Statement on Alliance Summit

Just to make things easier, herewith the statement on the Summit released a few minutes ago:

Statement on the Alliance Summit

13-15 November 2009, Esselen Park, Ekurhuleni

The African National Congress, South African Communist Party, Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African National Civic Organisation gathered at the Alliance Summit, in Esselen Park, Ekurhuleni.

The focus of the Summit was to review the implementation of the Programme of Action that emanated from our shared electoral platform in the 2009 Election Manifesto. The alliance thanked millions of our people for the confidence they have shown in the ANC led alliance and returning the ANC to government in the elections held in April 2009. Summit also reconfirmed the resolutions of the last Alliance Summit held in May 2008 and the Alliance Economic Summit held in October 2008.

The Summit took place in the midst of the global economic crisis, which has had a profound impact on the workers and the poor majority of our people: nearly a million jobs have been lost in the formal sector in the course of this year. There have been company closures, mass layoffs and deepening indebtedness for many South Africans.

Against this background, in the coming period we shall be working together as the Alliance on the following key programmatic areas:

Economy development: All Alliance partners reaffirmed the commitment to ensuring the vigorous implementation of the NEDLAC Framework Agreement on South Africa Response to the Global Economic Crisis. The Summit agreed that there is a need to link our short-term counter-cyclical response with our long term objectives of transforming the structure of the economy and moving to a different growth path. We support Government’s infrastructure investment programme as key component of South Africa’s response to the crisis.

The scale and scope of industrial policy needs to be increased, and funding needs to be increased commensurately. The summit agreed that the Alliance Task Team on macro-economic policy must remain seized with reviewing and broadening the mandate of the Reserve Bank.

National Planning Commission: The Alliance agreed with the broad thrust of the Alliance discussion document on the Green Paper on National Strategic Planning. In particular we agreed that there is a need for the National Planning Commission (NPC) located in the Presidency, which will be chaired by the Minister in the Presidency for the NPC and whose main responsibility will be to ensure an integrated strategic planning across government.

Towards energy security and sustainability: The summit recognised the importance of energy security in order to advance the developmental agenda of the country. The summit also noted with concern that the successive tariff increase requests through the multi year price determination by Eskom will negatively impact on society, the economy and jobs. The summit therefore supported efforts to have the tariff increases minimised.

The summit also agreed that we will ensure that government-led energy policies place greater emphasis on sustainable and renewable technologies and the creation of green jobs. We also agreed that our energy mix must contribute to our international obligations to promote a cleaner environment and mitigate the effects of climate change. The alliance will conduct a campaign for energy efficiencies and to promote the use of alternative energy sources in society.

Rural development: The Summit agreed to work towards a comprehensive approach to rural development which will focus on the following: food security, transformation of the apartheid spatial reality, expansion of provision of social and economic infrastructure, the plight of farm dwellers and farm workers and systematic promotion of co-operatives.

Education: The Summit reaffirmed education as a key priority of our movement. A mass campaign for basic education, public sector workers will play a role in this campaign. The ANC-led Alliance will launch a quality education and teaching for all – to be launched before Alliance Education Transformation Summit next year. The Campaign will mobilize our communities, the parents, the learners, the teachers and government education of officials. This will include the enforcement of “non-negotiables” agreed to at the previous Alliance Education Summit.

With regard to our approach to higher education and training the Summit agreed to continue with a process to realign and build capacity for FET colleges and align the SETA’s to produce skills to meet our developmental objectives. We support the call and will participate dynamically in government led summits on Higher Education and Skills development to be convened in 2010.

Health: The transformation of the national health system will require strategic leadership through the Alliance to mobilize society around a social compact for health care transformation. Central to the implementation of the Ten-Point Plan for health care transformation is organization and mobilization of our people.

In the period ahead we will, working together with government and SANAC, mount a campaign for HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment, which includes campaign for HIV/AIDS Testing and Counseling, involving mobilization of our society.

We will also mount an ANC-led Alliance campaign on NHI – which will involve public education, and engagements with various sectors of society around the vision and the principles of NHI. This campaign will also emphasise improvement in the quality of health care in our health institutions.

Local government: The Summit supports the development of Local Government’s “Turn Around Strategy Framework”, led and driven by the ANC led Alliance and implemented by Government at all levels, through the full involvement of communities. The intentions of the Turn Around Strategy are to deliver quality, affordable and reliable services to South Africans. An Alliance Summit on Local Government will be held early next year, to focus on service delivery.

ANC Centenary Preparations The Summit noted the centenary celebrations of the ANC and we affirmed our support for the preparations towards 2012, which will not be just ANC-led Alliance celebrations but for our people as a whole.

2010 Soccer World Cup Next year our country will host one of the biggest sporting event in the world, the FIFA Soccer World Cup. We call on all South Africans to rally behind Bafana Bafana, our National Team.

We wish all South Africans a happy and safe festive seasons and a prosperous new year. We call on those who will be on the road to exercise extreme caution to minimize road carnage.

Issued by:
African National Congress
South African Communist Party
Congress of South African Trade Unions
South African National Civic Organisation

Enquiries:
Jackson Mthembu (ANC National Spokesperson) 0823708401
Malesela Maleka (SACP Spokesperson) 0822261802
Patrick Craven (COSATU Spokesperson) 0828217456
Dumisani Mthalane (SANCO Spokesperson) 0797647257