2020+Vision+for+Southern+Africa,+Tony+Hall

=2020 Vision for Southern Africa=
 * // Daring to dream, preparing to act. //**
 * // Now is the mandate, now is the opportunity, now is the time. //**
 * // A Quixotic mix of policy guidelines and practical measures to remind us that there are alternatives //****//

– //****// there is a way. //**

**Tony Hall**
//It is the duty of the present generation of leadership, a very broad spectrum in itself – from exile, Robben Island, 1976, MK, COSATU, MDM, SACP and the Youth Leagues – to return to the transformation of society, to lay the base for completing the emancipation of the people. It cannot be left to the young people and coming generations, because they have not experienced the commitment, the sacrifice; they are drifting away from a sense of what national liberation means.

The leadership has time to restore and set all directions in place. It must start now. The situation requires moving away from wrong and dangerous steps, moving back to dynamic people-centred policies and actions. We can waste no more time on analysis and shocked revelations as a substitute for action. Never, since we became a democracy, has the political conjuncture been more openly and clearly described and outlined, in the organs of the ruling Alliance. Even within the mainstream media, often hostile to national liberation, there are clear critical analyses breaking through at times, of the runaway capitalism, elite empowerment and corporate dominance that is beginning to erode the liberation project.

Never has the popular mandate been stronger for resolute action towards meaningful socialist democracy. Never has there been, or will there be again, a collective leadership with a better historical record of commitment and sacrifice, energy and ability, to carry through what is already the most peaceful and massive social transformation in history.

Never has the need been more urgent to promote and complete the emancipation and cooperation of the people of South Africa, and the region.//


 * Daring to dream, preparing to act **

In the following pages is a mix of indicative policy guidelines and practical actions, some in broadstroke, some in detail. Quixotic, eclectic, far from comprehensive, it is nonetheless informed by a vision that is attainable in practice – and crucial as the type of programme to rescue our society from greed and poverty.

Realising a 2020 vision for Southern Africa Immediate steps to be taken by a strengthened Tripartite Alliance of ANC, SACP and COSATU to complete the emancipation of our country and our region:

** Economy ** 1. The Alliance to commit publicly to changing economic policy from monetarism to a Keynesian model, and to instruct Cabinet to act accordingly; endorsing:*

a) the commitment to a fair and open market, recognising the dynamic, innovative role free enterprise can play;*

b) free expression through varied and free – but not corporate-dominated – mainstream media, including public media; controls on advertising;*

c) commitment to strong government and public oversight, mediation and controls, to curb a free economy from becoming a casino economy.

2. Dismantle the GEAR approach to the economy and restore the RDP.

3. Keep/restore the commanding heights of the economy including infrastructure and essential services, to the public sector, for example and specifically…

4. Restore the Steel industry to majority public ownership, compensating Mittal and other private companies on the basis of value after tax, and reduction of total compensation by the amount of extra profit made by charging ‘world prices’ plus transport, for locally produced steel.

5. Government and Unions each to make up 35 percent of Boards, 30 percent to be private sector owned.

6. Directors’ income in all forms to be strictly limited. This formula and these proportions to be followed in all case.

7. Renationalise Sasol, and reduce prices for petrol and diesel, compensating by value after tax, and reduced by amount of overpricing for the past five years.

8. Keep/restore Transnet, Telkom, Eskom and Water in the public sector.

9. Embark on a rehabilitation of national railways, and scrap the Gautrain project.

10. In stages, reduce SAA’s intercontinental operations and expand internal hub and regional services.

11. Nationalise all mines – gold, coal, platinum and others – to 55 per cent state ownership, with NUM providing 20 percent of directorships, government 35 percent.

12. Directors and executive incomes/expenses in all public sector or parastatal institutions to be capped.

13. All foreign investment to be for a minimum of three years, only half original investment to be returned if withdrawn before that.

