President Thabo Mbeki on Friday chided African National Congress public representatives who ”meet their constituencies only during election time or when forced do so”.
Writing in the ANC’s online publication, ANC Today, he also, however, praised others for their conscientious work.
Mbeki said there was no doubting the fact that South Africa stood among the best in the world regarding the major advances the country had made in building and deepening democracy in the short space of time since 1994.
”Accordingly, we make bold to say that our democracy is irreversible. Its strength and resilience defies its tender age of eight years.
”Undoubtedly, this is due to the steadfastness, commitment and loyalty of our people to the cause of democracy, and to the work of the main political movement for democracy in our country, the organisation of the democratic masses, the ANC,” he said.
But, having built and consolidated democracy, the dominant challenge for the ”collective mind of our movement”, was the development of the country to defeat and eradicate poverty and underdevelopment.
”Again, as was and will continue to be the case with the struggle to build and consolidate democracy, the challenge of development needs the broadest, conscious participation of the masses of our people.”
An important part of the work of public presentatives was to constantly engage the people, ”so that together we are better able to work for change and development, always informed by the reality of the concrete conditions that our people face on a daily basis”.
Recently, there had been better and increased interaction between public representatives from the National Assembly, the National Council of Provinces, provincial legislatures and municipalities with the people in most parts of the country.
”We must therefore commend all our public representatives who have, through the Imbizo process, made consultation and dialogue with the people a permanent feature of their work,” Mbeki said.
”While this is encouraging, we still need to improve our contact with our people and avoid the wrong conduct of some amongst us who meet their constituencies only during election time or when forced do so.
”Coming as we do from an almost-century long tradition of the ANC, of ensuring that we always walk, neither ahead nor behind the people, but side by side and in step with the masses of our people, we expect that every ANC public representative must, as a matter of course, plan, work and find solutions to problems with the men and women who elected them and the people as a whole.
”Our regular interaction with the people must and will ensure that both the legislators and the electorate gain a clear understanding of our possibilities and constraints with regard to
the processes of development.
”This will also help us to build the partnership between the people and the government that informs our strategic perspective of ensuring a people-driven process of change.”
”Through these regular meetings and consultations, we will give more clarity to the fact that is already known to our people — that delivery happens in stages and improved services will reach some before others.
”This will help to defeat the right-wing and ultra-left elements in our society that dishonestly claim that we can eradicate the legacy of poverty and underdevelopment overnight,” Mbeki said. – Sapa