Acting President of COSATU, Comrade S'dumo Dlamini,
General Secretary of COSATU, Comrade Zwelinzima Vavi,
General Secretary of the SACP, Comrade Blade Nzimande,
Deputy President of the ANC, Comrade Kgalema Motlanthe,
Secretary General of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe,
Members of the ANC NEC,
Members of the SACP Central Executive Committee,
Members of the COSATU Central Committee,
Leadership of SANCO,
Comrades and friends,

Today is a crucial day in the history of our national democratic revolution, and the future of our country. We are beginning our deliberations to chart the way forward not only for the Alliance but for our country.

And we are doing so just a few months before our national general elections, which we always fight together as one force. It is because of that unity in action, that we always score massive victories.

We carry a weighty responsibility, to honour through our actions, the proud traditions of struggle that have characterised our Alliance over decades.

But, more importantly, we carry a responsibility to the people of this country, and to the generations that will follow, to lead a national democratic revolution that will banish from our society all forms of discrimination, oppression and deprivation.

You will recall comrades that the 52nd national conference in Polokwane confirmed that the leadership role of the ANC places on it the primary responsibility to unite the tripartite alliance and all the democratic forces.

In addition, Conference mandated the ANC NEC to convene an Alliance Summit within three months after Conference, to discuss a joint programme of action, including strengthening local structures of the alliance, and an approach on how the Alliance manages differences and discipline.

There is no doubt that we will achieve our objectives because ours is a living Alliance, a vital Alliance.

We have never needed treaties to prove the existence of our Alliance. We are an Alliance that has survived and flourished under very oppressive and difficult conditions. It is a unique alliance, whose lifespan is infinite.

The Alliance has survived because it has always been political in nature. It has never been a technical Alliance.

In deciding the future of the Alliance, we must remember the words of our President OR Tambo when he said:

"The relationship between the ANC and the SACP is not an accident of history, nor is it a natural and inevitable development. For, as we can see, similar relationships have not emerged in other parts of Africa. To be true to history, we must concede that there have been difficulties as well as triumphs along our path, as, traversing many decades, our two organisations have converged towards a shared strategy of struggle. Ours is not merely a paper alliance, created at conference tables and formalised through the signing of documents and representing only an agreement of leaders. Our alliance is a living organism that has grown out of struggle. We have built it out of our separate and common experiences." [1]

Therefore, we must not confuse the behaviour and utterances of individuals from the standpoint of the ANC as an organisation, with regard to the Alliance.

The Alliance has brought together - at different times and in different ways - the interests of different strands of political thought, social forces, class formations, and organisational components, each with their own identity and objectives.

Yet we have found common cause, which has come to be most appropriately described and summarised in the clauses of the Freedom Charter.

If there is any piece of paper that binds the components of the Alliance together it is that historic document. Though our ultimate objectives may differ, we share, in the Freedom Charter, a vision of a society that realises the worth and affirms the dignity of all our people.

Not only does it boldly declare that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, but it also provides the basis for fundamentally changed social, political and economic relations.

Comrades you will recall that after the Freedom Charter was adopted, almost the entire Alliance leadership was charged with treason for this document.

The Alliance was born out of the understanding that this vision of a free, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and equitable society is not the exclusive preserve of a single ideological strand, nor of a particular class.

And therefore, as we fight to achieve this vision, we must organise and mobilise all those social forces that objectively stand to benefit from the realisation of such a society.

It is important to note that this Alliance, under the leadership of the ANC, is the only force in the continent of Africa that ever produced a basic policy document that clearly spelt out the type of society we were fighting for. And it became one of the broad guiding policy documents to our engagements and the struggle that led us to victory and remains our guiding policy document in the face of reconstruction of a new society in our country.

It was this understanding that led us to declare at our 2002 Summit in Ekurhuleni that:

"The primary task of this epoch is the creation of a national democratic society. All the classes and strata which share this objective, as well as the schools of thought found in the democratic movement, see this as their current strategic objective.

