We take the opportunity of the publication of this year's first issue of ANC TODAY to convey our greetings and best wishes for a successful 2004 to all our readers. We thank you for your continuing support, which we value highly. This year our country will also hold its third General Elections, to elect our national and provincial legislatures. This weekend, at a rally in Pietermaritzburg, the National Executive Committee of the ANC will publish its annual January 8th Statement to mark the 92nd Anniversary of our movement. Below we publish an excerpt from this Statement, for the information of our readers. This excerpt reads:
As we begin our Second Decade of Liberation, we commit ourselves to do everything possible to push back the frontiers of poverty and expand access to a better life for all, to realise the people centred progress we have to achieve. In this regard, we must base ourselves firmly on the three strategic platforms we built during our First Decade of Liberation. These are:
This confronts the ANC and the rest of the democratic movement with particular challenges. We have to organise ourselves and act in a manner that will help our country to achieve its national objectives. First among these is the struggle to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment.
In two elections, in 1994 and 1999, our people have demonstrated their confidence in the ANC by voting it into power. In the ten years of its mandate, it has not disappointed the people's expectations, despite the severe constraints inherited from the apartheid system.
To this day, our movement remains the only political force in our country with a clear vision and programme on how to move forward to build a united, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous country. It is the only political force in our country with a proven and established record of what needs to be done successfully to give birth to such a society. It has an indelible and unquestionable history of struggle on the side of the people, refusing ever to betray their interests.
Accordingly, our first and immediate task is to unite in action to mobilise all sections of our population to register as voters, exercise their right to vote, and ensure a decisive renewal of the mandate of the ANC to govern and lead our country as it advances the national programme for development and reconstruction.
As agreed at our National General Council in 2000, and confirmed by the 51st National Conference of our movement in 2002, we must continue to pay particular attention to the development of the new cadres we require to help us accomplish our tasks.
Contrary to the perspectives advanced by the neo-liberal forces about small government and absolute reliance on market forces, it is perfectly obvious that the tasks of our developmental state are growing in extent and complexity.
Accordingly, we have to develop and nurture the cadres required to carry out these tasks, adding to the significant pool that has emerged during our First Decade of Democracy.
All our structures, including the branches and our members elected as local government councillors, must acquire sufficient knowledge of the transformation programmes we have spoken of.
They must do this so that all our members join in the campaign to mobilise our people to respond in even greater numbers to the call to participate in the letsema and vuk'uzenzele initiatives and become part of the people's contract for the reconstruction and development of our country.
Since the year of our 90th anniversary, in 2002, we have demonstrated our capacity to mobilise these masses to join these initiatives. In the period ahead of us, as we meet the challenges of the Second Decade of Freedom, we must build on this experience further to encourage our people to participate in a people driven process of change.
We also call on the rest of the democratic movement to join the sustained campaign to mobilise all our people to become part of the people's contract for progressive change.
A particular challenge also faces our country's progressive trade union movement. This relates especially to those of the unions with members in public service. They must carry out the critically important task of educating and mobilising their members to understand and implement the principles of Batho Pele.
We have to ensure that greater numbers of our teachers are sensitised and empowered to provide adequate education for our children and youth. We must inspire nurses and other medical workers to treat all patients with the necessary compassion, care and dignity, dedicated to the important goal of health for all.
Similarly, workers within the criminal justice system, including the police and correctional service officials, must work in a manner that is sensitive to the national task to increase the level of safety and security for all our people. This is also true of those involved in social development, who have to help the most marginalised sectors of our society.
Those involved in development programmes, such as public works, infrastructure construction and maintenance, agriculture and so on, must also fully understand the need for them to work in a manner that helps the democratic state to meet its development challenges, to contribute to the eradication of the scourge of poverty and underdevelopment.
The trade unions should also work harder to ensure that both employed and unemployed workers benefit from the opportunities offered through our system of Sector Education and Training Authorities. This training and raising of skills levels is vital to the pursuit of our goals of ensuring that our economy grows and develops and reducing the levels of unemployment.
Needless to say, we also expect that our progressive trade unions will act to ensure that the agreements reached at last year's Growth and Development Summit are honoured. Thus these unions would contribute to the further strengthening of the people's contract that found expression through the convening of this Summit, which brought together government, business, the trade unions and civil society.
The progressive trade union movement has the possibility to make an important contribution with regard to meeting all these goals so that it becomes the progressive force for change expected by both our movement and the masses of our people.
We also call on those within the people focused development sector of civil society, the religious organisations, the community based and non-governmental organisations, to see themselves as part of, and organise themselves to participate in the multiple processes to push back the frontiers of poverty.
We will also have to intensify our work among those sections of our population, both black and white, who occupy more privileged positions in our society. We must encourage these also to lend a hand in the common national effort to defeat poverty and underdevelopment. These are compatriots who have the skills and resources that are desperately needed among those of our people who remain poor and marginalised.
Already, many people who fall within these sectors have joined this national effort. These include business people who have adopted Black Economic Empowerment Charters and sustained their social responsibility programmes, as well as our foreign corporate citizens. It also encompasses commercial farmers, practitioners in various professions, and religious organisations.
Building on this experience that reflects the new patriotism we have worked to promote, we must further strengthen this solidarity movement. By this means, we should exploit all resources and capacities available in our country to move forward as speedily and effectively as possible to meet the national challenge to eradicate the legacy of the past.
Manifesto 2004 also correctly reflects on our tasks over the next five years with regard to Southern Africa, Africa and the world. We will continue to work to contribute whatever we can so that, together with all the peoples of our region and continent, we address the political, stability, economic and social problems that confront all of us, leading to the victory of the African Renaissance.
As agreed by the African Union at its 2003 Summit Meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, we will also intensify our engagement with the Africans in the Diaspora so that we act together to overcome the consequences of a painful past of slavery, colonialism and racial oppression.
At the same time, we will continue to pursue the goal of the development of the world community of nations so that we rid our common world of the scourges of poverty, underdevelopment and hunger, terrorism, war and the denial of human rights.
In the end, it is only as a member of such a global community that we will be able to accomplish the strategic goals we have set for our country. Consistent with our long-standing policy of human and international solidarity, we will continue to apply ourselves to the task of contributing to the building of such a global community.
(ANC Election) Manifesto 2004 concludes with this important message:
"Our goal is to create a South Africa in which all can experience an improving quality of life, enjoying equal human rights, with access to opportunities that freedom has brought us, and bound together as a nation by our humanity.
"The ANC speaks with confidence because it has been at the head of the national effort to change our country for the better. We know that together with you we can do more, better. We commit ourselves to do everything that is necessary and possible to meet these objectives."
