ADDRESS BY HE, JACOB ZUMA ANC PRESIDENT, AT THE SECOND ANNUAL RAYMOND MHLABA MEMORIAL LECTURE, NELSON MANDELA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY, PORT ELIZABETH
12 October 2009
Programme Director,
Chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Council Judge Ronnie
Pillay;
Hon Vice-Chancellor and CEO Prof Derrick Swartz;
Hon Premier of the Eastern Cape,
Noxolo Kiviet and all provincial EXCO members present;
ANC Provincial Chairperson, Pumullo Masualle and all provincial leadership,
Executive Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, Ms Nondumiso Mahazi,
ANC Regional Chairperson, Nceba Faku and regional leadership,
Mrs Dideka Mhlaba in absentia, and Ms Nomawethu Mhlaba, daughter of Oom
Ray,
MPs, MPLs, Mayors and district Mayors, councillors,
Traditional leaders,
Chairperson of the Raymond Mhlaba Trust, Mr Weza Moss;
Academics and students;
Ladies and gentlemen,
It was Karl Marx who observed that: “People make history, but not as they please,
not under the circumstances of their own choosing”.
This is indeed true in the case of our stalwart, Comrade Raymond Mpakamisi Mhlaba and many other illustrious leaders of our movement.
It is correct and proper that we should spend a few moments remembering Oom Ray, to draw lessons from his leadership in this phase of building a developmental state.
Raymond Mhlaba lived a life of selfless commitment and dedication to the struggle for freedom and justice, and justice, an experience that is important to share, especially with the youth born to freedom.
We must today also recall all our stalwarts of the same generation, Govan Mbeki, Nelson Mandela, Harry Gwala, Oliver Tambom, Ahmed Kathrade, Ruth Mompati, Gertrude Shope and a host of others.
Through their noble work we reclaimed our humanity as a nation, and proudly draw leadership lessons on discipline, selflessness, dedication, commitment, people development and advancement.
The possession of qualities of leadership for development begins with one’s own value system and outlook.
In his own words, it was from his grandfather that Oom Ray learnt one of his memorable lessons, the value of fighting for respect and human dignity.¹
His father instilled in him the value of honesty and the courage and willingness to die for the truth if need be.²
He assumed this as his lifelong commission.
Ladies and gentlemen;
¹ Raymond Mhlaba’s Personal Memoirs. 05. A paraphrase.² Ibid.14.
The essence of political ladership, as we learnt from Oom Ray, is the ability to analyse and appreciate the objective conditions that one operates in. It is the ability to understand the changing and dynamic conditons of the time and to adjust accordingly to avoid perishing as both an individual and organization.
Whitout an appreciation of this simple fact, any organization would become extinct. To understand the objective conditions requires political clarity. This was one of Oom Ray’s greatest strengths.
He believed in political education and development of cadres, and had the ability to produce cadres and leaders of a high quality for underground work for the SACP.
He was able to provide the type of indeological preparation for cadres which made them ready to pay the ultimate price if need be, for the cause of freedom and justice. In this post-liberation phase, we need such outstanding commitment and discipline, as we take forward the mission of building a better life for all.
The historical mission of the ANC has always been to achieve the social, political and economic emancipation of the black people in general and the African people in particilar.
Altough political freedom has been attained, the socio-economic transformation of the State of society is yetto be completed.
All components of the Tripartite Alliance, undet the leadership of the ANC, have as the common task, the implementation of the National Democratic Revolution, a perspective that has been forged in struggle over more than seven decades.
The character of thei NDR is articulated in key policy documents such as the Freedom Charter and the Strategy and Tactics of the ANC.
The strategic objective of the NDR, as understood by all generations of leadership and members of the Alliance, is the creation of a united, non-racial, non-sexiest, prosperous and democratic society.
The ANC has for over 97 years led the struggle to unite the nation, and to bring about a South Africa that belongs to all our people, black and white.
It is our view that the ANC has the capacity to unite al South Africans, given its history, size and reach. It has the capacity to make change happen faster to improve the lives of all our people.
Our mission as the Alliance is therefore to ensure a strong and united ANC, which will use state resourcest to implement a progressive programme of action that should result in faster, effective and more humane service delivery.
Our election Manifesto and subsequently government’s programme of action, outline clearly what the new administration seeks to achieve dureing this term.
You will recall that we make a bold commitment to the electorate.
We said: “In the period ahead South Africa will need a government with both experience and political will, a government that fully understands what needs to be done to address our aparthied past, a government that puts people firs and builds a participatory democracy. The ANC, working together with the people, can form such a government”.
We stated in the ANC Election Manifesto and the State of the Nation Address that this government would improve the quality of education and health care. We sais we would prioritise tjat creation of decent work.
We stated that the figth against crime would be a key priority.
Rural infrastructure development and agricultural reforms were placed at the heart of our plan to improve our country’s food security.
Most importantly, we pointed out that we would work tirelessly to promote national unity and social cohesion.
In Comrade Raymond Mhlaba’s time, they made more with less, but at this historical juncture, we are called upon to do more with the resources at our disposal.
As leaders in the public or private service, we must therfore remain true to the undertaking to serve people with humity, discipline, honesty, efficiency and distinction.
