The President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry South Africa, Dr Mathews Phosa,
Leadership of CHAMSA affiliates,
Distinguished participants,

Good morning to you all.

We have spent the last few weeks meeting with various interest groups - from business formations, cultural groups to trade unions and the agricultural sector.

We had taken this decision as the ANC to reach out to various stakeholders so as to remain in touch with a wide range of views on the challenges facing our country.

Our interaction with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry South Africa is an appropriate culmination of our interface with the organised business community since the 52nd conference in Polokwane. We thank you for the opportunity.

CHAMSA represents the unity that we preach in all sectors, since the formation of CHAMSA in 2003 brought together FABCOS, NAFCOC, SACOB and AHI. You are the voice of all business chambers in South Africa, and our message to you reaches a wider constituency.

In our stakeholder engagements since January we have sought ideas on various topics. We wanted to hear views on how we could cement partnerships to fight poverty.

We wanted to find out how together we could fight and beat crime, improve our education system, ensure that the poor have access to water, health care, housing, electricity and many other social services. We view CHAMSA as a partner in meeting these challenges.

We are delighted that CHAMSA is actively taking up the fight against poverty, as it means we are taking our quest for partnerships a step further. We support wholeheartedly, your 'Business against Poverty' drive. As the business sector you possess the leadership, resources and experience to advance the war against poverty.

The masses of our people that you are targeting, those in the Base of the Pyramid, are poor communities that have historically been marginalised and neglected.

They are often viewed more as a liability and a cost rather than an investment. We are pleased that you see a potential to do business in this sector, and to develop its potential. It is in line with our intention of expanding the opportunities for sustainable livelihoods and supporting the growth of second economy activities in urban centres.

One of your policy objectives is to ensure that the country has legislation that allows SMMEs to prosper and build a bridge between the first and second economies.

This would require tax concessions for SMMEs and other enabling conditions such as training, the possible establishment of an SMME Foundation and others, as you propose.

Most of our SMMEs and other survivalist enterprises in rural areas especially, are facing enormous challenges currently. This arises from the rising cost of doing business, including rising interest rates and electricity shortages which affect production and business in general.

An umbrella body like CHAMSA can facilitate intervention in the second economy through ensuring better access to the centres of economic growth, and through facilitating financial and institutional support for cooperatives and micro-enterprise.

Also important is how emerging business can be assisted to meet the legal requirements of doing business. For example some are not properly registered which makes it difficult for them to obtain viable contracts.

Other challenges include lack of marketing capability, lack of information and communication technology capacity, lack of skilled personnel and management skills and others.

We are open to discussion as the ANC as to how together we can create a thriving SMME sector.

We must also not forget the rural, African-women run enterprises which also require support. We also trust that the Base of the Pyramid approach you are exploring will not just look into doing business in poor communities, but also doing business with poor communities. Businesses should be developmental as well and not only profit-orientated.

In the quest for job creation, some of the interventions we would request from the business sector is to consider labour intensive production methods and procurement policies.

We are aware that part of the vision of CHAMSA is to create a job creating economy, and we are in agreement on that objective.

You have an advantage as CHAMSA in that your constituent membership includes grassroots-based business entities. This promotes linkages between big and small businesses. This means that small business can progress to the formal business level.

We hope this character of CHAMSA will be taken into account in any discussions relating to streamlining of functions and roles between CHAMSA and Business Unity SA. South Africa needs a business movement that is transformational and developmental in nature as we must invest in the future growth of our economy, through the business sector.

We all want to see the growth and expansion of our business sector as it means more jobs will be created and more families will have access to income and income generating activities.

The growth of CHAMSA also provides opportunities beyond South Africa for members, as we are now part of the global village since 1994.

Ladies and gentlemen, soon, the country will be marking the 14th anniversary of our freedom, on April 27th. When we voted and ushered in a non-racial democracy in April 1994, together as South Africans of all races, colours, creeds - we put behind us a past filled with tension, fear, mayhem, death, pain and suffering.

