Durban — ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has, during his visit to China, learnt that the party should continue with its transformative development resolutions, such as the establishment of the state bank, despite changes in its leadership.
He revealed this during a state bank workshop in Durban at the weekend. Mbalula was accompanied on his recent trip to China by KwaZulu-Natal’s ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo.
Mbalula’s message was that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership should not abandon transformation ideas such as the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and the National Development Plan (NDP), some of which were formulated as far back as former president Nelson Mandela’s times.
Mbalula said the state bank, which was a resolution of the ANC under former president Jacob Zuma, should be implemented under Ramaphosa, whom he expected to continue as state president after next year’s general elections.
“The government must move with speed in implementing the resolution on the state bank, including finding a way to capitalise the bank.
“The overall project of transformation of the country rests on building a capable state that leverage in key economic sectors, (and) accordingly the financial service sector is one of such vital economic lever that requires strategic state attention,” he said.
A financial sector study last year revealed that despite an increase in new entrants in the banking sector, “the market remains highly concentrated with the largest banks holding more than 85% of the industry deposits in 2020”.
He said that although the NDP was praised as the best model to halve poverty by 2030, none of the ANC leaders could now articulate it.
“The best model we learnt from China is that an idea does not die with a change of leadership, it continues and gets implemented. It is an idea that must not die in our hands.
“If we can keep the relay, we can ensure that the state bank that was conceptualised just 10 years ago is implemented now. It is an idea that must not die with the change of leadership,” said Mbalula.
He described the state bank as an uncompromising and unapologetic state intervention in correcting the imbalance in ownership of the financial sector by transforming it in terms of gender and race while also opening up much-needed job opportunities.
“The 55th national conference resolved that solutions are needed to address the unjust lack of capital particularly by SMMEs, women and youth-owned enterprises.
“It must also include transformative and diverse allocation of capital from banks along race and gender,” he said.
He commended the SACP for coming up with the idea of the state bank and the ANC in KZN for pushing for its implementation.
“This is something good coming from the Communist Party and should be applauded,” he said.
Upon arriving in China, Mbalula was impressed by that country’s complete implementation of the 1978 resolution of building a new city in Shenzhen to fight poverty.
“When we arrived in China, they told us ‘the past 10 years is over (after the construction of the new city) and we see the result of our programme in fighting abject poverty’.
“And then Xi Jinping (current Chinese president) has brought to realisation the idea which was conceptualised in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping (then president) about the development and modernisation of China,” he said.
The idea was only realised 40 years after it was conceptualised. Mbalula said even Ramaphosa had previously told Parliament about adopting what Xi did by completing what Deng had started.
“It is a relay. All Chinese leaders which have come successively have implemented this idea.
“It is a relay. It does not mean that when another one comes in, things are more clever than the other one. They continue with the idea to this particular day,” he said.
He said Ramaphosa was also using a Chinese development plan when he talked about starting a high-speed train that would run from Makhado in Limpopo province via Johannesburg to Durban and to Cape Town.
“He then says let’s talk about smart cities, which is what China has implemented.
“And he says ‘this is not my idea, I have actually learnt about it from the Chinese model’.
“China is actually advancing in this particular regard in terms of ideas, which architects of this idea of modernisation have long passed on, but the relay is actually continuing.”
Mbalula intends to push for the ANC national executive committee to adopt the Chinese way of doing things. He said his trip was not like many previous tours where leaders would go overseas and return home to brag about their knowledge.
“It is not just a tour about the economy, (but) it is also a tour about party building and construction,” he said.
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