'2008 will bring new challenges'

2007-12-31 19:05

Johannesburg - The year ahead will present SA with new tasks and challenges arising from decisions adopted at the recent 52nd National Conference of the ruling ANC, President Thabo Mbeki said in his New Year's message on Monday.

South Africans should respond to the challenges "bearing in mind the national goal our country has set itself - the goal of ensuring that our democracy remains unwavering in the pursuit of the objective of a better life for all our people," Mbeki said.

The president said that 2007 saw many gains on many fronts as the government continued to work for the consolidation of a united, just and democratic society, marked by economic prosperity and the eradication of poverty.

"Let us begin the New Year committed to the objective of national unity, with renewed confidence in our collective strength to ensure that our democracy will continue to serve all our citizens.

"In 2007 our economy grew from strength to strength, consolidating the gains it had made the previous year. Government and its social partners continued to work towards eliminating poverty and reducing racial and gender inequality in our society," said Mbeki.

Economic challenges

However, the critical challenge of reducing poverty and inequality still persisted as a major problem in the New Year said the president.

"During 2008 government must redouble its efforts vigorously to increase the tempo of economic growth and job creation, to raise the floor of prosperity that must go with our democracy."

Mbeki stressed the challenges the economy faced in 2008.

"These include a higher inflation rate than we would wish for, driven by high crude oil and food prices. This has led to higher interest rates than we desire.

"All this has also been accompanied by a sustained deficit in the balance of trade, reflecting that we are importing more than we are exporting."

Despite these challenges, Mbeki said that South Africans had to continue to pursue the goal of a higher rate of economic growth, driven by increased investments and improvements in productivity.

"We must continue to strive to ensure that this growth also results in the creation of new job opportunities. Among other things, this means that we must sustain our focus on the challenge of raising the skills levels among our working people.

Anti-poverty strategy

"Within the context of a properly targeted anti-poverty strategy, we must continue to attend to the task of ensuring that our system of social grants reaches the people most in need, to provide the necessary cushion to protect as many people as possible from falling into abject poverty," he said.

Mbeki congratulated all the matriculants who passed the examination.

"Necessarily, once again we must draw the relevant lessons from the Matric results to ensure that we continue to work in a focused manner to improve the entirety of our system of education."

Mbeki said the number of road accidents, fatalities and injuries continued to be of grave concern.

He also made special reference to the recent assassination of Pakistani political leader Benazir Bhutto and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I would like to reiterate our sense of outrage at the murder of the prominent Pakistani political leader, Benazir Bhutto.

"We sincerely hope that the government and people of Pakistan will find the strength and wisdom in themselves successfully to respond to the crisis created by the assassination of Bhutto in the interest of peace and a stable democracy in their country and region."

Zimbabwe

Mbeki said he remained confident that the leaders of the people of Zimbabwe would conclude negotiations successfully, leading to the holding of free and fair Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Mbeki sent his best wishes to the governments and peoples of Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea and Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan as they worked to resolve the challenges they face.

"We also reiterate our appeal to the United Nations to do everything in its power to resolve the long-standing conflict over the future of Western Sahara, in keeping with the resolutions of the UN Security Council," he said.

"As we bid farewell to the year 2007 and welcome the year 2008, I would like, on behalf of our government, to wish you all a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year," said Mbeki.

- SAPA