We have achieved political stability, improvement in the living conditions of our people, access to services and steady economic growth.

Where civil war once loomed, we are now able to live in peace in a democratic society. We must now, together as all sectors, build a strong, united patriotic front against all the challenges that face our country, such as crime, unemployment and poverty.

Our government has gone a long way towards addressing some of these needs. But more needs to be done. We also need to ensure that our economy remains competitive. One of the means of doing this is through investing in skills development. That is why the ANC will prioritise education and skills development over the next five years.

We have said that education is a societal issue. It cannot be left to government alone.

We look to employers to play a leading role in this effort, prioritising skills development and investing in people. Employers need to strengthen their mentorship programmes and provide more learnership opportunities.

We must clearly improve our performance in maths, science and technology. Secondly, as resolved at the ANC conference in Polokwane, we need to significantly expand our knowledge production, innovation and research, as well as entrepreneurial, business and financial skills.

We also see value in reviving the role of state-owned enterprises in skills development and training. We must build partnerships between the state, parastatals, the union movement and the private sector in the quest to improve skills. We also seek to promote Further Education and Training colleges amongst our youth in a popular drive to transfer skills.

We must also accept the fact that being a free country, our skilled young people will inevitably seek greener pastures abroad in other countries and we cannot stop them. That should not deter us from the responsibility of training more and more people each year to build our skills base.

While investing in training, we need to be receptive to the importation of skills. Skilled immigrants staying and working legally in the country contribute to the growth of the South African economy.

Instead of taking jobs, as some of our xenophobic compatriots argue, immigrants actually assist the domestic economy to create decent work opportunities for South Africans.

Ladies and gentlemen, we must also build a united patriotic front in the war against crime. All of us have a role to play. How do we explain the audacity of criminals who break into, and rob a court of law, violating an institution which should protect us all, whose premises should be sacrosanct.

We must respond effectively to such behaviour. ANC branches have been instructed to re-establish street committees that will actively fight crime in our villages, suburbs and townships.

The committees will provide active support to our hard working policemen and women who are our buffer against criminals.

We support the efforts of many who are already involved in the fight against crime, from Business against Crime, Community Policing Forums to radio stations that have developed anonymous crime tip off numbers.

In this war against crime, we reiterate that our laws must bite. They must favour the victims of crime and be unsympathetic to those who deliberately seek crime as their employment.

Every effort we make will see us win the war against the criminals.

Most importantly, let us all continue to support our law enforcement agencies, especially the police. The safety of our police officials and our citizens is of paramount importance.

That is why we back the call of the Deputy Minister, which is shared by the Minister of safety and security, for our police to use effectively the provisions of Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act, which governs the use of lethal force, should their lives or those of the members of the public be in imminent danger.

However, police must act within the bounds of the law. We obviously cannot as the ruling party or government advocate a culture of trigger happy police officials. Our Constitution is unambiguous on the right to life of all our citizens.

But when criminals seek to take away this right, we have to put the lives of law abiding citizens and of our police officials first.

Ladies and gentlemen, we once again register our apprehension about the situation in Zimbabwe. The delay in the verification process and the release of results increases anxiety each day.

We urge the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to work closely with the affected parties and resolve these matters without delay.

We also reiterate the appeal of the SADC Summit held over the weekend, that the ZEC should ensure strict compliance with the rule of law and SADC Principles and Guidelines governing democratic elections.

The region cannot afford a deepening crisis in Zimbabwe. The situation is more worrying now given the reported violence that has erupted in the country.

We wish the mediator, President Thabo Mbeki, all political parties and electoral authorities Godspeed as they seek an urgent and sustainable solution to this impasse.

Ladies and gentlemen, as an umbrella body of business in our country you face several challenges. Through unity, and support from other stakeholders, you will be able to meet your objectives.

As the ANC, we pledge our support to CHAMSA in its efforts to transform and grow the economy of our country.

I wish you all the best in your deliberations, and we look forward to receiving the resolutions.

I thank you.