14. Continue present arrangements with regard to free movement of capital, overseas/foreign personal accounts etc.

15. Allow free movement of all SADC-born citizens in South Africa, with residence subject to two-year renewable work permits until qualifying after ten years for permanent residence permits and/or dual citizenship.

16. Reciprocal arrangements to be negotiated with and between all SADC countries.

17. Present regulations/arrangements be continued with regard to entry/immigration for all other foreign nationals.

18. Illegal immigrants (excluding SADC-born citizens) to be registered, and either deported immediately, or allowed to apply for work/temporary residence permits, subject to certified offers of work for two years, or holding of funds adequate for family living and sufficient for professional/entrepreneurial activity for five years.

19. Negotiate within SADC for free movement of capital and lowering of tariff barriers between all member states.

20. Citizens only to own houses and land.

21. All foreign ownerships to be converted to 50-99 year leases.

22. Encourage all citizens who wish to emigrate to leave South Africa.

23. Encourage white and other citizens who wish to stay and contribute to the country to do so, with offers of jobs-for-skills, pensions, support for entrepreneurial activity and good education and equal career prospects for their children.

24. Encourage immigration on the Australian model for all foreigners with needed skills and capital.

25. All public works and parastatal/public sector institutions at national and local levels to increase job recruitment, and to reduce and strictly control tendering, consultant employment, outsourcing and sub-contracting.

26. Corporate and upper level income tax to be increased.

27. Tax breaks to be increased for companies with active training and empowerment programmes.

28. All national, provincial and local government salaries to be nationally prescribed, capped and monitored by central government.

29. All farms deemed to be productive, with farm workers paid and housed to basic minimum legal standards, are excluded from government takeover, subject to periodic (3-5 year) inspections.

30. Where land claims by clans or individuals are deemed to be valid, claimants are paid out from funds which would be otherwise used to train and equip them to farm productively.

31. Valid claimants with farming experience/skills are assisted through transfers of unused/government land, or willing-buyer/seller deals, training upgrades, credit schemes, farming cooperatives and agricultural extension schemes.

32. Conservation areas are excluded from clan takeovers.

33. A Basic Income Grant (BIG) be provided to all adult SA citizens.

24. Free light and water be provided for all legally recognised high density/low income and farm labour housing.

25. All RDP housing estates and legal settlements be provided, pro rata, with a park, a civic/community centre, sports fields, a library and a spaza/small store shopping centre; these all to be built as public works schemes, employing small building teams under strict public works supervision; tenders, where necessary, be administered under strict central government supervision.

26. Technical/vocational and IT training institutes be increased and facilities and staff upgraded throughout the country, being given high status in education.

27. In these institutes, in classrooms, municipalities, in Eskom, Telkom, Transnet and other public utility buildings everywhere, a large slogan is put up:MAINTENANCE IS NEXT TO GODLINESS.PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE IS THE ULTIMATE VIRTUE.

** Culture **

1. South African film, theatre, art and culture production to receive full subsidies.

2. All violent ritual, from ungygienic male circumcision and all female circumcision, to witchhunting, hut burning, casting bad spells and use of body parts be banned outright and heavily penalized.

3. The history and origins of traditional practices in all South African communities be researched and libraries and museums established in all traditional homelands with collections and displays of literature, films, photographs, dance, art, crafts and artefacts.


 * The World Cup**

As South Africa prepares intensively to host the football/soccer World Cup in 2010, just four years ahead, it is time for a fresh look at what this means, and how to approach the preparations, to encourage a positive and balanced attitude.

It is more a right than a privilege that this huge event should come at last to Africa, ancestral home of so many of the world’s best players, and vast numbers of the keenest players and fans.

South Africa has the most suitable infrastructure and is one of the most attractive venues on the continent.

However, there is no way that we could or should try to compete with Germany, France or Japan in the standard of hosting, facilities and organisation. We must simply do the best we can, but work hard, with all communities pitching in, and with the full cooperation and assistance of FIFA and wealthy countries and clubs, and get on with it, //without being lured by consultants seeking profits through overspend.//

Football has become the global gladiatorial arena, with billions of devotees, with vast profits made by media moguls and big corporates, dwarfing even the large incomes of the top stars. It remains, however, the game of the working people, with by far the most club and international players, and most fans, coming from the working class.

