Zuma: Too soon to end AA

2008-10-24 22:36

Cape Town - It was still "early days" to end affirmative action, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma said on Friday.

In a speech prepared for delivery at an investors' lunch in New York, he also said the ANC was confident of a decisive victory in next year's general election.

Zuma, who earlier this week met top US officials in Washington, said black people and women were still largely excluded from upper and middle management.

The Employment Equity Commission had noted in 2007 that whites continued to dominate senior management at 65%, with blacks at 18%, and that the bulk of new recruits were white as well.

"The employment equity figures clearly indicate that it is still early days to call for an end of affirmative action in South Africa," Zuma said.

President Kgalema Motlanthe, then still a minister in the presidency, said in August that the government would consider phasing out the programme, but only after careful consideration.

In the same month, ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa lamented the fact that the departure of whites from the public service had left a skills vacuum in certain areas.

Zuma said in Friday's speech that in the face of the global financial crisis, South Africa remained a sound investment destination.

"The only turbulence you can expect in our country is the one that the United States is going through right now - the contestation and vibrancy that accompanies any election.

"As the ANC we remain fully confident of another decisive victory."

He said no other party had so far put forward, or could put forward, policies that successfully competed with those of the ANC.

Recent weeks have seen the departure of a number of leading members of the party, largely Mbeki loyalists, who are expected to form a new party in December to contest the polls.

Zuma also said the ANC's axing of president Thabo Mbeki showed that democratic principles would always prevail over "personal interests".

- SAPA