Publication: Sapa Issued: Johannesburg Date: 2005-11-29 Reporter: Sapa Reporter:

Steps Needed to Resolve "ANC-Induced Crisis"

 

Publication 

Sapa
BC-LEON-ANC

Date

2005-11-29

Issued

Johannesburg

Reporter

 Sapa

 

South Africa should adopt four major strategies to maintain order and prevent the "faction fighting" in the ruling party from further damaging democracy, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Tuesday.

Addressing the Johannesburg Rotary Club, he said the March 1, 2006 local government elections could mark a turning point in South African history.

The African National Congress was at its weakest since 1990 -- its own allies in the Tripartite Alliance, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), were warning that the ANC's electoral future was at risk.

"Members of the ruling party have entered into bitter rivalries, splitting into the 'Mbeki camp' and the 'Zuma camp', into 'nationalists' and 'socialists', 'Africanists' and 'Home-For-All-ists'," Leon said.

These rivalries had penetrated beyond the political level and taken root in the National Intelligence Agency, the police, the Scorpions, the public service, the parastatals, "even the corporate boardrooms --wherever ANC comrades have been deployed over the past decade".

Provincial and local governments were devoting more and more energy to internal political conflicts and less and less to the fight against poverty, crime, disease and underdevelopment.

"South Africa should adopt four major strategies to maintain order and prevent the faction fighting in the ruling party from doing any further damage to our young democracy," he said.

Firstly, the importance of the rule of law had to be asserted, meaning the system of law enforcement should be seen to be completely impartial.

Allegations of corruption should not merely be taken up when it was politically expedient for the country's leaders to do so.

"Nothing degrades the law more in the minds of the public than the perception that some people are above it."

Secondly, economic prosperity had to be broadened.

South Africa had achieved moderate levels of economic growth over the past decade, but the economy was not growing fast enough to create new jobs and reduce inequality. The gap between rich and poor South Africans was growing.

"We must make economic growth the top priority of black economic empowerment."

Greater emphasis should be paid to expanding employment and improving education -- the only factors guaranteeing the success of black South Africans in the long run.

Thirdly, urgent institutional reforms in the political system were needed.

"One of these must be to prevent senior officials of the ruling party from taking up 'impartial' posts in chapter nine institutions, parastatals and other nominally independent public agencies," he said.

Another should be to implement the recommendations of the Van Zyl Slabbert commission on electoral reform, which recommended in 2003 that South Africa move toward a "mixed" system, combining a proportional representation and constituency-based system in national and provincial legislatures, as was already the case in local government.

"Finally, we need to insist on the importance of the individual in South Africa today.

"Ultimately, our country's success must be measured from the perspective of the individual citizen.

"We must ask ourselves, every time the government takes action: will this make individuals more or less free? And if not, is the benefit to be gained by individuals equal to the sacrifice of their liberty?" Leon said.

With acknowledgement to Sapa.