1.) The theme for these preparation years should be:


 * Workers of the world unite for the World Cup in Africa**,

And for the event itself:


 * The Workers’ World Cup.**

2. A major exhibition could be mounted, in 2009, copied in all cities where there are stadiums, of photographs of every international footballer of the last say, five decades or more, who is from Africa, or has some African ancestry. Photographs of them playing with their big clubs, at home and as children, in favelas, streets or junior clubs would show their working class origins.It is fitting therefore, that all the main players – in every sense – support and contribute to the 2010

3. World Cup being designed and celebrated as an event for Africa, and for workers, so that the working people of South Africa directly benefit from the facilities to be developed, for example:*

4. All stadiums to be upgraded or built to basic standards of comfort, elegant but simple in design, and to the highest world standards of pitch care and crowd safety, but not extravagantly engineered or equipped.*

5. All to have added, or built in, a range of sports amenities to be converted after the Cup for community and school use.*

6. All housing/accommodation be located and built with community housing in mind.*

7. Satellite training grounds to be converted for community and school use, and for hire by football clubs.*

8. All teams competing in the final pledge to visit an African country the following year, for a training workshop and a friendly international with the host country.

9. Likewise improved transport networks to be continued for public use. Specifically, since most visiting football fans are not people who generally hire a car (they are not business people or middle class tourists)

10. The government should acquire several thousand new minibuses, and train several thousand drivers on a priority basis to be deployed as World Cup Specials, ferrying people from city and township centre hubs back and forth to stadiums.

11. After the World Cup, the vehicles are sold to increase the national fleet of ‘upgraded’ minibuses, as in the present campaign.

** Street names and monuments **

1. Many street names in cities and major towns must be changed to do away with those of apartheid leaders and replace them with struggle heroes and martyrs.

2. It is timely to begin a major renaming exercise in time for the printing of new street maps for the many thousands of extra visitors and tourists during the World Cup period.

3. Johannesburg, for instance has some major streets and long highways with names of apartheid figures, from prime ministers to mere provincial administrators, on signs at every corner.Those to be replaced do not include such boer war generals or pre-apartheid leaders as Jan Smuts, Louis Botha, or General de Wet, or Dan Pienaar.

4. The names of DF Malan, JG Strydom, Hendrik Verwoerd, John Vorster and PW Botha should be restricted to minor streets in their birthplaces.

5. Lesser figures should appear nowhere, like Ben Schoeman and FC Odendaal, who named highways they ordered to be built, after themselves! They have had decades of undeserved prominence.It is high time that many more anti-apartheid heroes, and African heroes (mostly those deceased), be celebrated in major renamings:

6. The name of Mandela must not be tarnished by overuse at the behest of those seeking to occlude other struggle heroes. Outstanding among those still relegated or neglected after 12 years are:

Albert Luthuli

Oliver Tambo

Walter Sisulu

Bram Fischer

Robert Sobukwe

Steve Biko

Joe Gqabi

Ruth First

Lilian Ngoyi

Florence Mposho

7. Other liberation movement national leaders:

Eduardo Mondlane, Samora Machel, Agostinho Neto, Amilcar Cabral, Mario Andrade, Namibian, Joshua Nkomo, Josiah Tongogara,

8. Hosts of the liberation strggle:

Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda

9. Supporters of the liberation struggle:

Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmed ben Bella, Gamal Nasser

NAM //[Non-Aligned Movement]//:

Soekarno, Tito, Yasser Arafat, Nehru

10. African leaders:

Nnamdi Azikiwe, Murtala Mohammed, Thomas Sankara, Sekou Toure, Modibo Keita,

11. Still to be publicly honoured are the many brave people who died for fighting apartheid, or had their moment of leadership in the apartheid era.

