ANC 52nd National Conference

[Invisible]

All systems go for Polokwane


After months of preparations, the ANC's 52nd National Conference is about to begin at the University of Limpopo in Polokwane. This will be the culmination of almost a year of political deliberations in ANC structures throughout the country covering issues of policy, organisational renewal and leadership.

Meeting earlier this week, the ANC National Executive Committee considered the political, organisational and financial reports it is required to present to conference, the programme and rules, and the logistical arrangements for what is the largest ANC conference to date.

The NEC reviewed the draft of the Secretary General's organisation report in detail, which covers the work and state of the organisation over the last five years. The report provides a record of the main programmes, activities and organisational developments since the last National Conference, in Stellenbosch in 2002. It also provides a critical analysis of the achievements, shortcomings, strengths and weaknesses of the organisation.

The report is expected, among others, to form the basis for commission discussions on organisational renewal, constitutional amendments and the ANC programme of action to 2012.

The NEC confirmed its confidence in the delegates to conference to rise to the challenge of charting a path for the movement for the next five years, to unite and strengthen the movement, and to adopt policies and programmes that make a real difference to the lives of all South Africans, particularly the poor. In this, conference delegates will be required to faithfully reflect the views of the general membership of the ANC.

Delegates will also need to demonstrate the discipline and commitment to this task that the structures who mandated them will expect. It is important that participants at conference, whether delegates, observers or guests, desist from any conduct that may be divisive, disruptive or otherwise deviate from the democratic traditions of the movement.

The conference rules, which will be adopted at the opening of conference, prohibit the display or distribution of material that is divisive or may promote factionalism. Conference participants may, therefore, not wear t-shirts or other clothing featuring any of the candidates for election to the NEC. This prohibition includes official ANC t-shirts produced for past election campaigns.

To ensure that delegates are able to exercise their democratic rights and responsibilities without interference, only accredited delegates, whose participation has been determined in accordance with the ANC constitution, will be allowed access to the conference precint and immediate surroundings.

Almost all of the 4,075 voting delegates have been accredited. In addition, conference will be attended by 450 non-voting ANC delegates, 135 observers from allied organisations, and 360 local and international guests. There will also be 200 support staff, over 1,000 service providers, and nearly 700 representatives of media organisations.

Work has been completed on the erection of the main conference structures, including the plenary venue, which seats 5,000 people; the dining area, which can serve 3,000 people at a time; and various structures for support services.

An inspection of all the residences has been completed, and these are ready for occupation by delegates, all of whom will be arriving during the course of Saturday.

All participants will receive their accreditation on Saturday 15 December at a registration centre that has been set up in an aircraft hangar at Polokwane International Airport. Only people who have pre-registered will be given accreditation.

Concerning the issue of the NEC nominations, the Electoral Commission released a statement that said:

"The ANC Electoral Commission again calls on any Conference delegates with allegations that bribery or undue influence is being used to secure their vote for a particular candidate, to come forward and report the matter.

"We have not received any formal complaints about such activities, in spite of the many allegations and rumours that have appeared in the media. The small number of complaints we have received have all been of an administrative nature and have been resolved or referred to the correct structures.

"We would like to remind delegates and ANC supporters that the elections in Polokwane will be by secret ballot and that all delegates will be free to make their own choices. The elections will be managed by an independent agency of professional election administrators - The Elexions Agency. The Commission, which oversees and monitors the elections, will be expanded from the present twelve veterans to include a representative from each province and the Women's League and Youth League.

"A code of conduct and rules for the elections will be adopted by Conference on the first day and delegates who make themselves guilty of misconduct will be dealt with by disciplinary structures.

"We are confident that the systems are in place to ensure that the elections will be free and fair and that delegates will demonstrate integrity when performing the very serious responsibility of electing the next leadership of the ANC."

The NEC emerged from its meeting confident that all political preparations and logistical arrangements are in place for a productive and successful conference, one which will stand the ANC in good stead as it advances to its centenary in 2012.

 

[Invisible]

This edition of ANC TODAY is published shortly before the 52nd National Conference of our movement, the ANC, convenes on December 16, our Day of Reconciliation, at the University of Limpopo near the city of Polokwane. Like previous National Conferences of the ANC, the 52nd will have to address a number of specific challenges, while it builds on the advances we have made to achieve the objectives of the National Democratic Revolution.

