“As the national Treasury indicates in recent but consistent statements, the challenges facing our country on the economic level require a renewed and revived alliance of all the progressive forces again with the same unity of purpose and the same energy [seen while struggling against apartheid].” 

Zikalala was addressing Popcru members on Tuesday at the union’s national congress, where more than 1,200 delegates gathered at the four-day conference at the Chief Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban. 

Zikalala said that raising the country’s economic growth rate and achieving inclusive and shared growth required a range of short-term interventions and long-term reforms. 

“South Africa’s macroeconomic policy framework provides a strong platform for the success of these measures. Macroeconomic policy promotes low and stable inflation, a flexible exchange rate and a sustainable fiscal framework,” he said. 

In light of the “major headwinds” facing the country’s economy, the capability of the state needed to be strengthened in order to achieve comprehensive structural reforms. 

The stability of the state in economic terms needed to be supported by peace and stability in the justice and crime prevention cluster, Zikalala said. 

“At the level of society, perhaps we need to engage crime and instability, violence against women and femicide in the most significant form of stakeholder engagement and mobilisation of society since the campaign against HIV and Aids,” he said. 

Zikalala told the delegates to “never lose sight of the strategic mission of our revolution, the National Democratic Revolution, which seeks to build a truly non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society”. 

The “plight” of the country’s workers and the “grim challenges” facing the majority of citizens would only be overcome by the unity of the working class as “the primary force of the revolution”.

“As we sustain the struggle, we must equally appreciate that our revolution is not isolated from the struggle of the people of the world. 

"We must escalate the support of the progressive fraternal organisation - it is our responsibility to support the struggles of the people of Cuba, Palestine, Swaziland, led by Pudemo and Western Sahara led by Polisario Front. 

"Ours is a revolution of the oppressed and the working class as a whole,” Zikalala said. 

Police Minister Bheki Cele is expected to address the conference on Wednesday.

African News Agency