12. Those many whose names should be on streets, memorials, buildings around the country include (as they come to mind – you add others):

Solomon Mahlangu, Cassius Make, John Harris, Babla Saloojee, Ahmed Timol, Rick Turner, Neil Aggett, Griffiths and Victoria Mxenge, Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkhonto, Fort Calata, Sicelo Mahauli, David Webster, Anton Lubowski, and so many others… Philip Kgosana at the front of the Cape Town anti-pass march, Tsietsie Mashinini, one of the 1976 Soweto leaders.Other leading anti-apartheid fighters to be honoured include JB Marks, Moses Kotane, Z K Matthews, Moses Mabida, Yusuf Dadoo, Jack and Ray Simons, Rusty and Hilda Bernstein, Jack and Rica Hodgson, Yusuf, Amina and Maulvi Cachalia, Dave Kitson, Harry Gwala, Alan Paton, Trevor Huddleston, Ambrose Reeves, Barney Desai, Cissie Gool (add your other choices…)

13. Some veteran South African freedom fighters have said that they don’t expect compensation for fighting in a good cause – but nor do they expect to be forgotten. There must be walls of remembrance around the country, as at least a partial redressing of the shameful neglect suffered by so many Umkhonto militants and other liberation soldiers – both the memory of those who died, and of those still living. The brief of the task force that has worked hard to find graves and identify missing militants, from the apartheid years, and from the third force killings, must be widened and strengthened, so that the name of every person who died or went missing in the struggle, appears in golden letters.

14. As MOTH (Memorable Order of Tin Hats) clubs and old age homes went up all over South Africa for (white) World War II veterans, and special suburban plots allocated, so MK and other liberation veterans must be registered and their families given pensions, and access to special community centres, clubs and site and service plots.

15. Corporates which were enriched by cheap labour through the years of white minority rule be called upon to finance these and other social initiatives.

16. There are whole suburbs in our cities with streets named after all Afrikaans poets and writers, or all Afrikaans artists. That is fine, but now is our time name other whole sets of streets after South African and African writers, musicians, artists, actors…of all races – and not just in settlement and housing estates, but major suburbs and cities.

17. Complete the research for names to go on the walls of remembrance!

** Let the naming and renaming begin now! **


 * Law and Order**

1. All accused of violent crime to the level of grievous bodily harm and more to be tried within three months, to be given no bail and if convicted, to receive mandatory long sentences.

2. All forms of gender and sex discrimination are outlawed, and full human rights protected, as in the Constitution.

3. Solitary confinement of prisoners to be banned.

4. Convicted prisoners to work 40 hours weeks at jobs useful to the economy and society, with an element of training for rehabilitation.

5. One major contributor to a culture of violence is the layer of hypocrisy and betrayal covering the recent past in our public life: that many people guilty of apartheid crimes of terror and murder, as leaders, as activists, walk free. Some self-admitted, like Craig Williamson, have profited in recent years from doing business in Angola, the same country in which in apartheid years his parcel bomb killed an ANC woman and her young son. Footsoldiers of apartheid, again some self-admitted killers, are working for high salaries, effectively mercenaries in ‘security’ companies in occupied Iraq, and in parts of Africa. Adriaan Vlok, Wouter Basson, PW Botha, and so many others have not even come before a court.


 * The principle of amnesty for such people must be reconsidered, and their cases must be subject to fresh hearings.**

6. Those working in these roles abroad must be subject to the full force of the law, amnesties withdrawn, and heavy jail sentences imposed.

7. Meanwhile hundreds, maybe thousands of Umkhonto veterans, are destitute – unknown and uncared for, let alone unhonoured for their commitment and readiness to sacrifice for liberation; some driven by despair to violent crime. So many of the victims of apartheid terror are still to be identified and named, let alone honoured.

Seek out and help these victims, and employ them for their training and experience, to identify and confront violent criminals, and to see that more and more security companies are formed without relying on apartheid veterans.


