re-thinking SOCIAL develOpment IN A WELFARE STATE

Social development is about putting people at the centre of development. This means a commitment that development processes need to benefit people, particularly but not only the poor, but also a recognition that people, and the way they interact in groups and society, and the norms that facilitates such interaction, shape development processes.

The solutions EFF seek to provide represent a coherent ideological tradition and draw inspiration from developments, particularly the Scandinavian or Nordic countries on what has been done to advance the development and betterment of people's lives in the defeat of imperialism and against neo-colonialism. 

While the role of the ANC ruling Party and their policies has become central to the development debate, the role of Opposition and “smaller” parties has received less decisive attention. Social development thus implies the change in social institutions.

Though other social development issues and services are not mentioned here, the ones mentioned is to provide an understanding of some of the issues, especially those involving health, education, and social grants. This is because the fundamental challenge for the current government is to develop policies and programmes that will better address THESE major social problems and other pertinent issues in the country.

Strategic FOCUS

Social Issues	Current Policy	Proposed Policy	Outcomes
Education	Two Languages and four subjects	Re-introduce and teach Home Languages particularly in/ throughout Basic Education); and allow a choice between Afrikaans OR English
Health	Reactive and Symptomatic treatment; hence costly	Pro-active, Diagnostic or early treatment, reduce costs
Social Grants		Establish iS’dima (Dignity) Programme, where the private sector (including employment agencies) partners with the government, NGO, CBO, etc. to give tax incentives and other support in exchange of employment or job creation (in lieu of Social Grants) – in order to or as part of restoring the Dignity of Africans and of raising the LSM level standards.

But how can the EFF meet this challenge?

The answer to this question (and other related challenges) is the subject of the organizational session of discussions and constructive engagements on Policies.

“Project”: A proposed iS’dima (Dignity) Programme, where the private sector (including employment agencies) partners with the government, NGO, CBO, etc. to give tax incentives and other support in exchange of employment or job creation (in lieu of Social Grants) – in order to or as part of restoring the Dignity of Africans and of raising the LSM level standards.

“Groups”: Different shareholders and/or beneficiaries of government’s Social grants

Local Government EFF Base Document

It is evident from historical facts presented in this paper that under apartheid, Local Government played more of an administrative role rather than a developmental one. Services were provided along racial lines and the white people were prioritized in the expense of black people especially those living in the townships and rural areas. Infrastructure development played a key role during the dark days of apartheid but it was mainly directed to white suburbs, cities and towns. The majority of our people in our country were excluded from basic services like water and sanitation, electricity, housing and refuse collection services. This was done through the legislative laws that undermined black people because they were seen as subhuman not deserving of proper and basic services. This was a serious infringement of our basic human rights.

During apartheid, more resources were channeled towards white areas for development. Their roads were tarred, refuse consistently collected, electricity was always readily available and their lives were far more easier than their black counterparts. There were several boycotts and marches for service delivery especially in the townships. This was a sign of deep dissatisfaction among the people. Municipal spending was not people-centered and we argue strongly on this point because people-centered spending will not exclude the majority of the people in the country. It should be an inclusive exercise.

Public participation in affairs of local government is the bedrock of participatory democracy in South Africa. This democratic component was not fashionable at the time and yet a community input in democratic processes is key. Nothing about us without us. Local Government was also not linked to land accessibility especially for the poor black people in South Africa. Vast chunks of land were set aside for the development of golf courses and game farms and yet the majority of our people still do not have access to land for both housing and subsistence farming.

Having provided this bleak background, we need to ask few pertinent questions. Why do we have so many service delivery protests in South Africa 20 years after the inception of democracy? Can we really say that the current local government is people-centered and in what way? Is the level of public participation in local government satisfactory because indeed it entrenches the principle of transparency? How is the system of demarcating the country in provinces assisting in fast tracking service delivery? How serious is Local Government in developing human capacity? Why do we have serious skills shortage in Municipalities thus compromising service delivery? What would happen in terms of focus and service delivery if councilors were to be fulltime?. There is an urgent need for society to interrogate these questions and make an honest analysis and reflection, lest we will not see the change we so aspire to have.