As before, the eyes of our people and others in the rest of Africa and the rest of the world will focus on our Conference, waiting patiently to hear about its results. This is because everybody understands that the decisions we take during the 52nd National Conference will have an important impact on our country and other peoples beyond our borders.

It is therefore important that as the delegates to our National Conference convene at the University of Limpopo, they should fully understand the great responsibility they carry on their shoulders. This includes the necessity properly to understand the implication of each and every decision they take, whose impact will be felt long after the 52nd National Conference concludes its work on December 20, as has happened throughout the long history of the ANC.

In three weeks, on January 8th, the ANC will mark its 96th anniversary. This will signify the beginning of the last five years to the day when our great movement will celebrate its Centenary on January 8th, 2012. Already we have agreed that the 52nd National Conference must integrate the reality in everything it does, that its decisions must contribute to make the ANC Centenary Celebrations the joyful festival they must be, as our people, our Continent and the rest of the progressive world salute this oldest of Africa's movements for national liberation.

Considering all this, I thought it would be best to take all members of our movement back to other moments in the history of the ANC, when our movement gathered in Conference to chart the way forward towards the goal of the genuine emancipation of our people and country.

What was said then must serve to remind all delegates at the 52nd National Conference of the solemn responsibility they have, to respect in word and deed the lives lost, and the sacrifices made by the masses of our people to secure the liberation we have a sacred duty to protect and defend, which must continue to serve as the firm foundation we use to achieve the objective of a better life for all.

THE ANC - 1957

Fifty years ago, in his December 16, 1957 Presidential Address and Political Report to the 45th National Conference of the ANC held in Orlando, Johannesburg, our then President and historic leader, Nkosi Albert Luthuli, said:

"(Having welcomed the delegates) it is fitting to pose the question: What of this Conference? What are your visions and hopes about it and Congress generally? Yes, your doubts and fears, as you ponder on the many duties and problems, internal and external, that face our Liberatory movement. A constant reflection on such questions during this conference and after should create in you a positive forward look and co-operativeness that should drive every one of you to do his best for the Freedom cause. It should help you to see the special task and significance of this Conference and so help you all co-operatively to diagnose and prescribe correctly for the ills and weaknesses that beset us in our struggle for freedom.

"In the execution of its task Conference must seek to re-assure the world in general and white South Africa in particular that our struggle is a non-violent one and our goal is a democratic civilised pattern of life and a belief in justice, fair play, human dignity and in the equality and brotherhood of man. With this assurance reiterated we can ask white South Africa, which I here do, what else we could reasonably be expected to do to prove our bona fides that we are no enemies of theirs or anyone else's, but only of domination, racialism and exploitation and that in our struggle we are in quest for a South Africa where everyone in the land, according to individual ability and inclination, shall have the right and the opportunity to serve his country and enjoy its fruits."

THE ANC - 1985
Twenty-eight years later, our late revered leader, Oliver Tambo, who had served as Deputy President to Albert Luthuli, delivered the Presidential Address and Political Report at the opening of the ANC Conference held in Kabwe, Zambia in June 1985.

Speaking in the context of a situation that had changed since 1957, partly because our movement had responded to Albert Luthuli's call to all ANC members to do the best for the freedom cause, he said:

"This day, the opening of the National Consultative Conference of the ANC, is a great and moving moment in the history of our struggle for national liberation. The days we will spend here will live forever in the records of that struggle as marking a turning point in the history of all the people of South Africa. Our Conference itself will be remembered by our people as a council-of-war that planned the seizure of power by these masses, the penultimate convention that gave the order for us to take our country through the terrible but cleansing fires of revolutionary war to a condition of peace, democracy and the fulfilment of our people who have already suffered far too much and far too long.
"History has therefore placed on the shoulders of the delegates here, both singly and collectively, a responsibility and a challenge which we must all discharge with all due seriousness. We greet and welcome you all and look forward to your constructive contributions in charting our way forward to people's power.

"The eyes of our people and the rest of the world, both friend and foe, are focussed on this Conference. That is so because the crime of apartheid has persisted for too long. Almost everywhere, at home and abroad, the peoples are saying that the beginning of the end of the apartheid system has commenced. And everywhere there is an open recognition of the fact that this pioneer of the African revolutionary movement, the ANC, is and will be at the centre and the head of the process which will result in the overthrow of the white minority regime and the suppression of the crime of apartheid."

