A “stabilising fund” is needed for industries under pressure due to the global financial crisis, the Congress of the People said on Friday.
“One proposal is it is important to have a stabilising fund, specifically for industries under stress, those who are in a situation where, unless there is intervention jobs will be lost. The fund would be able to assist here,” the party’s deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa said in Port Elizabeth on Friday.
He was providing a glimpse of the party’s election manifesto, to be made public at the Wolfson Stadium in KwaZakhele, Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
By midday, tens of thousands of people thronged the stadium.
The party was formed by a group of senior ANC members who resigned in protest at former president Thabo Mbeki’s recall last year.
Shilowa — former Gauteng premier — and reportedly one of the party’s picks for presidential candidate, would present the manifesto.
On education, Shilowa said Cope would focus on ensuring equal access to facilities for South Africans in both urban and rural areas.
“One of the things we need to look at is to ensure quality education. For instance, aren’t you better off having a set menu that says this is what a school under a Cope government should look like?
“It must have this number of learners per class per teacher, it must have a laboratory, internet connection, a library, water, electricity, sanitation. In that way we are beginning to say it doesn’t matter whether you are in Sandton or a rural area, the education, at least in terms of facilities, will be the same,” he said.
Analysts expected that Cope’s manifesto would not differ substantially from the ruling party’s. However Shilowa said the party distinguished itself in one key area.
“When people think Cope they think defence of the Constitution, they think defence of their democracy … participation. I have heard it being said by the ANC there is no need to talk about threats to our democracy. But the kinds of things happening, if they do not constitute a threat then I don’t know what does.”
He was referring to disruption of Cope events by ANC members in certain areas.
Shilowa added that the manifesto would outline a “new agenda for change”.
He said high-profile defections to his party were being overplayed.
“The loss that we seek to see happening to the ANC is ordinary men and women, either in its structures, those who supported them, voted for them in the past, and those South Africans who never voted before or never belonged to any political party.
“That’s what you need. It’s not the leadership that you bring on board. Leadership is important, but more important is the mass base that you need to bring on board. If you don’t bring the masses, you can have as many leaders as possible, it’s not going to win you an election.”
While Cope had attracted a number of ANC members, Shilowa was uncertain about how many the party had drawn from the ranks of the ruling party’s alliance partner, the South African Communist Party.
However, he added that many members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, another ANC ally, had thrown in their lot with Cope.
“I don’t know about the SACP, but I know that many of our members are workers, are from Cosatu. Most of them want to stay in Cosatu but Cosatu seems to have taken a view that says you can be a member of the IFP and be a Cosatu member, you can be a member of the UDM and be a Cosatu member, but you cannot be a member of Cope and be a Cosatu member.
“That’s the choice they have made and if they want those workers to leave, those workers will leave,” he said.
Cosatu members who joined Cope had been “hounded” until they left the union, he said.
“But there are also members who are going to leave because they are saying they do not want their money to be used to fund the political campaign of the ANC. On the 30th [January] here in the Eastern Cape a process toward the formation of a new trade union will get under way, primarily by public sector workers, who believe that they don’t want their money to be used to fund the ANC,” he said.
Meanwhile, the streets of Port Elizabeth were quiet on Friday evening ahead of the party’s manifesto launch, and a simultaneous rally to be held by the ANC.
On the streets one had to look twice at people clad in bright yellow T-shirts, used by both parties as part of their electioneering, to determine their political leanings.
Making history
Cope says it expects 4 000 supporters to fill the Wolfson stadium in KwaZakhele township.
“We stand on the verge of making history,” said the party’s head of communications, JJ Tabane. “It’s a big day, we cannot afford to put a foot wrong.”
Tabane also took a swipe at the ANC for busing in supporters from other provinces.
“The fact that Eatsren Cape has got so many members makes it unnecessary for us to import people from other provinces,” he said.
Congress national committee member Andile Mazwai said at a dinner on Friday night that the party was not working to occupy the back benches of Parliament, but planned on running the country.
He said he had told investors in Europe that there could well be a change in government — not in 2014, but in 2009.
Mazwai presented the guests with a document entitled South African economic outlook: Light at the end of the tunnel, which looked at the country’s economic performance and how it was likely to improve towards the end of 2009.
“The world believes the risk for South Africa is beginning to reduce, South Africa is no longer a one party state,” he said.