The most critical challenge facing South Africa in its next 10 years of democracy is the issue of poverty, President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday night.
”These [general] elections are about what we need to do in our second decade of freedom,” Mbeki told a gathering at the Pietermaritzburg city hall.
”Too many of our people are poor. We have to seriously attack poverty… and reduce these levels (of poverty) radically, and I’m talking about both black and white people.”
He said that to reduce poverty, unemployment needed to be tackled in a serious way. A way this would be done was to empower people with job skills. As South Africa’s economy had developed so had the need for skilled labour. The country needed programmes to raise the level of skills among its citizens.
Mbeki said the growth and development of the country’s economy was also critical to raise levels of employment.
The president is currently in KwaZulu-Natal, campaigning for the African National Congress for the April 14 election. He said that the ANC’s election manifesto was a people’s contract to create jobs and fight poverty.
Mbeki said these ”huge challenges” required the greatest unity among South Africans.
Earlier in the day he took his election campaign to townships and rural areas in the Pietermaritzburg area. He heard that unemployment and poverty were the greatest concerns facing communities in the area.
”My husband was stabbed to death as well as my son. I am looking after my children and none of us have jobs,” Doreen Sosibo (57) said.
In Imbala he was told there were many households being looked after by elderly women without any work. Primrose Ntombela said her brother, who was the breadwinner of her family, was shot and killed in February.
”I have a big problem. My mother is very sick and none of us in my house have jobs. I want the government to give us jobs and increase (social) grants,” she said.
After visiting townships outside Pietermaritzburg the president went to the rural area of Mafunze, an Inkatha Freedom Party stronghold.
Here he was turned away by the local chief to avoid possible tension between the ANC and the IFP in the area. Mbeki was on his way to pay his respects to Chief Ngcobo when he was asked not to visit the chief by one of his aides.
The president told reporters the chief was happy he was in the area and could gladly talk to members of the community. However, he did not want to be seen showing support for a specific party, such as the ANC.
Mbeki said he respected the chief’s request and went on to address a crowd of ANC supporters.
Members of the community reported that some of them had been beaten by IFP members earlier in the day. Police questioned by reporters on the matter did not want to speak on the record.
A Sapa reporter, however, could see police barricades about a kilometre down a road, keeping IFP supporters away from the gathering being addressed by the president.
Ahead of the 1994 elections, thousands of people were killed in political violence, especially between the ANC and IFP. This year the reports of violence in the province have been minimal. On criticism of Mbeki being too involved in issues outside the country, he told the crowd at the city hall that South Africa would continue to play a role in uplifting Africa.
He said many people had died in other countries in Africa to help bring about democracy in South Africa. ”No country in the region did not sacrifice lives so that South Africa could be free.
”It is immoral for us to say South Africa is now free (and we) don’t care about the problems of other countries.”
On Friday the president is expected to spend the day in Chatsworth, Durban’s Indian area, and will address students at Mangosuthu Technikon in Umlazi. – Sapa