The non-negotiable factor is tha the dignity of our people must be restored through the service we provide. That is what our stalwarts worked for and sacrificed for.
Our view of Leadership for Development in the 21st century is centred on how best to imvolve people in governance, and how to create an interactive government that listens and responds.
Effective leadership of government by a developmental State requires two way communications with population, to create a government of the people, by the people, especially the poor.
The Presidential Hotline and public liaison service we established last month is of the mechanistms through which we seek to promote participatory democracy, to work with our people to solve their problems.
We are engaged in an unprecedented massive conversation with the nation.
The Hotline has received a total of 312, 137 calls from the South African public, between 14 September and 08 Oct 2009. This excludes letter sent through fax and email.
Many scholars, including researchers at this very university may at some point want to study this service to ascertain whtat the attraction is, and what lessons it teaches on interactibe governance and leadership.
Ladies and gentlemen, Effective leadership globally as we speak requires the Ability to respond effectively to the global economic crisis. The crisis was not of our making as the developing world, but we have to suffer the consequences. The impact of the crisis on the poor will take longer to undo. We have to undertake practice steps to enable us to defend our economy and to advance our developmental agenda, in the face of this crisis.
Nations are responding in various ways to mitigate the impact and plan for recovery.
As you are aware we also have the Framework Agreement with business, labour and the community sector to respond to the economic crisis.
As part of the agreement, we have imvested an amount of R2.4 billion in a National Jobs Fund, drawn from resources in the National Skills Fund and the Unemployment Insurance Fund. Among concrete steps in the Framework Agreement is the setting up of a training layoff scheme as one alternative to retrenchment for workers and companies affected by the recession. We committed ourserves to the creation of decent work.
We have also acknowledged that the pace would be slower given the recession. However this does not affect the Expanded Public Works job oppurtunities that we spoke about earlier this year. Work is ongoing to create those work opportunities to alleviate poverty and provide our people with skills to research for permanet employment. We are also working to improve the nature of work. In our Manifesto and government’s programme of action, we undertook to introduce laws to regulate contract work, sub-contracting and outsourcing.
We also stated that we would address the problem of labour broking and would prohibit certain abusive practices. Some of the processes are already before parliament.
As part of creating decent work we also want to promote more labour-intensive production metheods and procurement policies that support local jobs.
In addition, we have lanuched a new naitonal youth development agency. Its focus is on promoting access of funding and employment creation as well as skills development and decent work opportunities for young people.
The economics crisis has undelined the need for the fundamental reform of international financial institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
This includes revisiting their mandate, scope, governance and responsiveness. The current arrangements are inadequate, unfair and do not reflect the changes that have taken place in the global economy.
During our participation in the United Nations General Assembly debate last month we also called for the urgent reform of the United Nations system, especially the UN Security Council.
As South Africa, we continue to support an expansion in both the permanent and non-permanet categories of the Council as a means to meaningful reform.
We will play our role as part of the development world leadership collective, to make these debates to result in the meaningful transformations of all international institutions.
Esteemed guests.
We can speak about several leadership imperatives but these would be meaningless whitout an investment in education and skills development.
Very early in their lives, Comrade Raymond Mhlaba and his peers appreciated the immense emanicpatory potential of education.
In the 1940s they used whatever little political material they had to conscientise and teach the people about the situation in the country.
The Communist Party organized night schools throughout the country, and they produced leaders of the revolution.
We have decided to invest in basic and higher education. The adult literacy campaign has now reached more than 500 000 people. We are well within target to ensure South Africa is literate by 2014.
We also putting extra effeots into early childhood or pre-school education.
About 600,000 children attend creches and pre-schools, and government subsidizes poor children attending registered Early Childhood Development centres.
We must also rise to the challenge of improving access to highter education.
On the one hand we have to find ways to improve the performance of our learners at secondary level, aso that wer create good options for them post-matric.
In addition we have to look at financial constrants of most students.
So far, about 140, 000 students have been supported through our national financial aid scheme in the higher education sector.
We must also take a qualitative look at the factors that effect student pass rates.
We cannot afford a system where students stay for ever in the system.
Our target is that by 2014 we should have increased the competion rate by 20%.
We have decided to broaden tertiary education through an improved focus on Colleges, Further Education and Training Colleges and Sector Education Training Authorities commonly known as SETA’s.
It is our contention that the education our institutions provide should empower our graduates to be fully functional after completing their studies.
The knowledge produced by university graduates should contribute to international, national, regional an local policy formulation and other practical uses.
We trust that the Raymond Mhlaba Institute of Public Administration and Leadership will assist us to fill the much-needed skills gaps, for example in local government.
Esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen,
This Memorial Lecture enables us to reflect on the legacy of a man who was a strong believer in discipline.
Oom Ray strongly believed in iron discipline, with a clear idea of how to behave in a manner that was constructive and which would build the organization and the Alliance.
The youth in general and ANC cadres and members in particular must draw lessons on discipline, clarity of purpose, action, commitmetn andedicationot the cause he believed in.
We recall his outstanding contribution in the development of trand union leadership.
Oom Ray was part of a generation that created the revolutionary trade union movement.
He reminded cadres that being a worker on its own, does not make one a revolutionary.