ANC secures big guns for summit speakers’ list

Eskom’s embattled Chief Executive Officer, Brian Molefe is reportedly among the big guns confirmed to speak at the Economic Transformation Summit scheduled to be held by the African National Congress (ANC) in Limpopo at a Phalaborwa venue this weekend.
The news of the summit was shared with the media by the top structure of the ANC’s provincial executive during a presser at Frans Mohlala House in Polokwane on Monday. The summit is the second to be conducted by the ANC in Limpopo within a week and follows the Provincial Local Government Summit held at an establishment outside the city last weekend.
ANC Provincial Chairperson Stan Mathabatha indicated that out of the summit they intended to develop an economic development strategy which had to be synchronised with the broader development agenda of the province. The theme of radical economic transformation spoke to the ANC’s confession that indeed they had been on a transformation journey but more still needed to be done speedily and on a more radical mode, he remarked.
“We want the summit to help us develop smarter ways of developing village and township economies to ensure that the majority of our people are able to participate in the mainstream economic activities.
“Our province has a huge agricultural economy; it’s important that small-scale farmers are capacitated to grow this economic sector. Recently we have been witnessing a boom in the mining and energy sectors in the province. This summit must assist us harness better ways of ensuring that we plan an economic development path encompassing these critical growth areas.”
He expressed the confidence that they would emerge from the summit better equipped to lead the province to a path of radical economic transformation.
Among the speakers invited and scheduled to speak during the summit are Statistician General Pali Lehohla, ANC National Executive Committee member Joel Netshitenzhe, Phil Van Zyl of Limpopo farming operation ZZ2 and South African Communist Party Central Committee member Frans Baleni.
This past weekend’s summit on local government matters in the province was attended by ANC deployees in local government and members of the tripartite alliance who included mayors, speakers and chief whips of the 27 municipalities in the province.
Conducted under the theme of advancing people’s power to realise a developmental local governance system, the two-day summit focused on an analysis of the recent local government elections, a provincial overview of the state of local government in Limpopo, rapid infrastructure and service delivery, accountability and financial management, building resilient municipal institutions, key planning issues for the next five years and the role of district municipalities and provincial government in providing support and capacity building to local government.
The summit reportedly welcomed the analysis on local government elections but was equally deeply concerned about the loss of the two municipalities to the opposition in Waterberg and the decline in election outcomes in various municipalities, including last week’s loss of Ward 10 in Polokwane.
“The summit acknowledged a growing concern by communities that the ANC needs to listen to the concerns of communities and its deployees in government must respond promptly to community needs.”

Story and photos: YOLANDE NEL
>>observer.yolande@gmail.com

Featured photo: Communications Minister Faith Muthambi, Convenor of the Legislature and Governance Sub-Committee of the ANC in the province, takes to the podium on Saturday to deliver an overview of the state of local government in Limpopo at the ruling party ‘s provincial local government summit.