19 FEBRUARY 2021

Members of the Provincial Executive Committee Deputy Chairperson, Cde Eunice Mgcina Regional Office Bearers

Members of the Regional Executive Committee Chairs and Secretaries of Zones

The leadership of the VL, WL, and Youth League The leadership of MKMVA

The leadership of the Alliance Hearty and revolutionary greetings

Comrades, we live in unprecedented times, a time of great upheaval, matched by a new struggle that affects the lives of all of us! As President Ramaphosa said on 17 June 2020, “we have been living in the shadow of one of the greatest threats to global health in over 100 years.”

This Lekgotla takes place under extremely unique circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only forced us to adapt to new methods and tools in the conducting of the revolution but has also for a prolonged period suspended the political program of our organization.

World over, communities, sectors, governments, organizations, and entities are adopting new means to convene and engage in the pursuit of their objectives. The pandemic has forced a rapid movement to new technology and communication platforms to allow for people to connect.

A year ago, it was almost unimaginable, that as soon as today, we would be in a position to convene a Lekgotla virtually. Where we, in the comfort of our homes, offices, or other places of connectivity, would join into such an important gathering of the ANC to reflect on our work, policies, program and chat the best way forward under the theme of Unity, Renewal, and Reconstruction in the year of Charlotte Maxeke, the National Executive Committee in the January 8th Statement presented on its behalf by our President, Cde Cyril Ramaphosa, identified four priorities as the foremost priorities of the ANC for the year 2021. These are:

• Firstly, to act together with all South Africans to defeat the coronavirus. We require effective implementation of prevention measures and a rapid and efficient program to provide a vaccine to all our people.
• Secondly, to place our economy on a path of renewal and recovery. This path must be one that overcomes the apartheid and colonial legacy of poverty, inequality, and
• Thirdly, we must this year forge ahead with the fundamental renewal of the ANC. It is only an ANC with ethical, selfless, and disciplined members that can lead the national effort to reduce coronavirus infections and drive radical social and economic transformation.
• Fourthly, we must work to build a better Africa and a better world. Despite the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, we must intensify our contribution to Africa’s development.

These are the marching orders that our National Executive has identified must be at the centre of our programs and activities as we enter 2021.

Comrades; coronavirus poses the biggest existential threat to humanity and human progress there it is correct that our National Executive Committee has placed the battle against the COVID-19 and the need to overcome this pandemic as the number one priority of 2021.

As we have witnessed, politics is at the core of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Regardless of jurisdiction, the specific actions many governments have taken to combat the pandemic are ultimately rooted in politics. There has been a clear divide globally between the conservatives and progressives.

During COVID-19, much of politics has been the search for a compromise between safety from the effects of the virus and the social and economic needs of communities. Exemplified by the on-again, off-again lockdowns in different regions and municipalities, the politically acceptable compromise shifts from week to week and month to month.

Although COVID-19 may have changed a lot, our goals and ambitions remain the same. The pandemic has made politics raw because the impact of political decisions is felt almost immediately, sometimes even intimately, in the daily lived experience of citizens. The pandemic has demonstrated the messy trade-offs and the competing priorities that we are forced to respond to.

THE INTERNATIONAL SITUATION

The country that we inherited in 1994 had the birthmarks of the major events that shaped the world decades earlier. Of the many events, the most notable is the end of the Second World War on whose ashes the current world order is based; the end of official colonialism and the birth of freedom and democracy in Africa and elsewhere in the world, as well as the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the deepening of a neoliberal capitalist social system. At the moment of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, South Africa was still a pariah state with Apartheid declared a crime against humanity.

The Strategy and Tactics of the ANC describe our current international situation as a reality characterised by primary unipolarity and secondary multipolarity.’ Whereas the dominant social system remains capitalism, with the United States remaining as the only ‘hyper-power – mainly due to military capability – the world is also experiencing a shift in terms of the balance of global power.

The Asian region and China, in particular, are emerging as new engines or centers of production in global value-chains. Such a reality produces the ‘secondary’ character of the international balances of forces, namely; the emergence of a multipolar world where power is steadily getting more dispersed within and between regions

Comrades, internationally, national political systems have shown up contradictory impulses. The world as it is could see in the next decades, the rise and decline of major powers, and the contradictory tendency towards either conflict or cooperation in their relations. The protracted and polarising debate on Brexit in Britain regarding its relationship to Europe and Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the United States of America’s presidential elections in 2020 are developments of significance. There is, in addition, the contradictory impulse of simultaneous fragmentation and integration. As ‘Brexit’ occurs, Europe appears to be retreating into itself and fragmenting, becoming more insular and protectionist, while in other regions and parts of the world, integration and cooperation are increasing.