 * Region**

As preliminary steps to consultations for broad-based reform in Swaziland and Zimbabwe…

1. Cosatu demonstrators at borders be protected, not harassed and beaten, by SAPS.

2. SA government demands that Cosatu delegations be allowed into Zimbabwe and Swaziland, with government-appointed security guards, for meetings at national level with trade union counterparts in each country, to plan for a strengthened SADC trade union federation.

3. ZimbabweSADC resolves that a General Election is held in Zimbabwe in 2007, with Robert Mugabe standing down as a candidate…[…to become for an interim period, head of a SADC Presidential Emergency Committee (SAPEC) to advice on and coordinate regional action on all emergencies and natural disasters such as drought, famine and floods, and with his team of original senior ministers, to pass on Zimbabwe’s experience with applying free and subsidised education and health systems, before IMF and World Bank forced a crackdown through ESAP.]

4. The election to be held under UN auspices, with UN peacekeepers on the ground, closely monitored by a Distinguished Heads of State Team (HOST) with proven records for reform and Distinguished Observer Panels (DOPs) – the HOST and DOPs to form a permanent working group to monitor elections in other countries under UN auspices where required.


 * The Team**

Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter/Bill Clinton, Gerhard Schroder, Dominique de Villepin, Gough Whitlam, Helen Clark, Mary Robinson, Mahathir Mohamed, Bulent Ecevit, Recep Erdogan, Hamid ibn Khalifa Al Thani, Jigme Wangchuk, Olusegun Obasanjo, Festus Mogae, Paul Berger, Paul Kagame, Mwai Kibaki, Yoweri Museveni, Ben Mkapa, Fidel Castro, Vicente Fox, Ignacio Lula, Hugo Chavez, Michael Manley


 * Distinguished Observer Panel**

Marcelino dos Santos, Sonia Gandhi, Jacob Zuma, Salim Salim, Mohamed Sahnoun, Hannan Ashrawi, Uri Avnery, Zwelinzima Vavi, Archbishop Tutu, Graca Machel, Wangari Maathai, Arthur Chaskalson, George Bizos, Frene Ginwala, Margaret MarshallAcademic Advisory Panel: Mahmood Mamdani, Samir Amin, Basil Davidson, Issa Shivji, John Saul.Distinguished Media Panel: Allister Sparks, Max du Preez, Hugh Lewin, Mandla Langa, William Gumede, Fernando Lima, Joe Hanlon, Zakes Mda, Neva Makgetla, Margaret Legum, Colleen Lowe Morna, Jonathan Steele.Distinguished Writers and Artists Panel: Nadine Gordimer, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Nawaal Sidawi (add your choices…)


 * Swaziland**

1. A Constituent Assembly be set up, under UN/SADC supervision, monitored by the above HOST and DOPs team, to establish a full democratic system, with the king being given the status of a traditional leader, with salary and allowances, and with all ‘royal’ assets taken into the public sector.

2. A national referendum be held on Swaziland being incorporated as a province of South Africa.


 * Lesotho**

1. On the next anniversary of the apartheid army’s raid on Maseru and killing of liberation movement activists and families in the 1980s, the SA President requests he make a state visit that day, on which a monument be unveiled to commemorate the sacrifice, and the Lesotho peoples’ hospitality to the liberation movements. In his speech

a) He pays tribute to the long and brave resistance of the mountain people under the Moshoeshoe dynasty against the raids of SA settler farmers and other invaders through the 19th century, their efforts and sacrifice in hosting liberation movement members through the apartheid era – and their contribution as migrant workers to the South African economy.

b) He apologises for South Africa’s share in the loss of lives and property in the SADC forces’ incursion into Lesotho in 1997, though it was at the invitation of the authority there.

2. He proposes talks to invite Lesotho to become a province of South Africa, and to hold a referendum to endorse this.


 * SADC**

1. Propose negotiations for all SADC members to form the Federation of Africa South and East (FASE), as a nucleus for wider membership at a later stage within the framework of AU.

2. FASE states follow a social charter and coordinated economic policies, and allow free movement of people and trade within all member states.


