Northern Cape ANC mulls university idea

An ANC supporter holds a flag of the ANC while the President Jacob Zuma addresses ANC Gauteng Cadre Assembly in Pretoria. Picture: Phill Magakoe

An ANC supporter holds a flag of the ANC while the President Jacob Zuma addresses ANC Gauteng Cadre Assembly in Pretoria. Picture: Phill Magakoe

Published Jun 10, 2012

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Upington - The Northern Cape branch of the African National Congress wants a university with campuses in different regions of the province to create job opportunities, the provincial conference decided on Sunday.

“We declare that the establishment of the university in our province should serve as a catalyst for economic growth,” said African National Congress provincial secretary Zamani Saul.

The conference declared its support for a multi-campus model that would ensure the benefits derived from the establishment of the university were stretched throughout the province.

Earlier, provincial chairperson John Block said the locality issue would be approached with sensitivity and maturity.

However, he said the whole province must benefit and all regions must tap into the educational, research, and economic spin-offs a university could bring.

The conference also committed to the transformation of the “apartheid” mining and industrial setup that was reproducing racial underdevelopment and unsustainable patterns of accumulation of wealth.

The party’s conference also decided that unrehabilitated mines in the province has led to devastating consequences.

Ten illegal diggers were recently killed at a mine in Kleinzee.

The ANC called on the department of mineral resources to fast-track the process of rehabilitation of mine dumps in the province and improve security in the sites.

The conference also acknowledged that the 2014 general elections in the province would be difficult.

“We believe as conference that at the heart of our arsenal for overwhelming election victory is unity and political activism among our cadres,” said Saul.

He said the conference declared to work hard with all alliance partners to ensure an overwhelming 70-percent victory of the ANC in the 2014 general elections.

This weekend, the Democratic Alliance indicated that it was confident that it would snatch the Northern Cape province from the ruling ANC in the coming general elections.

The party said Gauteng and the Northern Cape had a lot of promise for the DA.

Closing the province’s 7th elective conference, Block urged ANC delegates to prove the political opposition wrong.

He continued to tell ANC councillors to stop being lazy at their jobs at municipalities.

“Laziness is the enemy of the revolution.”

Block said these lazy councillors usually take their time to respond to the complaints of communities. - Sapa

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