"There is one NDR, at the core of which is the liberation of black people in general and Africans in particular. Among these classes and strata, the working class is the leading motive force."

The question that we must now ask, six years after that Summit and fourteen years into our freedom, is what the condition of the NDR is, and what the state of the Alliance is.

These are not abstract concepts. The answers are to be found in our actual experiences over the last few years.

The conditions we face today, and the terrains in which we struggle, have all changed significantly since 1994.

Our main task has shifted from opposing apartheid to leading development, from resistance to reconstruction.

>From the 1950s until 1994 the unity was cemented in our opposition to the racist state, nurtured through our joint endeavours to achieve a democratic political dispensation, and strengthened through resistance to the vicious onslaught against the people.

Our strategic objectives may have not changed since 1994, but the terrain on which we pursue those objectives has changed immeasurably, largely as a consequence of the victories we have achieved.

This period has not only had a profound impact on each of the organisations that comprise this Alliance, but on the Alliance itself. The ANC went into government representing the broad democratic movement on the back of a clear popular mandate. The question that remains is whether or not we have all understood these changing circumstances in the same way.

As the Alliance we determined the programme the ANC was to implement when in power, outlined in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).

This task, which the Alliance took on jointly, has demanded a wholesale reorientation of the pillars of our struggle, demanding new skills and capabilities, new methods of organisation, and placing previously unknown demands on our movement.

When we met in Polokwane in December one of our chief tasks was to examine the extent to which we had successfully responded to these changing challenges, and how, in the face of these, we had managed to advance the national democratic revolution.

After months of discussions within our branches, and following the deliberations by delegates, Polokwane resolved that we have indeed made enormous strides in advancing the cause of our people. We also acknowledged that there were shortcomings particularly in the implementation of our policies.

The central preoccupation of Polokwane was to resolve what needed to be done to consolidate, deepen and intensify the struggle for a better life for all, especially the poor. And in doing so, we were called upon to examine frankly and dispassionately our shortcomings, weaknesses and failures.

We were not only to acknowledge where we were deficient, but we had to agree on a way forward that would address those deficiencies.

Polokwane consequently adopted a range of resolutions covering practically every aspect of our programme to improve the quality of life of our people.

We took important and far-reaching decisions about the role of the state in leading economic development, creating decent work opportunities and addressing the immediate needs of the poor.

We made the bold decision that education and health should be at the centre of our social transformation programme for the next five years.

This is alongside programmes aimed at rural development, land and agrarian reform, development of sustainable human settlements, and the introduction of a comprehensive social security system.

We undertook to mobilise all the means at our disposal to step up the fight against crime and corruption as an issue that affects all South Africans, but especially those that are poor and vulnerable.

We also took clear resolutions on the scourge of HIV and AIDS, and emphasised the need to play a leading role in initiatives to fight against the pandemic.

Polokwane also sent out a clear and unambiguous message that the successful implementation of all resolutions will not be possible, if the movement did not pay sufficient attention to the task of organising and mobilising the masses behind these efforts.

Quite correctly, it acknowledged that one of our key deficiencies over the last 14 years has been our inability to mobilise the masses as active agents for the transformation of all facets of our society.

Pre-occupied as we have been with the challenging task of governance, we have wittingly or unwittingly contributed to the demobilisation of the masses of our people, whose energy and determination brought about the advent of democracy.

We have similarly neglected the task of political renewal and cadre development within all the organs of the broader democratic movement. In doing so, we have failed to equip our cadres to respond appropriately to the changed conditions under which they are now expected to operate.

This has undermined our collective capacity to tackle careerism, factionalism, corruption and other ills within our ranks.

We therefore emerged from Polokwane with a certain mandate and a clear determination to ensure the masses are once more an integral part of the struggle to build a national democratic society.

