, therefore, poses a much bigger challenge on us to ensure that during the next five years we move with speed in the execution of the programme for socio-economic transformation. With these elections the electorate in the Northern Cape, particularly our traditional support base, did put us on notice. The message that came clear during these elections is that if we don’t improve, particularly on two fronts the electorate will vote us out of power.
What are these fronts that we need to improve on? Firstly is the way we conduct ourselves, and secondly, is the way our government works. Hence, it is important that this lekgotla must reflect on two critical issues, which are:
The state of the organisation in the province, which should include the state of the alliance, and
The implementation of the ANC manifesto’s seven key pillars by developing programmatic tasks. The key pillars are:
Transform the economy to serve the people
Advance social transformation
Build safer communities
Fight corruption and promote integrity
Strengthen governance and public institutions
Build national unity and embrace our diversity, and
South Africa, Africa and the world.
Based on the ANC Manifesto our shared vision is to build a MODERN, GROWING AND SUCCESSFUL PROVINCE.
A modern province is a province which is at the cutting edge of the Fourth Industrial Revolution with increase in the digital economy. It is a province that ensures that there is connectivity and access to data, particularly for the poorest of poor. A growing province is a province with inclusive economic growth, a shared growth that creates decent jobs. At a minimum level a successful province should be one where there is sizable number of people who have access to the grid, clean running water and adequate sanitation. In a successful province there should be focused programme on human settlements, quality public education and health care services.
On the organisational front we need focused programmes on the rebuilding of the organisation. This is due to the fact that during elections we converted our organisational structures into election structures, as our primary focus was elections. The impact thereof is that after elections our structures are weak and moribund, and sometimes without membership. So, our focus now should be to strengthen our structures and also to strengthen the alliance relations. During the second semester there will be a hype of organisational activities that will be taking place:
Massive membership recruitment drive,
The Mid-Term Provincial General Council,
All our regions are due for their Mid-term Regional General Councils and Namakwa Region is due for their regional conference, and
We also need to convene our last Provincial Election Team Meeting to make a final assessment of our performance.
The people of the Northern Cape expects from us to deliver on the commitments that we made in our manifesto, to grow South Africa and the province. Growing South Africa and the province would entail a vigorous attack on poverty, unemployment and high levels of inequality. In our province half of the households are poor, half of the youth workforce is unemployed and we have high levels of inequality. Unemployment and years of schooling contribute 63% to poverty in the province.
This means that the biggest drivers of poverty in the Northern Cape is unemployment and years of schooling. It is also important to note that the years of schooling is the biggest driver of unemployment. So our primary focus for the next five years is to launch a coordinated attack on these three stubborn fault-lines in the social-economic landscape of our province.
To make the slightest dent on these stubborn fault lines we need a bold and courageous leadership. We need a leadership that is prepared to take risks and test new waters. We don’t need a leadership with a status-quo bias. Status quo bias is an emotional bias which prefers careful management of the current state of affairs. The weakness of the status quo bias is that it takes the current baseline as a reference point, and any change from that baseline is perceived as a loss.
If we want to bring about change in how people perceive us and also a change to the social-economic landscape of the province, we need to invent the future. Inventing the future means that we must take nothing for granted, we must question the current institutional practices and cultures. And those institutional practices and cultures that subtract credits from our revolutionary morality must be abandoned. Institutional practices that place the elected leaders on a pedestal, and deitify them at a cost of service delivery must be done away with.
For example, we are informed that when the official vehicles of the Premier or MECs reaches 120 000 kms they must be changed, because they are no longer safe nor roadworthy. But in this province we have ambulances with a mileage of 952 000 that carry sick and vulnerable people to and from health centres. We cannot, as revolutionaries, be confronted by a moral dilemma on this matter, on what is urgent between a new car for the Premier/MEC or reliable ambulance services for the sickly and vulnerable of the Northern Cape.
So comrades, a critical part of our struggle to invent the future is to fight against self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement by elected leaders. To invent the future requires purposeful leaders that are bold enough to deliberately put themselves in a disadvantage in order to create an advantage for the poor. Many of our leaders created disadvantages for themselves in order to benefit the oppressed, these selfless leaders include Lilian Ngoyi, Sol Plaatje, Solomon Mahlangu, Nelson Mandela, OR Tambo, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Mittah Sperepere, Lahlu Mabilo, Kgotso Flatela and many more. So comrades we must discard these frills and this is in line with the 54th National Conference resolution that:
“3. We need to urgently close the gap between us and the people; strive to be a progressive presence in every community and sector, listen to the people, work with them, respond to their concerns and problems, respect all people and build organizations and campaigns of the people.
4. We need to avoid VIP enclosures, holding rooms, bodyguards and fancy cars that separate us from the people when we are going to meet with them”
Revolution is about learning from our own experiences, good and bad. Memory is a powerful weapon of struggle. We must have capacity to learn from comrades who served before us in these positions of privilege. Some got drowned in the executive luxuries, to an extent that they lost the sense of self, which resulted in the erosion of their revolutionary character. These comrades got transformed from being ordinary cadres of the movement into deities: they must be worshipped by the masses that elected them with imposing official portraits mounted all over, and with the use of blue lights the traffic laws are not observed as road-users are forced out of the way. In my view this is a worst form of duplicity that resulted in the social distance.
