Durban | Monday
SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki marked the 90th anniversary of the founding of the African National Congress (ANC) on Sunday by calling for a new patriotism to overcome racial divisions and grow the economy.
Delivering the keynote address at the African National Congress’s 90th anniversary celebrations in Durban, Mbeki said the reasons for the depreciation of the rand, ”are difficult to find” and had ”nothing whatsoever to do with our national economy”.
The rand has lost nearly 40% of its value against the dollar in the past year, prompting fears of rising prices and interest rates.
Mbeki called on all South Africans to pull together ”to promote our national interests”, adding that for its part the government would ”continue with the economic policies that we have put in place.”
Mbeki, dressed casually in a yellow ANC T-shirt, arrived at the Absa stadium to a thunderous welcome.
Addressing more than 40 000 supporters, including a large number of international dignitaries in the scorching Durban heat, Mbeki said globally South Africa had one of the best performing economies during ”this period of an economic slowdown that is affecting the world economy.”
”We have to continue with the economic policies that we have put in place. At government level, we must continue to strengthen our links with the social partners organised in the working groups that interact regularly with government.
”Together with these partners, we must ensure that we achieve the goals that have already been agreed. These include such issues as higher levels of public and private investment, acceleration of the development of such sectors as agriculture, agro-industry, beneficiation of minerals, tourism, employment creation, black economic empowerment, skills development and generally increasing the competitiveness of our economy,” the President said.
South Africa, which this year marks the eighth year of black majority rule following the collapse of the minority white regime, must ”move forward decisively to eradicate the legacy of racism, sexism, colonialism and apartheid,” Mbeki told the crowd.
The 90th anniversary of the ANC, Africa’s oldest political formation, technically falls on Tuesday.
The ANC, which claimed an overwhelming majority in the historic all-race elections of 1994 that marked the end of the apartheid era, was outlawed from 1960 to 1990. During that time, it worked underground and in exile to bring about change.
”Our people both black and white are heroic and disciplined. They love their motherland and have no other homeland. Together they are African,” Mbeki said. ”South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.”
The president added: ”We will win the struggle so to define our country if we all act together, which we must, conscious of the reality that whether any one of us likes it or not, we share a common destiny, despite the diversity of our colours, cultures and languages.”
Speaking of the recent formation of a coalition government in the Western Cape province between the ANC and the apartheid-era New National Party (NNP), Mbeki suggested this would help in tackling ”two major related challenges” facing the country — racism and poverty.
But he also acknowledged that the country has ”to overcome the enormous racial, gender and geographic disparities that continue to exist in the distribution of wealth, income and opportunity,” and he urged investment in education and technological development.
”We have to ensure that our economy grows and develops. It must provide the material base that will enable us to defeat the challenges of poverty and underdevelopment,” he said.
”It must create the jobs without which it will be impossible to defeat the scourge of poverty,” he added.
In addition to long-term efforts to achieve social change over the next 10 years, Mbeki called for a year-long ”volunteer programme” to help with issues such as improving school infrastructure, youth development and women’s rights. – AFP, Sapa