We also emerged with a clear sense that the role and place of the Alliance needs to be restored, reaffirmed and strengthened. The Alliance must, once more, be at the centre of the national democratic revolution.

To achieve this, we will need to confront those challenges and problems that came to characterise the Alliance over recent years. We need to identify those challenges that arose from changing objective conditions within our society and further afield.

We must identify those that arise from subjective developments within each of the component parts of the Alliance. We must also recognize problems that arise from real or perceived differences in political orientation, analysis and policy. We must also identify those problems that have arisen as a result of the manner in which we conduct ourselves, in relation to each other and to broader society.

We must acknowledge these problems, and we must ensure that we have a common understanding of their nature. But we should not dwell on them. We must instead use this Summit to reaffirm and, where necessary refine, our common strategic perspective.

We cannot dwell on the problems of the past as we have the responsibility of developing common approaches to the most critical challenges facing our country, most notably poverty, unemployment and crime.

And we must agree on an Alliance programme of action that will engage all our formations in mass work across the length and breadth of South Africa. Amongst these is the fight against poverty, which has become event more critical given the current global challenges such as the rise in fuel and food prices.

The fixing of the prices of basic foodstuffs such as bread is totally unacceptable and our people need the visible action of the Alliance and our government to protect them from unscrupulous retailers.

Comrades the unity in action of this Alliance has been most visible after Polokwane. We have spoken in one voice on issues facing our country and continent, be it food and fuel prices, the energy challenge or the crisis in Zimbabwe. We returned to the old tradition of the Alliance, wherein we approach issues from a common platform.

Together we took the most difficult step of speaking out against practices of a government run by a fraternal liberation movement in Zimbabwe in recent weeks.

Guided by our fundamental revolutionary principles, we spoke out in favour of the values we believe in, and which we fought for, the respect for democratic processes and human rights. We spoke out against the inexplicable failure of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to release election results as we felt this was tantamount to sabotaging democracy.

We need to work with all parties in Zimbabwe to support the process of resolving the impasse.

The activities of the last few weeks should in no way make us assume that we will always agree on issues as Alliance components. This is not a sweetheart Alliance. It is a living revolutionary Alliance.

While we work together in practice, each component of the Alliance is an autonomous entity. No Alliance partner can dictate to, and seek to control others.

Comrades, regardless of the pain and difficulties of the past, there is a political basis for this Alliance.

Arising from this historic Summit, we must close the chapter of tension and mistrust, and open a new chapter of unity in action and mutual respect. Regardless of differences on issues, which will always emerge, we should be able to relate to each other in a comradely manner.

Our differences cannot be handled antagonistically. As comrades, in the Alliance we have to interact and engage with one another in a constructive manner.

We must build the Alliance as a powerful vehicle to advance and deepen our revolution, as we said in the January 8 statement of this year and in Polokwane.

Comrades, it is important to note that we have had many interactions as the Alliance at different levels, in the last 14 years. But what has been strange, is that during that period, we seemed to be increasingly disagreeing on issues that are always common to all of us.

At times, we seemed to be in agreement in meetings, but thereafter, expressed issues in a manner that indicated disagreements. We seemed to be not in a position to resolve the matters, which has been a serious weakness, particularly on our part as the leadership.

The end result of that situation was the change in the manner in which we managed our relations and meetings or conferences, where these differences seemed to be playing themselves out in resolutions.

I believe that the Polokwane conference took the resolution about this Summit with a clear understanding that we needed to correct that unfortunate relationship which had developed.

I am therefore confident that as we deliberate in this Summit, we will be able to rise above our recent uncomfortable past, and address the issues objectively and comradely for sake of our organisations, our people and our country.

This Alliance is the hope of the people of this country, the continent and the world. We are charged as this collective meeting here, with a responsibility to lead this Alliance.

Ours therefore as we engage here is to strengthen the Alliance, and emerge out of this Summit as a united force ready to meet the challenges of the day.

Amandla!
Matla!