ANC brought SA back from brink of disaster: Zuma
President Jacob Zuma says that the ruling party, the ANC, pulled South Africa back from the “brink of disaster”, and should serve as an inspiration for those seeking the resolution of serious conflicts.
The president was speaking at the launch of the party’s 20 Year Review: South Africa 1994 to 2014.
Zuma said that, while the past 20 years has seen progress in socio-economic transformation, the legacy of apartheid that the ANC inherited, “runs deep and still persists”.
“The year 2014 represents a historic milestone of twenty years of freedom and democracy in our country,” the president said.
“It is an occasion to reflect on what has been achieved in our country over the past twenty years, by South Africans working together,” Zuma said.
“Where the facts indicate that we have made progress, we say so, and where the facts indicate that we have challenges and have made mistakes, we also say so,” he said.
Zuma said that, given the manner in which the ANC was able to pull the country back from the “brink of disaster”, South Africa is an inspiration for people who are seeking the resolution of serious conflicts. “We are proud of this remarkable achievement,” he said.
At a political level, “we have consolidated our democracy and built strong institutions as the Review indicates,” the president said.
Employment
Workers have 20 years of enjoying rights including trade union workplace organising, collective bargaining, equal pay for equal work, health and safety, affirmative action, skills development, minimum wages for workers in vulnerable sectors, the right to strike, and the right to peaceful protest, the president said.
“All South Africans have the right to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions, provided this is done peacefully and unarmed,” he said.
Apartheid legacy
Zuma noted that “the legacy of apartheid that we inherited runs deep and still persists”.
He pointed to the systematic dispossession of land under both colonialism and apartheid has left a highly skewed racial distribution in land ownership and agricultural production as well as a struggling smallholder farming sector.
The president said that racial segregation was also enforced in urban areas. “In this regard, one of the biggest challenges which the democratic government has faced has been how to address the entrenched apartheid spatial patterns.”
Zuma also indicated that government was still dealing with the impact of the Bantu education system which was designed to keep the black majority confined to unskilled labour.
“The provision of public health services and basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity and waste removal was also prioritised in white residential areas.
“This has caused a legacy of enormous backlogs in the infrastructure required to deliver these services,” he said.
GDP
Zuma also noted that, on average, the economy has grown at 3.2 percent a year from 1994 to 2012. “This is a marked improvement over pre-1994 growth rates.”
He said that the number of people in employment grew by approximately 5.6 million between 1994 and 2013, or by 60%.
“However, this growth, while most welcome, is modest compared with other emerging economies. It has also not been adequate to meet the objective of reducing unemployment substantially,” the president said.
The Review indicated that the increase in the number of those employed has been offset by a larger increase in the number of people looking for work.
“The reasons for this include population growth. Another factor is increasing urbanisation, which in turn was partly a result of the dismantling of the homeland system and the removal of the pass laws.”
“There are also increasing numbers of women looking for work, due to advances in gender equality, which is another achievement of democracy and freedom,” Zuma said.
Education
Zuma said that progress can be shown to include access to free education, primary health care and free basic services to indigent members of society.
“Over 8 million school children are now benefitting from no-fee policies. This has contributed to an increase in secondary school enrolment from 51% in 1994 to around 80% currently.”
And while backlogs in school infrastructure remain, thousands of schools have been built and connected to water and electricity supply since 1994. About 370 modern schools were built over the past five years alone, the president said.
In the last five years, the Annual National Assessments (ANA) system was introduced to enable an objective assessment of the education system below Grade 12 for the first time.
“The relatively poor ANA results have demonstrated the extent of the apartheid damage. At the same time, the results also indicate that the system is starting to improve,” Zuma said.
University enrollment has almost doubled since 1994. There have also been huge increases in enrollments at further education and training (FET) colleges, following an intensive focus on these colleges in the past five years, he said.
Safety and security
With regards to safety and security, the president said that the levels of serious crime and property crime have declined since 1994.
However, crime levels remain high, particularly crime against vulnerable groups such as women and children, which require continued intensive focus.
A range of institutions, laws and measures have been put in place since 1994 to counter corruption, Zuma said.
“These are now being strengthened by implementing measures such as preventing public servants from doing business with the state and better management of the risks related to government procurement processes.
“Corruption is not only a public-sector problem and the country response has to include the private sector as well,” he said.
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