These are all honest questions which EFF had to ask the South African public for engagement. We think that the current government has not really done much to transform Local Government. It is indeed correct that Local Government is the foundation to democracy, if it fails, democracy will fail. The current state of affairs in Local Government in South Africa has prompted us to reflect on all these burning issues. There are a million questions we can ask about the state of Local Government today, but here is one such million dollar question. Does the current government have the political will to transform Local Government? Why is corruption so rampant in our municipalities?

It is indeed regrettable that our people are still victims of circumstances under the current government. The poorest of the poor are the once who are mostly on the receiving end. People in the urban areas have never marched for service delivery because their quality of life is good. It is only people staying in the shacks and deep remote areas of our country who express their dissatisfaction on a daily basis because they face the harsh reality of lack of service delivery. The current legislation is weak and has no tenacity to change the lives of our people. The violation of basic human rights to our people has never stopped in 1994. It is still continuing even today under the current government. We can simply say, this is a serious violation of human rights. Unfortunately it is happening under our watch.

ARTS AND CULTURE FOR EFF BASE DOCUMENT

Historically arts and culture for black people was grossly undermined and suppressed. Our culture was relegated to barbarism and backwardness. When our people practice their own culture, it was always associated with evil and demons. The Western culture was always given prominence over our culture and unfortunately that mentality still exists today. Our culture is treated as inferior while the western culture is seen as decent and holy. Colonization had adverse effects on our being and identity and that has unfortunately affected our self-esteem and confidence as well. Oppression of culture was and is still the order of the day. What have we done to deserve this? Culture defines us and we derive our being and existence from it. Arts and culture is our heritage.

Our freedom of expression is clearly linked to political and economic freedom. What freedom can we claim to have when we do not have the freedom of expression? We understand ourselves better when we can speak our indigenous languages and celebrate our heritage with the freedom we deserve. We shall be making a huge mistake if we forget that the freedom of this country was also attained through arts. Artists like Hugh Masekela and Mirriam Makeba, just to mention a few, led the struggle for the liberation of our country musically. How much have we gone to celebrate these legends and icons of our land. Indeed the liberation of this country from the bondage of apartheid was a collective effort. Arts and culture played a critical role in this regard. But arts and culture is a broad phenomenon and it includes such aspects as theatre, films, dance etc. All these different forms of genres were together vital in our liberation.

Why do we worship cultures of others when we have our own? Indeed cultures can harmoniously and peacefully co-exist because that is how it should be. Unity in diversity is an important component in any society. It is uprising that we get so addicted to western cultures that we end up undermining ours. Why do we have to import musicians from abroad with huge sums of money when we could promote our own artists locally? How many houses can we built for the poor with this money that we unnecessarily spend on these artists? We argue that let us promote and nurture our own talent. If government is leading the tendency of undermining our arts and culture, who will take us seriously?

Our local radio and television spaces are dominated by foreign content. It is unlikely that we can find this to be the trend in most countries of the world because governments are taking lead in protecting their local content. A bigger percentage is dedicated to local content because it speaks to their arts and culture. Why do we still have foreign film producers dominating our film industry at this time and age? What is the current government doing to support up and coming black film makers? Why is the current government not taking arts and culture seriously? Government should take lead in professionalizing the arts and culture sector. We have long lost the war against piracy and we ask why? Our artists die been paupers because of piracy and black market. Artists like all other workers deserve to earn a living.