 * Foreign Policy**

some main guidelinesSouth Africa to act…

Bilaterally

Inter-regionally, within the SADC framework

In Africa, within the African Union (AU) framework

Internationally, as a member of the United Nations…as follows:

1. Form the Southern African Liberation Movements Association (SALMA) SALMA should be a treaty-based regional framework that brings together five of the most influential and sustained political movements in history, each of which not only brought their countries to independence and majority rule, but – in alliance against huge imperialist violence and pressure – continue to be the ruling parties of those countries, containing many of the cadres who fought the liberation struggle.They are ZANU (PF) of Zimababwe, MPLA of Angola, FRELIMO of Mozambique, SWAPO of Namibia and ANC of South Africa.

Together these countries contain considerable – even vast – wealth in natural resources, development and people.

2. SALMA resolves at its founding meeting:* to honour those who died in their liberation struggles, through full historical research, **including into the role of western intelligence**, for widespread media and educational publication, and to look after the surviving veterans.

a) to pledge that no party leader among these five countries will serve more than two five-year terms as head of government or party –

b) those who already have, Robert Mugabe and Jose Eduardo dos Santos, be asked to step down and hold party and government elections in Zimbabwe and Angola within one year.*

c) to restore/keep in the public sector, through majority government holding, all natural resources and infrastructure and public service industries.*

d) to place a moratorium on all short-term foreign investment.*

e) to ensure that none of their citizens are involved in illicit exploitation of Africa’s mineral and other wealth.*

f) to invite other SADC countries to join as SALMA associate members, provided they adhere to all the above terms.

g) SALMA to offer its terms as guidelines for future operations of AU.

South Africa (and SADC) in the African Union (AU)

1. The SA government renounces all those provisions of the New Economic Policy for African Development (NEPAD) which make it subject to the critique that Nepad is little more than a recolonisation of Africa and an extension of GEAR; and that Nepad’s vision is blurred by fixing its sights on increased global integration and rapid private sector growth as an answer to rising poverty, and by its failure to engage with Africa’s people to transform the continent.

2. Government endorses an economic and social programme for Africa which returns to the provisions and strategies of the Lagos Plan of Action and the African Alternative Framework.

The case graphically put in the Framework document:


 * //“It is clear that simply sopping up red ink by cutting government spending and balancing imports and exports will not deal with African underlying problems…they have to be dealt with structurally. They are not purely economistic. They are political and social as well…The central principle of the Lagos Plan is that the worth of economic development is measured only by the well-being of the people.”//**

3. Government proposes that the AU Secretariat is headed by the most experienced international diplomats, such as Salim Salim of Tanzania, and Mohamed Sahnoun of Algeria.

4. All peace negotiations and peacekeeping initiatives within Africa be conducted through the AU, under the auspices of the United Nations.International relations

5. Government maintains strong diplomatic and trade relations with the European Union, particularly with its original core members and with the Scandinavian countries, and strengthens relations with Russia.

6. Strengthens South-South relations,particularly to the east, with Malaysia, India and Turkey,to the west, with Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia.

7. in the Middle East,suspends diplomatic and trade ties with Israel unless:

a) Israel guarantees as a preliminary step to return to its 1967 borders, return East Jerusalem to Palestine, and agrees to the right of return for Palestinians.

b) guarantees to remove all racist laws and religious discrimination – or returns to its 1948 UN-recognised borders, and if it continues as a racist state, is subjected to total sanctions and isolation as were Rhodesia and white South Africa.

8. Suspends diplomatic and trade ties with Saudi Arabia unless:

a) the Saudi government draws up a constitution guaranteeing equal rights to all citizens, including complete freedom for women and girls, non-interference of religion in private and administrative matters, and

b) the Saudi royal family to become a constitutional monarchy

c) Saudi Arabia holds a general election //** Socialism in our lifetime! **// 4376 words
 * From: http://xuitlacoche.blogspot.com/2008/02/tony-halls-2020-vision-for-southern.html **