‘Africans were better off under Apartheid, according to UNDP-HDI’ - RW Johnson

The denialism of the NDR

Africans were better off under Apartheid, according to UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) Measurements; but ANC unable to confront this reality. ANC's attachment to NDR: outmoded Soviet concept

RW Johnson | Politicsweb
19 July 2011

In the mid-1990s the SACP, with Joe Slovo much to the fore, became enamoured of the Human Development Index (HDI) pioneered by the UN Development Programme because instead of ranking countries by GDP per capita the UNDP was interested in a broader measure of welfare which would include the quality of life in that country, life expectancy, child and maternal mortality rates, social equality, achievements in education and health, gender equality and so on.

The UNDP measure had two immensely appealing features for the SACP. First, it promised to rank countries like Cuba a lot higher than usual because they enjoyed equal poverty, a goodish health system and more gender equality. So this would be a better measure for what the SACP was planning to achieve in South Africa. Accordingly, the SACP paid enormous and positive attention to each successive Human Development Report (HDR) of the UNDP and emphasized that what the government was most keenly interested in was human development.

Thus in 1997 Jay Naidoo, then heading the RDP secretariat, declared that "The challenge is to meet the basic needs of our people and at the same time strengthen economic growth. These challenges are vital but the real issue that needs attention most is human development." (Emphasis added.)

A Malema future: Looking disaster in the face, by RW Johnson

A Malema future: Looking disaster in the face

RW Johnson, Politicsweb
29 June 2011

The opponents of the ANCYL within the ANC are greatly handicapped by their unwillingness to spell out why Malema's demands would lead to disaster. The truth, of course, is that the state diamond mine, Alexkor (repeatedly shut for infractions of safety rules, loss-making and an irregular payer of wages) and Aurora mines, owned by a Zuma and a Mandela (shut for months, wages not paid, at least one worker suicide, the mine looted, and major problems over acid mine drainage) give a terrifying foretaste about what nationalised mines would be like.

Almost certainly, with the departure of most key managers and technicians, the mining sector as a whole would at best, limp along. Moreover, expropriation without compensation would put South Africa in breach of major treaty obligations, would cause a cessation of all foreign investment and the cutting off of credit. This would be accompanied by enormous capital flight. The nationalisation of the banks would see something similar occur right across the financial sector and there would be a large scale exodus of foreign and domestic capital and of skilled labour of every kind.

Similarly, expropriation of the land would quickly lead to a huge agricultural slump and to mass starvation. Moreover, all African experience suggests that the skilled managers, business people, technicians, commercial farmers and professionals who would exit the country under such circumstances would not return even if all these policies were later reversed, thus making recovery from the disaster effectively impossible.

War for Economic Freedom: Expropriation without compensation - ANCYL24

War for Economic Freedom: Expropriation without compensation - ANCYL24

Political report by the ANCYL president to the League's 24th national conference

Julius Malema, ANCYL
16 June 2011

POLITICAL REPORT BY PRESIDENT JULIUS MALEMA TO THE 24TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS YOUTH LEAGUE, 16 JUNE 2011, GHALLAGER ESTATES, MIDRAND, June 16 2011

Introduction

1. We welcome all delegates and guests to the 24th National Congress of the African National Congress Youth League. We welcome the ANC Youth League back in Johannesburg, because it was here in Johannesburg, 67 years ago that the ANC Youth League was officially launched by one of the South Africa's most outstanding generations of revolutionary freedom fighters, who today are celebrated the world over. We welcome the ANC Youth League back to Johannesburg, particularly Midrand, because the ANCYouth League 1st National General Council happened here in Midrand to do, then, what the NGCis expected to do in August 2010.

2. The ANC Youth League 24th National Congressis South Africa's biggest Congressand one of the most important political gatherings, not only with regards to numbers, but also politically and ideologically. There is nowhere else in South Africa and the African continent where an autonomous youth formation can assemble more than 5000 delegated youth representing branches, regions and provinces in one meeting to discuss the future of their country, the continent and the world. More than 90% of delegates at this Congress come from branches of the ANC Youth League, all of which have a minimum of 100 members and were able to meet in Branch Congresses and General Meetings to mandate delegates to come to discuss and consolidate the programme towards total economic emancipation of the economically oppressed people of South Africa, Africa and the world.

ANCYL24: The war for economic freedom: Expropriation of Land without Compensation (02:20)

3. We welcome you, proud that the organisation we inherited and which is celebrating its 64th Anniversary is now stronger, more stable and ready to face all organisational, political and ideological battles in the war towards consolidation of political and economic freedom in our lifetime. We address this Congress with our heads held up very high, because we speak on behalf of a powerful, militant, radical and revolutionary youth wing of the ANC, which is unapologetically fighting for the working classand the poor of South Africa, Africa and the world. We address this 24th National Congress with our heads held up very high because we did not betray the mandate you gave us at the 23rd National Congress in April and June 2008.

'National Democratic Revolution' is cornerstone of ANC/SACP/Cosatu policy analysis - SAIRR

Research and Policy Brief: NDR: the cornerstone of any policy analysis of South Africa

Dr Anthea Jeffery - Frans Cronje, SAIRR
29 August 2010, Politicsweb

People's War: New Light on the Struggle for South Africa, by Anthea Jeffery [*Amazon*] Author of: The Truth About the Truth Commission (PDF)

The current public service strike has brought to the fore the bitter nature of the power struggle at play in the ruling ANC/SACP/COSATU alliance. Our current assessment is that factions in the alliance, perhaps led by the ANC Youth League, are preparing to execute a political coup at the ANC's 2012 conference in Bloemfontein. At its most serious this political shift may include the axing of Jacob Zuma and his forced resignation as president of South Africa.

At the very least infighting ahead of the 2012 conference will continue to destabilize the alliance. This will have the effect of destabilizing the broader policy environment in the country and therefore causing a rise in levels of uncertainty about the future of the country.

It is our assessment that it is only possible to make sense of the policy environment in South Africa by understanding the ANC's concept of a National Democratic Revolution (NDR). The NDR is poorly understood in South Africa but it serves as the philosophical and ideological grounding of the ANC. Its origins, its importance after 1994, its consequences, and the countervailing forces acting against it are reviewed in the abridged analysis below.