We are currently not giving our artists the necessary support they need? The majority of them end up migrating overseas especially in the USA to showcase their trade and thus robbing the country an opportunity to grow culturally. A number of our prominent sports stars have settled in the USA precisely because there are no proper support structures locally. Swimming and track athletes are the most affected areas of our sport. They are admitted by some of the best universities overseas and use facilities available to further their careers. Most of them end up settling permanently. Are we not loosing creative arts to other nations of the world? Why is our country not protecting our arts and culture which is our heritage? For a safe and sustainable sector, government must come to the party and stop ball watching

1. 
   The Founding Manifesto of EFF makes a firm analysis that “…the struggle for economic emancipation within the long resistance of South Africans to racist colonial and imperialist, political, economic and social domination…this represents more than 350 years of Africans’ resistance against colonial and economic domination and exploitation.” (EFF Founding Manifesto, July 2013.) The Founding Manifesto continues, “More than 350 years later, the war of resistance has not been won, and the battles that were fought almost represent nothing, because 20 years after the attainment of formal political freedom, the black people of South Africa still live in absolute mass poverty, are landless, their children have no productive future, they are mistreated and they are looked down upon in a sea of wealth.”
   
2. 
   The outcry of the continent in light of the skewed policy stances and compromises of the African continent by the current ANC led government have resulted in the continent viewing South Africa as a sub imperial power. This is only because the economic trajectory of South Africa is fundamentally and principally flawed based on the National Development Plan and New Growth Path.
   
3. 
   With this in mind it is impossible to align that country’s national interest in light of its policy posture to the actual national interest of the African majority. The consequence of an economy that does not prioritize domestic needs and challenges results in compromising the economy which is meant to work for national interest to prioritizing the capital forces of the world.
   
4. 
   The Economic Freedom Fighters views the twenty years of democracy as wasted if the ANC has not been able to craft a coherent economic path for a fundamental shift in economic power relations. The weaknesses and indecisiveness of the current government have severely compromised the African Agenda; which has resulted in a continent that has been betrayed.
   
5. 
   Experts refer to South African foreign policy as eclectic, because of its inability to take a stance on the direct challenges facing the world and more hypocritically the alignment of foreign policy to domestic imperatives places a massive burden on not only state sovereignty but equally on the states willingness to design domestic imperatives and consequentially compromise the national interest. This is the fundamental flaw of describing foreign policy as eclectic without suggesting that domestic imperatives are compromised. This results in domestic policy being at the behest of foreign demands making the nation’s current foreign policy outlook ideologically spineless.
   
6. 
   EFF characterises SA Progressive Foreign Policy as Transformist Revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist Fanonian with an internationalist outlook with the aim of achieving Economic Freedom in our Lifetime for the African people in particular and oppressed people in general.
   
7. 
   The EFF therefore calls for the reaffirmation of the South as having been the only center of gravity and its reassertion that Africa is the source of life of the world.
   
8. 
   EFF will radically pursue the democratization and radical transformation of multilateral bodies so that they are reflective of the countries of the world as oppose to reflecting the economic and military strength of countries. This equally applies to South Africa’s presence in the United Nations Security Council.
   
9. 
   The EFF rejects all international financial institutions as these institutions have at all times undermined the prosperity of the African continent and have ensured that control and the limitation of success through Structural Adjustment Programmes and indebtedness that have ultimately increased poverty and inequality on the continent.
   
10. 
    EFF reaffirms that South African policy should not be to align foreign policy to domestic imperatives but as a principle point of departure to strengthen domestic policy’s resilience to neo colonialism and neo imperialism.
    
11. 
    Furthermore the EFF takes a firm stance against transfer pricing and profit shifting. This practice is corrupt and criminal and undermines the value of the continents resources. The consequence of such actions is securing capital in tax havens and hence financial theft from the borders of the continent and in particular South Africa of taxable income. The EFF calls for an immediate end to transfer pricing and profit shifting and that such criminality be declared as an international crime against humanity as it bears the consequence of deepening poverty and inequality in society.
    
12. 
    The EFF’s focus on internationalism inclines the party to consolidate and engage on global issues and align with progressive socialist organisations internationally and build African Unity and Prosperity.
    