In terms of long-term trends, we entered the 21st century with a number of key drivers of change continuing to shape our world as we know it today. Among others, the following key drivers of change are important for us in the Global City Region and Johannesburg as regions that are simultaneously connected and disconnected from the rest of the world:

• Technology and digital transformation – This driver of change has made it possible for human beings to experience an easier and more comfortable way of life, despite a number of downside effects such as radiation, unequal access, decreasing human rights, Yet at the same time, advances in technology have given hopes to millions in terms of life-changing inventions in medical technology and expansion of access to information, knowledge, and opportunity.
• Discoveries in medical science – This driver of change has made it possible to understand the disease and the human body much better through scientific breakthroughs such as transplants, a better understanding of the DNA, sex change, artificial insemination, better understanding of fertility, family planning, termination of pregnancy, Certainly, the rights of women have been advanced through medical science discoveries. It is now possible that the traditional structures and concepts of the family can change faster due to the fact that today; two women can have a child together and thereby help breakdown the stubborn walls of patriarchy which often entrench reactionary rules about things such as identity, surnames, property inheritance, etc.
• Movement of people – This driver of change has made it possible for cultures, knowledge, skills, and investments to move across time and space. It is aided by innovation in technology, transport, and financial The increased movement of people has the net effect of impacting positively on mutual understanding and collaboration between the peoples of the world.And yet at the same time, we know that due to wars and underdevelopment, Africa remains the biggest loser in terms of brain-drain, skills, culture, etc because; people are moving to more stable regions of the world in search of opportunity, peace, and prosperity. The recent spates of the so-called ‘xenophobia’ in South Africa, Europe, and elsewhere are symptomatic of instability in various regions of the world.
• The shifts in global production – The ongoing shifts in global production within firms and between regions have made it possible for workers to unite across regions and industries as they get to work for the same company, owners, and management. International solidarity among workers within the same industry and the multinational company has deepened as they struggle for better wages and improved working conditions across time and space at the same time, the shift of production to Asian regions has helped a country like China to be the second-biggest economy in the world, effectively displacing Japan. This has huge implications for incomes, quality of life, and geopolitics and we can already see the quality of relations and politics between some countries of the North and China.
• Changing global commons – Climate change will continue to be an important reality that shapes our world. Climate change affects the quality of air, water, and energy sources, among other things. All countries are rightly concerned about the changes taking place in our natural environment because; our very survival as humankind depends on Even national security becomes pointless because, in essence, we are facing an all-encompassing human security threat in the form of climate change and as Joburg, we need to continue to play our part in saving the planet whilst we ensure a fair and just transition to the green and blue economies.

  Countries and peoples of the world have no choice but to cooperate across time and space. Innovation and adaptation become the new normal through which we can imagine and create our collective future.

In all of these and other changes taking place globally, the question arises logically: what then of Africa? What then of the role and interests of Africa?

Certainly, these are important long-term trends that put Africa at the centre of global politics. Africa cannot afford to be a passive participant in the midst of changing global opportunities and threats. Africa cannot standby and be a victim once more of another scramble for Africa.

Given Africa’s rich natural endowment, it should use its unique position in global value- chains to negotiate from a stronger position. This will require a certain level of foresight, ideational clarity, a capable state and leadership, and durable mutually beneficial partnerships. For this purpose, the unity and renewal of the Africa continent continue to be a key pillar of the ANC’s international relations and foreign policy.

The leadership in the African continent must put its people first and the people must see themselves as agents of change and drivers of their destiny. Because of the advantage of natural endowments, our people must insist that their governments and the African region must negotiate a better deal at international fora. It should be possible for us to bargain for African interests by taking advantage of the climate change crisis. After all, Africa contributes less to global carbon emissions and has some of the resources to mitigate against carbon emissions and climate change itself. Indeed, we deserve a better deal!

In all these discontinuities above, as the world moves and as the global political battles ensue we must be mindful of what former US presidential hopeful, Senator Bernie Sanders wrote in 2019 of types of non-progressive internationalism which have contributed to the dire situation the global world finds itself in.

• The first is the so-called “Nationalist International”: the emergence of a network of right-wing leaders who simultaneously champion an Ethno- nationalist political project in their own countries while supporting similar projects in others.
• The second is globalised capital under the neoliberal political project where, “Capital mobility, technology, supply chains, and other factors exacerbating the divide between rich and poor treat borders as a mere afterthought”.

South African politics is in no way immune from the effects of rising ethnonationalism and its international links. The trip in 2019 to the US by the so-called Suidlanders in a concerted effort to drum up the right-wing US, European and Australian support for the imagined “white genocide” in the country shows the way in which such forces create international. It is also apparent with the way the DA and its right-wing allies are fighting the progressive response to COVID 19.

Globalization has, comrades, for decades, allowed the free movement of capital across the globe, often to the detriment of the poorest people and weakest states. At the same time, the continuation of limits on the movement of people has trapped many in countries or regions unable to escape from extreme exploitation, poverty, or violence. The effects of Covid-19 make this situation even starker as more and more of the fault lines in global developmental trajectories are exposed.

As a world city, Johannesburg is influenced by all of these various currents. Primarily, its major challenge in the international arena is that it will face global competition for attracting finance and investment. It will continue to face extensive migration flows and the global risks associated with weak, fragile, failing and failed regions and states in its own immediate vicinity, domestically and regionally, precipitating waves of migration which will give rise to the burden of effectively integrating domestic semi- grants and regional migrants. Rapidly expanding access to technology and the rapid changes wrought by innovation, have resulted in the nation witnessing the rise of special interest and identity networks, which may pose specific challenges for inclusivity, diversity, and integration.

While Johannesburg finds itself at the interstice of global currents, it also exists in its own specific historical, social, and geographical context. Its politics are primarily shaped by its local context – which, historically has been racially and spatially differentiated. In Johannesburg, the developed world’s privileges and excesses coexist simultaneously with the developing world and its deprivations. South Africa and Johannesburg specifically, present with chronic socio-economic underdevelopment, high unemployment, deep poverty, and extreme inequality, alongside high levels of extreme violence and criminality. Johannesburg and its politics, both formal and informal, is a product of its historical inheritance of colonialism, racialised apartheid capitalism, and struggles and resistance to them.