Statement of the ANC NEC Lekgotla
18 January 2010
The ANC NEC met on Friday, 15 January 2010 and was followed by NEC Lekgotla from Saturday until Sunday, 16-17 January 2010 at Esselen Park in Ekurhuleni.
The primary purpose of the NEC Lekgotla was to chart the way forward and develop a programme of action for 2010, informed by the NEC January 8 Statement and the 2009 Election Manifesto.
The Lekgotla was attended by NEC members as well as the deployed cadres and senior public servants whose task is to ensure the effective implementation of our 2009 elections manifesto and mandate.
The Lekgotla reflected on how far the ANC has come in implementing the 2009 Elections Manifesto. The NEC January 8 Statement provided the line of march and its theme, Working together to speed up effective service to the people guided the drafting of the programme of action for 2010 in order to ensure that the ANC remain responsive, caring and effective in its interaction with the people it serves.
The Lekgotla had 5 Commissions, namely:
- Organisational Building,
- Political Management of governance,
- Strengthening implementation of ANC programmes and priorities as contained in Polokwane Resolutions, the 2009 Manifesto and the 2010 NEC January 8 Statement.
- Local government, and
- International Relations
The Lekgotla resolved as follows under the theme organisation building and campaigns;
The ANC will have a national driven programme focusing on raising the quality of branch activism around community work. The programme will enhance the capacity of branches to do community profiles and initiate campaigns and development projects in response to community needs.
The focus of such a national driven programme would be the following:
- Training of branches on organisational skills, campaign planning and work, and running the organisation.
- Training on how government work and how to help communities access services and get their issues addressed.
- Production of campaign manuals to direct our campaigns in all our priority areas.
In addition to a national driven campaign each branch will identify a specific campaign or issue that it wants to successfully resolve. This will help to build the confidence of our members and community in their ability to solve problems and to shape their own destiny.
This must enable ANC members to dynamically engage with communities including such initiatives such as know your neighbourhood and continuous door-to- door work around our programmes. This should help us to reach the stage where the majority of our members are development activists and problems solvers in their communities.
All ANC structures particularly our branches will in this year of action to strengthen the effective service to our people engage in the following campaigns in line with our manifesto and our NEC January 8 Statement:
- Campaign on education, health, crime, creation of decent work as well as rural development which will be consistent campaign up to the 2014 elections.
- We will also engage on the campaign for local transformation and community development which will include our programme to improve basic serves as well as clean and green communities.
- Our structures will engage in a campaign to promote the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup within the ambit of enhancing national unity, sports development and our heritage. Working together with our alliance partners we will organise sporting activities in communities working together with sports and youth bodies.
- The Imvuselelo Campaign will raise the level of political consciousness, inculcate the values of selfless service, promote activism, sharpen organisational skills of our members and be the vehicle of us reaching the target of at least 1 million members by 2010.
We will also engage on the cadre development programme which will focus on training all our structures at all levels in organisational skills, develop a basic 6 months political education programme focusing on ANC history, role, core values and culture, as well as the role of the alliance within the current phase of our struggle.
We will also run a compulsory cadre development course for all our leadership collective, this will include introducing the ABC of Congress Leadership focusing on the role of leadership and cadres, values and conduct of ANC and Alliance leaders.
We will also in this 2010 period starting this month commission a new ANC membership system that will ensure that every member in good standing get a card in reasonable time, enhance the integrity of our membership system preventing gate keeping and fraud, including facilitating the auditing of membership.
We will also facilitate the successful launch of one million members campaign in due course.
The membership system will be institutionalised in a Membership Manual which contains the constitutional requirement of membership, our approach to recruitment and induction of new members as well as the role of members as an agent for change.
ALLIANCE
The Lekgotla the reaffirmed the position of the NEC January 8 Statement that the ANC as the leader of the alliance and strategic centre of power must take responsibility for providing political direction to the alliance and through continuous engagement on the best way to resolve the problems we face as we transform our society.
The NEC will initiate a broad discussion on history, role and current tasks of the alliance and its constituent parts as a matter of urgency.
We must manage the contradictions inherent to the alliance in a manner that build the unity of purpose, understanding of distinct roles and programmes of each component.
We must also conduct ourselves in a manner befitting revolutionaries, respect each other’s organisational integrity, enforce discipline, avoid public spats and labeling, and resolve problems within bilateral and other alliance forums.
Through the joint programme of action, we will engage our members in action and political education so that we enhance and build collective cadreship of the alliance and pay special attention to branch, regional and provincial alliance structures.
The issues that arouse at the Special Conference of the South African Communist Party last year, in relation to the ANC delegation to the conference, will be finalized at a bilateral with the SACP after receipt and processing of the report from the ANC delegation that attended the conference.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
On local government the Lekgotla agreed on the 10 point plan turn around strategy to make our municipalities to be the vehicles of effective service delivery to our people. In this regard a further articulation of the turn around strategy within the ANC and its Alliance partners will be addressed in the summits to be convened in April this year.
The Lekgotla also agreed with the NEC January 8 articulation that it is not in the interest of service delivery for those who hold political office in organisations to also serve as administrators in local government.
POLITICAL MANAGEMENT OF GOVERNMENT
The Lekgotla agreed that the ANC, as opposed to government, also needs to come up with a mechanism to monitor and review the performance of its cadres deployed in government.
STRENGTHENING IMPLEMENTATION OF ANC PROGRAMMES AND PRIORITIES AS CONTAINED IN POLOKWANE RESOLUTIONS, 2009 MANIFESTO AND 2010 NEC JANUARY 8 STATEMENT
The Lekgotla has come up with a practical implementable programme and outcome that we expect from our government in the implementation of the 5 priorities that emanate from our manifesto and NEC January 8 Statement.
We are confident that the outcome of the Lekgotla in this regard will be able to guide the Cabinet Lekgotla as well as the president of the republic of South Africa in his state of the nation address.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Our work around international relations will centre around 6 pillars, namely:
- Building a better Africa and the World
- International and continental solidarity work
- Party to party relations
- Transformation of global governance
- Policy development issues
- Campaigns like active mobilisation for attainment of Millennium Developmental Goals, Mandela Day, Africa Day, Climate change etc.
The NEC Lekgotla conveyed its deepest condolences to the people of Haiti and its government during these trying times. The extent of human loss and physical destruction is unprecedented and called on all of humanity to lend a helping hand.
The ANC commends those within our country who have started to act to save as many lives as possible. The ANC calls on all South Africans to express solidarity with the people of Haiti in whatever manner possible. In particular the NEC calls on all its structures and members to actively take part in this national effort. All assistance should be channeled through government coordinated National Disaster Centre.
CONCLUSION
We come out of Lekgotla extremely confident that the ANC has a concrete and practical programme to lead society in implementing the mandate it was given by the people of South Africa in 2009 general elections.
In the words of ANC President, Comrade Jacob Zuma, “2010 is the year of action for effective service delivery to our people and there will be no room for cynicism, laziness, lamenting and incompetence.
We want our people to feel and see the difference in the manner in which we deliver services. We must truly change the way government works.
We will heighten our engagement and interaction with communities, to listen to them, but also to monitor how government is delivering services.”
Our deployed cadres must give concrete expression to our 2010 theme, “WORKING TOGETHER TO SPEED UP EFFECTIVE SERVICE DELIVERY TO THE PEOPLE.”
Issued by Gwede Mantashe
ANC Secretary General
African National Congress
54 Sauer Street
Johannesburg
2001
Enquiries: Jackson Mthembu 082 370 8401; Ishmael Mnisi 082 333 5550