ORGANISATIONAL CHARACTER AND DEVELOPMENT

TOWARDS ECONOMIC EMANCIPATION

BACKGROUND

1. 
   Much has been said and written about forms and methods of organization building. We therefore do not intend to present a detailed discussion on this subject. This paper merely serves as a framework for thoroughgoing discussions within our organization. Organization building process in the contemporary era is premised on intense and critical engagement among members with the attitude of ‘holding no bars’ approach held uppermost in their minds.
   

• 
  Defining the concepts organization and organization building
  
• 
  The character and ideological orientation;
  
• 
  Revolutionary ethics and morality
  
• 
  Elected leaders and the relationship with the masses;
  
• 
  Organizational democracy
  
• 
  Basic principles for organization building;
  
• 
  Branch as a nucleus of organization building
  
• 
  Organizational discipline
  
• 
  Organizational development and growth

  
• 
  Political education and cadre development
  
• 
  Women and Youth Command Structures 

  
• 
  Character of EFF Youth Command Team
  
• 
  Character of EFF Women Command Teams

  
• 
  Building a Campaigning Organization
  
• 
  Relations with Civil Society Movement
  
• 
  Relations with Trade Union Movement
  
• 
  Workplace units/branches    
  
• 
  Relations with student organizations

  
• 
  EFF a Catalyst for Left unity and working class hegemony
  
• 
  fundamental questions for consideration and wat-forward
  

At this national assembly on What Is To Be Done? delegates, pointedly, deliberated and considered three options and resolved, out of necessity, to form a political party. This party must be built into a formidable force, nurtured and sustained in order to fulfill its political objectives.

The national assembly in characterizing the political situation and a need to form an economic emancipation movement to pursue the struggle for ‘economic freedom in our lifetime’ made the following observations as primary aspect in the organization building process: a) our party is only in the process of formation and it needs theory to unite itself; b) our movement must independently and critically assess the lessons of former liberation movements and needs theory to do so; c) the role of a vanguard fighter can be fulfilled only by a party which is guided by the most advanced theory.


What are specific features of the current conjuncture in which our organization finds itself today?
Very important to note in any discussion for organization building in South Africa is a complex process that inevitably pierces into the complex history of liberation movements and political parties in general. EFF should strive to appreciate and learn from the best that human development and progress bequeath so that it improves on the wealth of experience, knowledge and technical expertise brought into its ranks by different generations of activists of the 70s, 80, 90s and the young firebrands of the 21^st century.

In other words is EFF better able to counter-act and insulate itself against and articulate a countervailing culture on the basis of a revolutionary organizational discipline for its survival as a new movement for economic emancipation?

An organization like EFF as an economic emancipation movement is a weapon of struggle in the hands of the people through which the masses constantly strive to transform and change their adverse conditions. In other words, an organization is described as 'people's collective effort to solve people's problems'. This is a proper definition that is consistent with progressive and traditions of revolutionary movements worldwide. A revolutionary movement will be able to weather storms of any type only if it musters the art of struggle and set the focus on a more scientific basis, and it must have coherence of strategy, tactics, plan and organizational management mechanisms.

1. 
   What is organization building?
   

organization. Mortar and bricks, yes – they are important ingredients, however, they are not the end but the means to the end.

Unlike all former liberation movements, the new movement for economic emancipation is invariably faced with a complete difficult task whereby the enemy is not clearly defined and cannot easily be identified for all to see because it (the enemy) found allies among some sections of the formerly oppressed. EFF rightly, identifies white monopoly capital as its strategic enemy and locates it at the center of its focus. Members would be required to jointly attempt to answer whether EFF should be both a vanguard and a mass party predisposed to the urgent need to organize various protest movements, unemployed youth and lead the working class masses concurrently, whether is it suited to perform this task without risking its survival and get lost in the contestation of sectoral or class interests?


Imagine EFF being all of these, how can it be shaped different from other parties? What is the role of Pan-Africanism?
This question is primarily central to any process of defining organizational character, renewal and development. The primacy of theory and practice is based on the assumption that ‘theory without the political practice is only an academic exercise; political practice without the theory is blind’ and devoid of concrete analysis of the concrete situation.