POLITICAL NEWS -ANC supporters came out in their numbers to listen to their president, Cyril Ramaphosa, as he launched the party's election manifesto at Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday 12 January.
The promises he made in his address should the ANC win the elections this year are considered impracticable by opposition parties, who say the president is using rhetoric to advance his popularity among the voters.
Among the promises is that the ANC will create an extra 275 000 jobs each year by boosting local demand for goods, investing more in mining, manufacturing, and agriculture and expanding export markets.
Some of the issues the ANC would like to address include:
- Increase internship and training opportunities for young people;
- Implement the national minimum wage to improve the lives of 6 million workers;
- Mobilise R1,2-trillion in new investment over four years;
- Establish an Infrastructure Fund to build roads, railway lines, hospitals, schools, dams and other infrastructure vital for a growing economy as outlined his plans.
To address the pressing issue of quality public health and affordability of medical care, Ramaphosa said the ANC will:
- Implement a National Health Insurance to provide free quality health care at the point of use;
- Significantly expand the training of doctors and nurses, absorb over 50 000 community health care workers into the public health system and double this number over the next five years;
- Screen an additional 2 million people for TB and ensure that at least 90% of HIV positive people are on treatment by 2020.
On safety and security, Ramaphosa said the ANC will will strengthen policing to rid communities of all forms of crime, drugs, gangsterism, and violence against women, and that they will increase the numbers and visibility of policemen and women in communities.
Political parties respond
Democratic Alliance (DA) regional chairperson Jaco Londt said the manifesto presented by the ANC has been yet another let-down by the governing party. He said South Africans had high hopes for the ANC's plan for the future under President Cyril Ramaphosa, "but sadly their manifesto confirmed that the ANC is the same old vehicle with a different driver."
Though jobs are amongst the ANC's manifesto promises, he says, "the reality is that the ANC has not been able to create an economic environment conducive for job creation. While nationally, under the ANC, the country has been bleeding jobs, the DA-led Western Cape provincial government created more new jobs than any other province".
Democratic Alliance (DA) regional chairperson Jaco Londt. Photo: Christo Vermaak
Londt said though safety remains one of the most pertinent issues people face today, "there were no bold plans to address the high levels of crime in our country. Instead the ANC produces the same offer with the hopes for a different outcome. The DA knows in order to create safer communities where people can pursue opportunities, we must do everything possible. Policing, which is a national competency, is failing under the ANC government and their 2019 manifesto does not seem to include any new plans to address this failure."
The Economic Freedom Fighters ( EFF) in the Southern Cape Region said the manifesto is rhetoric by Ramaphosa to advance his popularity among the voters. "The ANC has no plan - it is repeating what we have heard under the Zuma administration. These are all lies. Ramaphosa is representing the voices of the new liberals, he is flanked by the same people who were in the Zuma corrupt administration.
Hein Scheepers, Southern Cape EFF spokesperson. Photo: Myron Rabinowitz
"You can't really expect change from such leadership. As for jobs, we don't have an economy that is conducive to job creation," said Hein Scheepers, Southern Cape EFF spokesperson.
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