Facilitators,
Convenor of the Political Education PEC Subcommittee,
Cde Joel Netshitenzhe, who will be delivering our lecture today,
NEC and PEC members who have joined us in this virtual platform,
Members of the Political Education Subcommittee,
Members and Supporters of the ANC and everyone that has tuned in on Microsoft Teams and Facebook,
Molweni.
Program facilitators, allow me to extend my revolutionary greetings and welcome all participants in this lecture on behalf of the ANC in the Eastern Cape. Let me also express my gratitude and appreciation for the work that the Subcommittee continues to do in ensuring that cadre development programmes are not disrupted by the advent of the novel coronavirus disease (covid-19) and the restrictions imposed by the national lockdown.
Even before the outbreak of covid-19, our organisation was already engaged in discussions on how to modernise the ANC and renew it to adapt to the changing times while maintaining its revolutionary character and upholding its values, beliefs and principles.
It is for this reason that our 54th National Conference resolved that “the ANC should develop a real and virtual discussion forum on topical issues to help inform our structures of positions on current debates.”
It is thus pleasing to see our structures, allies and other democratic formations creating such platforms on a variety of issues and debates. This is encouraging and illustrates the commitment our members and structures have in advancing our national democratic revolution.
What is quite clear is that the world will not and cannot be the same again. Covid-19 has indeed demonstrated the correctness of the dialectical understanding of society as a dynamic, changing and contradictory process. It has revealed the inability of the existing world-order to respond to the challenges faced by societies. It has exposed the levels of developmental inequality in all parts of the world.
Our task therefore is to ensure that we use this opportunity to deepen , defend and advance the NDR to achieve a better world. In achieving this task, one of the things we must do is to develop a concrete analysis and understanding of the complex situation that will inform our strategy and tactics.
We must ask the questions that President OR Tambo posed when he delivered the Political Report to the ANC National Consultative Conference held in Morogoro, where he said:
How can we intensify the revolution? What forms of organisation can ensure the maximum mobilisation of all the resources at our disposal? What are the motive forces of our struggle and their potential? What strategy and tactics are to be employed? These are some of the problems and questions that require our consideration and solution.”
This is why our topic today is on the impact of the balance of forces on the cause of social transformation. If we agree with the dialectical definition of society as explained earlier, and the Marxist theory of the evolutionary change of society which is explained by Klaus Eder as “the product, first, of the contradictions between the forces of production and the social relations of production and, second, of the contradictions between social classes”, then we will surely concur on the need to continuously reflect on our strategy and tactics.
So without wasting any more time, let me get to the task that I have been given which is to introduce one of our finest cadres of the movement who will be delivering today’s lecture. Without sounding cliché, he really needs no introduction. He is one of the longest serving members of the National Executive Committee of the ANC and has served government as Head of GCIS and later as the Head of the policy and coordination advisory unit in the Presidency. He remains one of the most valuable strategists of our movement who had an immense experience and contribution in the struggle to achieve the democracy we enjoy today.
Comrades, I am pleased to introduce to you, Cde “Mayibuye” Joel Netshitenzhe who will be delivering our lecture today.
Thank you very much.
Amandla!