THE ANC - 1997
Twelve years later, in 1997, the decisions taken at the Kabwe council-of-war had energised and inspired the masses of our people successfully to overthrow of the white minority regime and suppress the crime of apartheid. Nelson Mandela delivered his Presidential Address and Presidential Report to the 50th National Conference of the ANC held in Mafikeng, once again on December 16.

On this occasion he said: "There is much that lies ahead, which is both complex and exciting.

"At the centre of it all lies the fundamental challenge for us to remain faithful to our revolutionary goals, to ensure that we have a movement structured in a manner that can ensure the realisation of these goals and a cadre that will ensure that we do indeed advance the ambitious but necessary goals we have set for ourselves.

"History will never repeat for us this moment of time and opportunity when so many of us are granted the privilege to participate in the creation of a new world.

"Positioned at the historic high tide of the process of the renewal of our society and the world, we, who are accustomed to act at the cutting point of change, must behave as the forward point of the spear of change, drawing courage from an eighty-five-year history which says to us that as much as we have never failed, so must it be that we organise ourselves for success.

"It is most appropriate that it is at our 50th National Conference that we are able to make these remarks and that it is at this point that my generation, which did what it could, hands over the baton to our successors.

"These leaders, whom you must elect democratically, hopefully uninfluenced by demagogy, selfish promotion and self-serving media advertising in favour of some among us, will continue a struggle which we, ourselves, inherited from a people hungry for genuine emancipation and ready to follow and support a leadership genuinely committed to serve the cause of the people.

"Surely, these leaders must have the tested ability to lead our country and people through the uncharted waters of the historical period ahead of us.

"No reason exists which would permit us as a movement and you, the delegates entrusted with the historic responsibility to take our movement into the next century and millennium, to gamble on this outcome, by placing at the head of our revolutionary march, a cadre of leaders which would be unable correctly to handle the complex issues of social development which today's world has placed on the agenda of the evolution of human society, including our own."

THE ANC - 2002
The task fell on us to deliver the Presidential Address and Political Report on December 16, 2002, at the 51st National Conference held in Stellenbosch. Again our movement had responded to the call made by Nelson Mandela to continue to act at the cutting point of change, behaving as the forward point of the spear of change. Accordingly I said:

"Fully to appreciate the tasks that fall on our shoulders as we meet here, the delegates must understand that this National Conference has convened to discuss not merely the fortunes of the African National Congress, but the future of our country and people over the next five years and beyond.

"From its foundation, the African National Congress has served as the parliament of our people and an agent for the unity of the African people.

"Accordingly, when we meet in Conference, as we have done at this place that occupies a particular place in the history of our country, we gather as this representative of all our people. This places a special obligation on our National Conference to live up to the expectations of our people to address their concerns and aspirations.

"What these masses want is peace, not war. They are committed to the democracy and human rights for which they sacrificed, and are opposed to dictatorship. They want to see our country achieve the goals of non-racism and non-sexism.

"They yearn that we eradicate poverty and underdevelopment as quickly as possible, on the basis of a strong and thriving economy, and to uplift themselves not through charitable handouts but through the dignity of their own labour.

"They want to see their continent, Africa, and all Africans take their rightful place among the nations of the world as equals and equal participants in the construction of a new world of peace, justice and equity.

"We who claim to represent these masses have no right to disappoint their expectations. In 1994 and 1999 and the municipal elections up to the year 2000, the people gave our movement the task to lead our country as it strives to realise the goals they themselves had set.

"This 51st National Conference of the African National Congress takes place three weeks before the completion of our 90th anniversary, and just over four months ahead of the commencement of our tenth year of liberation.

"A little more than 20 days separate us from the beginning of the decade, on January 8th, 2003, which will take our movement and people to that glorious moment when we will celebrate the centenary of the African National Congress.

"As we advance towards that centenary, this Conference must issue the call to all our members and all patriots - Advance in Unity to the Year 2012!

"The delegates gathered here, today's advance guard of the movement that has led our people through nine turbulent decades to where our country and people are today, will have to make the commitment that the future will be better than the present and the past.

