Mbeki opens conference

MIDRAND – South Africa’s ruling ANC began a key policy conference yesterday, with President Thabo Mbeki acknowledging the twin scourges of poverty and unemployment had yet to be tamed.

In his opening address, the African National Congress president and head of state said many gains had been made since the party came to power with the fall of apartheid in 1994 but huge challenges remained. A steep economic growth path and huge social spending did not mean “we have solved our historic problems of unemployment and poverty …the enormous racial, gender and class disparities in the distribution of income, wealth and opportunity,” he told the four-day gathering near Johannesburg.The party’s key challenge, the president added, was to “liberate (the masses) from the indignity of hunger and want”.But he said the ANC was being judged too harshly as 13 years were not enough to correct inequalities left by decades of colonialism and whites-only rule.”It is not possible to solve problems that have accumulated over 350 years in the mere 13 years of our democracy,” Mbeki said.South Africa is enjoying its longest-ever uninterrupted period of economic growth but unofficial estimates show unemployment at around 40 per cent.Sensitive to the grumblings of its core membership, the party has placed social and economic transformation and land reform at the top of the conference agenda.Some 1 500 delegates packed the conference, dancing and singing revolutionary songs beneath a banner reading: ‘Intensify the struggle against poverty’.Even though reassurances had been given that the conference would not degenerate into a leadership succession show-off, some delegates danced through the hall carrying a placard with the face of ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma..Nampa-AFPA steep economic growth path and huge social spending did not mean “we have solved our historic problems of unemployment and poverty …the enormous racial, gender and class disparities in the distribution of income, wealth and opportunity,” he told the four-day gathering near Johannesburg.The party’s key challenge, the president added, was to “liberate (the masses) from the indignity of hunger and want”.But he said the ANC was being judged too harshly as 13 years were not enough to correct inequalities left by decades of colonialism and whites-only rule.”It is not possible to solve problems that have accumulated over 350 years in the mere 13 years of our democracy,” Mbeki said.South Africa is enjoying its longest-ever uninterrupted period of economic growth but unofficial estimates show unemployment at around 40 per cent.Sensitive to the grumblings of its core membership, the party has placed social and economic transformation and land reform at the top of the conference agenda.Some 1 500 delegates packed the conference, dancing and singing revolutionary songs beneath a banner reading: ‘Intensify the struggle against poverty’.Even though reassurances had been given that the conference would not degenerate into a leadership succession show-off, some delegates danced through the hall carrying a placard with the face of ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma..Nampa-AFP