Johannesburg - ANC national executive committee member Nathi Mthethwa says the party wants to see alternatives in the world to counter the status of the US and its European allies, to deal with economic inequalities.
Mthethwa was speaking at the ANC national general council looking at the balance of forces globally and locally. He said the ANC was observing that the Brasil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) bloc was a political and economic counter measure to the status quo.
“The Brics bank for instance is not going to be the International Monetary Fund or World Bank but it is the developmental bank of member states that see themselves as equals,” he said. “Our projection in the next four decades is that China will overtake the US as the world's largest economy.”
According to the ANC the rise of China as the second biggest economy and the re-emergence of Russia’s economy are gradually re-defining the world order.
In its discussion document for the NGC, the ANC placed emphasis on stepping up South Africa’s leading role in the African continent.
Mthethwa said the ANC was also emboldened by the fact that prospects of economic growth in Africa were very positive. He said among the fastest growing economies in the world, seven of them were in Africa.
Mthethwa also said that if South Africa was serious about transformation, ownership of the economy which remained in the hands of the few had to be addressed seriously.
This included the possibility of looking the property clauses and the land question as he warned that there were “no holy cows” at the NGC.
“We are saying to delegates here that we don’t need new inventions to deal with the challenges we face,” he said. “All we need is to look at what we said in 2012 in Mangaung.”
The Mangaung conference characterised this period as the second transition, he added.
Mthethwa said South African need to attend to its economy which is shedding jobs. He said the ANC and the government’s programme of infrastructure to stimulate the economy remained relevant.
Mthethwa said a lot has been done in dealing with corruption both within the party and in the government but that his party had inherited systemic and structural corruption from Apartheid.
“We continue to address the things that continue to be a challenge,” he said. “ If We don’t do what we resolved to do in Mangaung, and continue talking about problems and not resolving them , the national democratic revolution is in danger.”
Political Bureau