In the 2019 Elections Report which was presented by the National Election Team a fervent call was made to all of us, to do whatever is necessary to eliminate the social distance. In the last NEC lekgotla the President called on all us to be modest in our lifestyles.
So in our struggle to invent the future, we should seek the minimum benefits of the Ministerial Handbook and not the maximum. Budgets for all these executive niceties must be directed to other social programmes. These cost-cutting measures on nice-to-have should be across all departments and at all levels.
I had an opportunity to engage with the team from Provincial Treasury. The province is in a precarious fiscal position. I thought it is important for me to share this with you comrades in this lekgotla. Our total budget as the province is R18 Billion. At the end of the last financial year we closed our bank account with a negative balance of R220 million. Our debt as the provincial government stands at more than R3 billion (R1.7 Billion in accruals, R902 Million in unauthorized expenditure and more than R600 million in rates and taxes to municipalities). This effectively means that we do not have adequate financial resources as the provincial government to effectively implement the manifesto. So, this lekgotla must critically look at measures that will help us to cut wastages and inefficiencies in the system.
In his SONA the President made a commitment for the creation of 2 Million jobs in the country over the next ten years. This is a direct effort to fight unemployment and poverty. Based on our population we should roughly account for 2% of the 2 million, which means that as the province we have to create about 200 000 jobs in the next ten years. This is a mammoth task taking into cognizance the fact that our economy in the province is not performing well. There is a decline in the contribution to the Provincial GDP by the agriculture, mining and tourism sectors. These three are amongst the biggest contributors to the Provincial GDP.
We need to introduce initiatives to revitalize our mining, agriculture and tourism sector. We are about to establish the War Room on Poverty and Unemployment and the Northern Cape Growth and Investment Council. To strengthen the work of the Growth and Investment Council the Premier’s Office and the Department of Economic Development and Tourism are developing the Northern Cape Investment Book and a revising the Northern Cape Growth and Development Strategy. The Investment Book will contain feasible and bankable projects for which we will mobilize for private sector investment in the province.
Key to our work is to ensure that there is increased investment by the private sector in mining. Our biggest challenge for now, is that we do not have a full understanding and grasp of our mineral endowment in the province. We must therefore create a vehicle that will in collaboration with other State entities do exploration, prospecting and even apply for mining licenses in the province.
At the same time, we also need to look at measures to catalyze the state, by using the provincial government to create the much needed job and training opportunities for young people. For an example, the infrastructure budget of the provincial government is more than R3 billion and we must explore an appropriate model for developing the capacity of the provincial government in implementation of infrastructure projects. We must also explore phased insourcing of maintenance, cleaning, catering and security services. This will go a long way in our plight to create decent jobs and training opportunities for young people in the province. All of these plans should be implemented in a manner that does not further compromise the fiscal position of the Provincial Government.
These interventions will have an impact on youth unemployment. So there is much greater need to mainstream and institutionalize youth employment and training. The National Government in its strategy on Re-imagining our Industrial Strategy to Boost Inclusion and Private Investments plans to open 145 Smart Youth Centres, Business Centre and Innovation Hubs. The province must lobby very hard to have at least one Smart Youth Centre in each of the following towns: Kimberley, Upington, Kuruman, De Aar and Springbok. Smart Youth Centres render the following services:
Training and conference centre,
Access to internet,
Online courses, eLearning, Coding,
Industrial tech work stations,
Testing centre,
Business centre consisting of work stations and board rooms,
Incubation centre, etc
What we also need to urgently attend to is to reduce the vacancy rate of educators and health professionals in the province. As part of our programme to radicalize social transformation we need well qualified educators and investment in school infrastructure to produce Future Smart Learners. These objectives are attainable.
Comrades all these objectives in our manifesto will remain a pipe dream until we get our municipalities to function properly. Most of our municipalities are dysfunctional and operate with no sense of purpose. This generates a great deal of unhappiness that leads to community protests. These community protests lead to political instability in our communities. In about one year we will commence with our preparations for 2021 Local Government elections and our municipalities must get their acts together. There is no time for petty squabbles in our municipalities.
The engine for MODERN, GROWING AND SUCCESSFUL PROVINCE should be Sol Plaatje Municipality, and particularly Kimberley. This is the only city we have in the province and it serves as the capital. We need to consciously bring development to Kimberley. This town cannot degenerate on our watch. The Sol Plaatje Municipality must urgently get their acts together. Sol Plaatje Municipality should not be used as a political playing field; this municipality cannot be treated like kindergarten. We need to have a capital town that serves as an anchor for development in the province. So, the municipality must urgently deal with all issues emanating from the section 106 Report and finalize the issue of appointment of all senior managers where there are vacancies. We also need to strengthen the technical planning and implementation capacity of Sol Plaatje Municipality.
To achieve our Manifesto goals, we need to overcome the status quo bias. We need to be very bold, innovative and think outside the box.
Thank you.
The Northern Cape Star 