"When we make the call - Advance in Unity to the Year 2012! - that call must serve as our movement's pledge to all our people that, as we have done for 90 years, we will continue to serve the people of South Africa, for peace, democracy, a shared sense of nationhood and a shared prosperity!

"It must communicate the message, which the best patriots among our people have communicated for a century-and-a-half, that the renaissance of Africa and the restoration of the dignity of all Africans are fundamental to our purposes.

"When we make the call - Advance in Unity to the Year 2012! - this must constitute our affirmation that we remain committed to our historic objective to contribute to the effort to build a global order that will ensure a better life for all, founded on adherence and loyalty to the principle and practice of human and international solidarity."

A MOVEMENT FOR ALL SEASONS
Five years ago, building on the foundations laid by our movement over a period of nine decades, and the directives handed down to us by successive leaders of our movement and people, such as those reflected in the Letter, I said the challenge facing the delegates at the 51st National Conference and the rest of our movement was whether -
today's advance guard of the movement that has led our people through nine turbulent decades to where our country and people are today, will have to make the commitment that the future will be better than the present and the past.

Nelson Mandela had said that our movement must continue to act at the cutting point of change, behaving as the forward point of the spear of change. Oliver Tambo had said we had to treat the ANC Conference as a council-of-war whose decisions would lead to the emancipation of our people. Albert Luthuli said all members had a task each to do his or her best for the freedom cause.

A red thread runs through all the Presidential Addresses delivered at the opening of our National Conferences. Together they say:

• the ANC meets in Conference to plan what our movement should do next to advance the cause of the all-round emancipation of the masses of our people;
• the delegates who convene in Conference are distinguished by their firm commitment, as true patriots, to do everything in their power to serve the people rather than themselves; and,
• members of the ANC carry the historic responsibility to occupy the forward trenches in the struggle to realise the aspirations of our people.

When our delegates convene in Limpopo at the 52nd National Conference of the ANC, they must do so fully conscious of the fact that once again, these are the fundamental perspectives that continue to define the task of our National Conferences and distinguish genuine members of what Oliver Tambo correctly described as the pioneer of the African revolutionary movement. I wish the historic 52nd National Conference of our movement success.

Source: ANC Today

 

[Invisible]

Click here to Watch the event LIVE
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[Mtoto wa Mkulima]

Hapo inakuwa je ukishakiuka maadili kama haya si ndio tena hufai?

Tutu urges ANC not to choose Zuma

Desmond Tutu said South Africa deserved better than Jacob Zuma
The former Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, has urged South Africa's governing African National Congress not to choose Jacob Zuma as its new leader.
He said most people would be ashamed to have Mr Zuma as leader and that South Africa deserved someone better.

Mr Zuma, ex-vice president of South Africa, said Church leaders should pray for people and not condemn them.

Acquitted of rape last year, Mr Zuma is vying for the ANC leadership with South African President Thabo Mbeki.

One of the two ANC veterans will prevail during a five-day congress that starts on Sunday in Polokwane, Limpopo.

'Ashamed'

If he wins, Mr Zuma will be in line to become ANC candidate for president of South Africa in 2009 elections.

We're very worried that this leader [Jacob Zuma] had relations with a woman who regarded him as a parent

Desmond Tutu
former Archbishop of Cape Town

But Archbishop Tutu, one of South Africa's most powerful moral voices, urged the ANC to reject Mr Zuma, saying they should "not choose someone of whom most of us would be ashamed".

"We're very worried that this leader had relations with a woman who regarded him as a parent," he told South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper.

This was an apparent reference to the woman Mr Zuma was acquitted of raping. She was a family friend less than half his age with whom he had unprotected sex while being aware she was HIV-positive.

"Although he is very likeable, we have to ask ourselves: 'What is happening in the ANC?'" Archbishop Tutu continued.


Winning the leadership would boost Mr Zuma's presidency chances

"I would like to see these issues being taken seriously and addressed."

Mr Zuma responded by saying it was "the business of the leaders of the Church... [to] pray for people, not condemn them".

Once close allies, he and Mr Mbeki publicly fell out in 2005 when Mr Zuma was sacked as deputy president over corruption allegations.

The case against Mr Zuma was thrown out by a judge last year but he could still face charges in connection with a multi-million dollar arms deal.

