Transcript: Comments by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa during a Question and answer session with Japanese National Press Club, Tokyo
Deputy President's comment on the Brics Bank
Into the Brics Bank issue, we are as South Africa are very privileged to be part of the Brics countries. We were the last to join in and when we were accepted to be part of this club if you like, we felt that we are going to be participating in a new organisation that is going to contribute greatly to the economies of countries that are developing.
When they agreed to form the bank, we welcomed this and as you know the bank's headquarters would be in Shanghai and the regional office will be in South Africa and those two are now being set up. The boards have been appointed and they have already started their work. We as South Africans look forward to the establishment of the regional office in South Africa; we are quite excited about that.
Deputy President's Comment on the Chinese Economic slowdown
The Chinese economy slowdown is a concern for all economies in the world and no doubt it has an impact and will have an impact on the South African economy. China has emerged as our largest trading partner, we sell lots of commodities to China and as they slowdown their demand for commodities also become lesser and lesser so it does have an impact on us.
Like many other economies in the world, we are beginning to feel that impact. What will we do? Obviously our economic sector ministers have to sit down and discuss precisely how we should respond to this. We will be able to find solutions and come up with some strategies.
But then again, China's economy, like any other economy, will go through ups and downs. All economies are like that and have always been like that throughout history. Our own economy is on a downward slope now, but it will resurge, it will go up again as it has always done in the past.
Economic activity goes through slumps and they go up again and we have confidence in the resurgence of the Chinese economy. We have great confidence in the Chinese government's ability to manage that economy, to manage it back to growth and back to life. Like we have confidence in our own government's ability to manage our country's economy to go on the up again, so economic activity is cyclical, it goes up and down, but right now we are confident we will keep steady, we will manage the slump down as we move on to higher levels of growth.
Question:
I was based in Johannesburg between 1987 and 1991 so when you were the Secretary General for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and covering the political rallies, the funerals every weekend was a routine for us the press.
And this morning I looked up my files and I found a hand written script from those days and it is about the 1987 mine strike. I reported that "five years from its birth, no one imagined that NUM could successfully organise its 350 000 members to withhold three weeks of mine strike. The union proving its power in the mine industry, which is a core of the South African economy, will definitely gain its power in the struggle against the apartheid”. That was written in Japanese.
My question is in those days, the ANC - the first, if I may call - the first generation Mr Mandela was behind, was in prison, the second generation Mr Mbeki and others were in exile and you became really the star and the hope for the people as a leader who is standing right there and not behind bars.
Now thirty years has past and do you still have the passion and are you ready to stand and take up the job at the Presidency in the nearest future and where and how would you like to take the country to.
Answer: Deputy President
You put it as though one was a movie star; no I was hardly ever a star. I was just one amongst many leaders of the Trade Union Movement and leaders of the Mass Democratic Movement , the UDF who were involved in the struggle against apartheid and it was great privilege to have been given this opportunity by our people who said go ahead and lead us.
It was a great risk, a risk of life, death and injury and imprisonment, but because we had the enormous support of our people, we were able to step up to the plate as they say and do the work. We were really serving our people as we continue to do so.
Nelson Mandela, similarly, even as he was in prison; was in prison because the people had asked him to take a leadership position; so he was imprisoned, so he was a leader of the people. Did he choose himself? No, he was chosen by the people of our country to occupy that position.
Similarly Thabo Mbeki was also asked by the people, people of our country to take up that position. Our President, Jacob Zuma was also asked to take this leadership. There were quite a number of other leaders who could have been asked at the time and they said we ask you.
I am proud to belong to this great organisation where in our organisation you never say, I am the one. You are chosen by the people, they come to you and they say we want you to do ABCD and quite often you hardly ever say no.
As we move on our people are looking at a number of leaders in the organisation. Many members, we have got 1.5 million members, anyone of them can be a leader and once the people choose, we all rally behind that person.
None of us will ever say this is what I want to be. I know what I want to be. I want to be a janitor at the Parliament; I want to be the sweeper at Parliament, that is the job I would really like to do and I hope they ask me to do that, that come and sweep at Parliament and I will do that very gladly. But thank you very much for referring to those days in 1987; those were great days when we were all involved in our struggle against apartheid. Thank you very much for having being witness to that.
The ANC is hundred and three (103) years old and if memory serves me well it has had twelve Presidents. The first President was not even at the conference, he was asked to lead the ANC. None of the twelve presidents ever did what they do in America, to say I am going to campaign to be President. It does not work like that in the ANC. We are very different from any other political party. The ANC has kept to that tradition over the years. The membership of the ANC at branch level are the people who choose who they want their leader to be. And it is possible that whoever may appear that they are going to be their leader may not be chosen by the members because the members have always been trusted to have the right judgement and that is why the ANC has only had 12 presidents for hundred and three years. I trust that membership and all of us do, that they will make once again the right choice.
