JOHANNESBURG, July 10 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) has concluded its policy conference with recommendations to refine policy in education, health, science and technology and governance to improve performance, said an ANC official on Monday.
At a media briefing in Johannesburg, Naledi Pandor, Chairperson of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) Subcommittee on Education said, "The conference recommended that the ANC should increase its policy, monitoring and evaluation capacities.
"The ANC must ensure coordination between departments and harmonization of policies and incentives to encourage and support innovation and ensure the take up of locally produced goods and technologies," said the official.
The ruling party also recommended intensifying public engagement on and promotion of science, technology and innovation, ensuring that public educational institutions training professions in science and technology are better resourced and those from poor backgrounds are helped to enrol in them.
"The ANC must lead society to think more positively about ourselves and our innovation capabilities. We want to create free Wi-Fi spots and greater attention should be given to rural areas and townships," said Pandor.
The ANC would like to see provision of quality of teaching and learning outcomes, enhancing the skills and competencies of educators, especially the school management team.
"The ANC takes full responsibility of leading society in protecting public facilities such as schools, libraries, colleges, universities, hospitals and clinics. The ANC and its alliance partners maintain and sustain labour relations within the basic education sector in order to minimize conflicts which may lead to labour unrest, loss of teaching and learning time, and potential damage to property and educational resources," she added.
The Member of the ANC NEC Subcommittee on Legislature and Governance, Obed Bapela, said the party want to be a modern one while maintaining its historical tag as a former liberation movement.
The party recommended that a Presidential Commission be established to review the provinces, their functions and see if there could be any changes. The Commission should finish its work before the ANC elective congress in December 2017, he said.
"We agreed that ANC should lead in moral regeneration of society. We should mobilize communities on issue of corruption and develop a culture of exposing corruption and reward the whistleblowers. The party is concerned about corruption and would like to fight it head on," said Bapela.
Some of the recommendations include the strengthening of the policies of the State Owned Enterprises and their monitoring. The recommendations would be discussed at branch levels in the country and decided at the 54th ANC National Conference in December 2017.
The 4th ANC National Policy Conference took place from June 30 to July 5, 2017.
