The ANC has a very defined role outside government which, when followed, would serve to mitigate all the public discontent witnessed daily. All our structures and cadres understand their increased responsibilities during this second and more radical phase of transformation.

The ANC appreciates that we must work continuously with the people to ensure the detailed implementation of our National Development Plan to eradicate the legacy of colonialism and apartheid and bring closer the realisation of the broad vision contained in the Freedom Charter.

In this regard, ANC structures have a responsibility to keep its own government in check and to ensure all ANC resolutions are fulfilled.

Practically, with regards to education, the ANC should ensure at the beginning of every year that effective schooling begins from the start of the school year; that all eligible learners are enrolled and in attendance, and that all schools have the necessary learning materials and other resources.

This must extend to institutions of higher learning, to ensure, in particular, that issues of student funding are effectively dealt with so that all eligible students can begin their academic year with minimal disruption. ANC Structures need to mobilise volunteers to assist in improving the general environment and functioning of schools, clinics and hospitals, community centres, and other places of public service.

With regards to work and opportunities, ANC structures have developed programmes around this challenge of creating work and fighting poverty. Such programmes focus on assisting community members to access available assistance from the various agencies and institutions that are tasked with fostering entrepreneurship, job creation and skills development. These include the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the IDC, NYDA, and access to funding from the Ministry of Small Business Development.

At a local level, structures of the movement and the alliance must mobilise communities to access government assistance in the form of housing subsidies, service provision – free basic water and electricity, in particular – healthcare, social grants and identity documents.

Local ANC structures need to undertake an audit of service provision, including the quality of service, and engage with local, provincial and national government to ensure backlogs and other problems are addressed. ANC structures should also make communities aware of learnership opportunities, and employment and training opportunities under the Extended Public Works Programme. There needs to be specific focus on the needs of the youth, with the ANC Youth League taking the lead in ensuring that youth are able to access government programmes designed to ensure that all our youth are equipped with skills, resources and support to enable them to participate effectively in the mainstream economy.

Our approach towards youth development should be to incorporate it as an integral and central component of national, provincial and local development.

With regards to challenges in the workplace, the ANC has programmes which include efforts at local level to identify and challenge employers who continue to violate the basic rights of workers, including agricultural workers, encompassing the right to a minimum wage, basic conditions of employment, and health and safety matters.

There should be strong ANC efforts to educate communities about their rights, how they can be exercised, and what recourse they have if their rights have been violated. Local structures should conduct audits of the realisation of socio-economic rights within each community, and develop strategies for ensuring that these rights are progressively achieved.

The ANC must lead with a significant focus on land reform and agricultural development, mobilising rural communities to participate in the land redistribution process, and to access finance, resources, training and other assistance provided by government and non-governmental institutions.

At a community level, ANC structures have to mobilise communities in the fight against crime, and work to strengthen partnerships between communities and the law enforcement agencies. Volunteers should be encouraged to become police reservists, and ANC should conduct campaigns to motivate people to provide the police with information about criminal activity, and to discourage people from buying stolen goods.

With regards to social cohesion, the ANC should mobilise communities against racism, sexism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination. This should involve both awareness-raising activities and practical action to prevent the perpetuation of discriminatory practices.

Under the leadership of the ANC Women’s League, the ANC needs to mobilise South African women to work together towards changing the lives of women for the better.  

All these efforts by the ANC emphasise the need for us to pay particular attention to the task of building and strengthening the movement, to ensure that it is capable of meeting the important challenges it faces.

Until we stay true to these commitments, eruptions of discontent in different sectors of society will happen without a full awareness and plan to resolve them. DM

Yonela Diko is ANC Western Cape Spokesman