Mr Mbeki has already served two terms and cannot lead the country again but correspondents say if he were to remain ANC leader he would be well placed to decide who succeeds him as national leader.

 

[Mpaka Kieleweke]

Lets wait and see ,what they will do in todays historical event in their party.

 

[MzalendoHalisi]

Mbeki akuwa kama prefect- sasa tumbo moto- mchuano kweli- Zuma will be victorious!

 

[Steve Dii]

Zuma expected to win leadership of South Africa's ANC

Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:30am GMT
By Phumza Macanda

POLOKWANE, South Africa (Reuters) - Controversial populist politician Jacob Zuma looked on track on Sunday to win the leadership of South African's ruling ANC and become the country's next president in 2009.

After party delegates met for more than 11 hours on Sunday, officials said the vote for the new leader would be held on Monday. Earlier reports had suggested it might be on Sunday night, after the first day of a five-day conference.

A bitter struggle between supporters of Zuma and current South African President Thabo Mbeki for leadership of the party has deeply divided the previously monolithic ANC, which has led Africa's biggest economy since the end of apartheid in 1994.

"Voting will start tomorrow in the morning and go throughout the day," ANC spokesman Thabo Masebe told reporters just before the first day ended. It was not clear whether the voting by more than 4,000 delegates would be completed on Monday.

Zuma went into the meeting as favourite to succeed Mbeki as leader of the dominant African National Congress and become the country's president in 2009, when Mbeki must step down.

His chances seemed boosted after Mbeki made a lacklustre three-hour speech focusing on details of his policies instead of rousing delegates to his side. Some dozed during the speech.

Reflecting the concern of party veterans over the party's divisions, Nelson Mandela told delegates in a message: "Of course it saddens us to see and hear of the nature of the differences currently in the organisation."

Mbeki defended his record in his speech, but acknowledged the gravity of the rift. "Completely unacceptable tendencies have emerged within our movement, which threaten the very survival of the ANC," he said.

SCANDALS

Zuma, a populist who has recovered from a corruption scandal and a rape trial, in which he was acquitted, has already secured a strong majority of party branch nominations.

But Mbeki is still fighting to fend off the challenge and secure his third term as ANC leader.

This would give him strong influence over the choice of next president.

Delegates and commentators criticised Mbeki's speech.

"It was too detailed and it lacked a lot of passion," said tycoon Tokyo Sexwale, who was once seen as a compromise leadership candidate but now backs Zuma.

Some delegates at the five-day conference booed Mbeki's ministers and aides and cheered Zuma supporters as they arrived.

Mbeki, who took over the party from Mandela in 1997 and then the country in 1999, accused some ANC members of dishonesty:

"This is the practice that again is entirely foreign to our movement -- the practice of using untruths, of resorting to dishonest means and deceit to achieve particular goals."

Mbeki fired Zuma, then the country's deputy president, in 2005 after he was linked to a corruption scandal surrounding a multi-billion dollar arms deal. Although the case against him collapsed, investigators have now submitted fresh evidence.

A rape trial in which he was acquitted in 2006 has often overshadowed his status as an anti-apartheid hero who spent 10 years at Robben Island prison with Mandela.

Many poor South Africans regard him as a man of the people who can bring the benefits of black majority rule to the poor, millions of whom still live in townships that are a glaring reminder of decades of domination by the white minority.

Zuma has tried to reassure foreign investors that he would pursue the strategies that have delivered an economic boom despite the support he has received from increasingly vocal left-leaning trade unions and the Communist Party.

Mbeki, often described as aloof and arrogant, has won praise from the business community and a new black middle class. But many South Africans say he is out of touch with millions of poor who have yet to benefit from black rule.

(Additional reporting by Phumza Macanda, Ron Derby and Paul Simao; Writing by Marius Bosch and Mike Georgy; Editing by Barry Moody)

Source link: REUTERS.COM

SteveD.

 

[FDR Jr]

Keep us updated

 

[FDR Jr]

Mandela hajagoma kuingia mkutanoni mpaka Zuma ajitoe huko?

Hapo ndipo unapoona tofauti ya Kambarage na Nelson

Mungu ibariki Tanzania

 

[Jafar]

I can equeate JZ and JK = They are Both Popular in their Countries (at least not for JK at the moment) but I doubt their Economic Performance at that higher office.

Anyway, even Adolph Hitler was also elected.