May I just say in conclusion, that one of the challenges that face us in this country, and you must understand it very clearly is whether blacks can run this country successfully. That is the critical challenge that faces all of us. The question is, can the workers of this country go through the transformation from a liberation movement, from being a resistance movement to builders of a new South Africa? This is the challenge that faces us. We are in power today and the question is whether we are able to use that power to build our country, to better the lives of our people.
A lot of things have been said about the gravy train. All of us like gravy [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] but the gravy train we don’t like. Yesterday I addressed a meeting of editors and I revealed for the first time and I explained – and I hope Judge Melamet will not mind if I reveal that before the 27th of April he came to brief me on the new salary scales that he had worked out with his committee. When he outlined, he told me the salary scale, I got a shock and I said to the Judge, ‘I think these scales are too high for a country like ours. We live in a country with five million people unemployed, with seven million people in shacks. It is not correct that leaders should live [in] a style which is out of contrast, which is in contrast with the living conditions of the masses of the people they lead’. He said something to me in reply which, out of the element of confidentiality I’m not going to say. [LAUGHTER] But that created difficulties for me in saying to him, ‘I totally reject these scales at the present moment.’ You must understand that we have a cabinet of 27 ministers, three belonging to the IFP, six to the National Party of De Klerk, 18 to your organisation. We do not want to abuse that majority, we want all those people inside the Government of National Unity to feel that they have a share, that they are not merely there to rubber stamp the decisions of the African National Congress. We want to create that confidence and to change the lifestyle of people who have been used to comfort for more than 45 years, to change their mind-set. It is not something you can do overnight. We will change that style of life and we are going to do so. We certainly are not going to allow anything to undermine the Reconstruction and Development Programme. It is on the basis of that programme that you must us in power and we must be loyal to that mandate. But it takes some time to change the mindset of people and for them to do what you want them to do. And this is one of the problems apart from what was said to me by Judge Melamet.
These are men and women you have put in power who are very much alive to the conditions of our people and they are all prepared to live a style which is close to the living styles of the masses of the people in this country.
I must also indicate that we fully support the workers in their struggle to improve their living conditions. You have been able to form trade unions in the face of a government which wanted to suppress all labour unions. You succeeded in that matter. We have succeeded in this election because we have, throughout our history, worked with trade unions. Men like JB Marks who was the president of the National Union of Mineworkers, was a member of the National Executive of the ANC, people like Ganya [?] Mkhbeni [?], like Dan Tloome, also president of their unions, were members of the National Executive of the ANC. We have become strong because our organisation has always worked together with workers. But the workers, if they are going to drive the campaign to improve the living conditions of people, you must be independent. The fact that we have a Tripartheid Alliance [APPLAUSE] does not mean that you should follow the African National Congress [inaudible word, like sheeply] [APPLAUSE AND CHEERS]. Power corrupts. Anybody is corrupted by power, can be corrupted by power. And society should have means of ensuring that power will not corrupt those you have put in power. And one of the ways of ensuring that that does not happen is for you to be critical, to be alert, to be vigilant. Any organisation that does not welcome criticism from its members can never make the impact which the ANC has made. We have made that impact because we have encouraged our membership to criticise. We have wanted to surround ourselves with men and women of strong personality, who are fiercely independent, who can tell even the president of the organisation that, ‘here, you are quite wrong’. And how many times have I been told that? In the National Executive of the ANC, in the National Working Committee, by people in the streets. I have been told that several times. And I have used those criticisms as a mirror to correct my own mistakes. And I sincerely hope today that you are going to feel free to criticise us for the mistakes, for what you conceive to be mistakes that we have committed. So
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perfectly normal, and you must embark on strikes when negotiations fail [APPLAUSE]. But I sincerely hope that you are now going to look at the situation from the point of view that you are in power. It’s not just Tito Mboweni or Mac Maharaj who are in power, you are in power. [CHEERS] There are problems, there are problems that you have to address. There are at least five million people who are unemployed, who don’t know where to get a meal during the day; who don’t know where to sleep; who don’t know how to clothe their children; how to pay for their school fees. That is your problem to solve. In striking, don’t look at your own personal interests, or just the interests of your union, you must take a broad approach. You must create conditions where business can actually expand and absorb those five million people who are unemployed. It is your task to do so. You must also know that although we are entitled to fight for better living conditions we must pace ourselves: the higher the cost of production, the more business want to retrench people and increase the army of the unemployed – bear that in mind. The East today – I have been to the East four times now – you have what you call ‘Tigers’ – countries with a flourishing economy and a labour force which is far more sophisticated that our labour force in this country. Where you find people with degrees working on machines in a factory. And who are prepared for their good of their country in order to promote economic growth and create employment opportunities – they are prepared to take low salaries in order to ensure that everybody has a job. As a result of tightening their belts they have been able to increase production, to stimulate economic growth and to ensure, as much as possible, full employment. It is your task to ensure that that happens in our country. That we look not just at ourselves, at our unions only, we look, we take into account the situation of labour throughout the country. Unless we sacrifice, we have that determination to tighten our belts, in order to ensure that the creation of jobs goes apace and that those people without jobs are absorbed by industry, it is going to be difficult for us to get our economy to grow. I know that is unpopular to you and that is why you have grim faces now [LAUGHTER] but that is something you must accept. Without us tightening our belts, it is going to be very difficult, very very difficult to solve economic questions in this country. I am talking to people who are leaders in their own right who realise the responsibility, the challenge of being a black government in this country and who are going to rise to the challenge, who are going to rise to expectations.
I feel always very strong. I move around feeling that at the end of the day I will be able to take stock and to say this has been a day, a productive day. Because my comrades, my colleagues are people who are committed to serving the interests of the poor in this country. We have done so but there is a lot more to do and tightening our belts, taking into account the interests of those who are unemployed, the seven million who are in squatter camps, we can only solve their problems by tightening our belts and by remembering that unless business expands, unless there is job creation in this country, it is going to be difficult for us to solve the economic problems I have referred to.
Original Source
SABC TV Archive, SABC Information Library, Johannesburg.