Durban - The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal wants the government to start a 10-year programme that will culminate in the reduction in the number of provinces and also strengthen municipalities.
This is what the provincial branch will take as one of the policy issues for discussion to the ANC national general council, which starts in Gauteng on Friday.
“We are not in support of the quasi-federal system we have. We must have a unitary state where we must have central and strong local government,” provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala said on Wednesday.
Zikalala made the comments at a press conference in Durban when outlining outcomes of the provincial general council, where they reviewed party work done since the 2012 Mangaung congress and consider policy issues.
The Mangaung congress resolved on the appointment of an independent presidential commission to review and strengthen administration in the provinces.
The proposed commission was expected to submit a report to the ANC’s national general council (NGC), but the commission has yet to be established.
Zikalala said prior to the 1994 dispensation, the ANC had no view on provinces.
“We entered that as part of compromise in negotiations. We are to take this matter to the NGC, but we know it is not for policy review. It is where you identify issues to be finalised by the policy conference and national congress.”
He also said the process of phasing in the provinces should start in 2017, over a 10-year period.
Zikalala said state resources could be better used when the number of provinces was reduced.
The move could also see national leaders deployed in municipalities when the proposal was implemented, he said.
“We never joined revolution as careerists. We never knew of any position,” he said about some public office bearers who may lose positions when the provinces are reconfigured.
Other issues the ANC KZN is taking to the NGC include:
- Free education up to a junior degree to be introduced in 2017;
- Establishment of a Cuban-South African university to train medical professionals within the country and stop sending students to the communist country;
- Establishment of a state-owned bank and the transformation of the Development Bank of Southern Africa;
- Rotation policy of police as their permanent deployments at stations did not help the fight against crime;
- On black economic transformation, deal with those who corrupt the transformation agenda;
- Facilitation of more meaningful participation of black people in the mainstream economy;
- Speeding up the establishment of a state pharmaceutical company; and
- Review the country’s participation in the International Criminal Court and the transformation of the UN.
Daily News