Things to come: A collapsed tarpaulin casts a shadow over Cyril Ramaphosa’s address during the ANC’s 2019 manifesto review rally last week. Photo: Phill Magakoe/Getty Images
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa launched the party’s campaign for the 2024 elections last Sunday, presenting what was billed as a review of the party’s performance in delivering on the promises it made to voters in its 2019 elections manifesto.
But rather than dealing with which of the more than 220 commitments it made to South Africa’s voters in 2019 on which it has still to deliver, the review focused on the party’s achievements since 1994 in undoing the results of apartheid.
It honed in on what the party had delivered since the advent of democracy — a more impressive set of figures than those achieved since 2019 — and the need to complete the democratic project it embarked on in 1994.
In doing so, it asked voters to focus on the overall achievements of the past 30 years, while turning a blind eye to the failures of the past five — and trusting the ANC for another term in office.
In his foreword, Ramaphosa said the account of the ANC’s performance for the past five years needed to be “set against the backdrop that we have been the governing party since 1994”.
“Our account shows that South Africa today is a fundamental departure from the past,” he said.
“Although the challenges that we face today are deeply rooted in our past, over the last 30 years we have developed a Constitution, policies, laws and programmes, that seek to unite and build a better life for all South Africans, in our diversity.”
Describing the past five years as “an extremely challenging period”, Ramaphosa said progress had been made in implementing the 2019 manifesto commitments, but that “more work still needs to be done and will be done before the end of this term”.
“The last five years have been particularly difficult, full of unexpected events. All these impacted on our society, and on the cost of living and the economy,” he said.
The Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture had completed its work and made its recommendations, but “more needs to be done to untangle our state institutions from state capture, and build an ethical society”, Ramaphosa said.
The 2019 manifesto, themed Let’s Grow South Africa Together, presented seven priorities for the party during Ramaphosa’s first term.
They included transforming the economy to serve all South Africans through a developmental growth path, advancing social transformation through provision of services and stepping up the fight against corruption.
The ANC also committed to building ethical leadership and a capable, developmental state; building safer communities; advancing nation building and social cohesion and building a better Africa and a better world.
According to the review, it listed 221 commitments based on these priorities, the majority of them (102) economic, followed by 51 aimed at advancing social transformation.
The manifesto review is silent about how many of these have actually been achieved.
Earlier this year, ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula was reported to have told an interaction with the party’s alliance partners that they had achieved 70% of their 2019 promises.
But, on Sunday, Ramaphosa said the ANC had not achieved 86 of 102 commitments that it made, with only 10 achieved regarding the economy and 15 in the area of social transformation.
Economic achievements since 2019 included the provision of 5.7 million workers in the private sector with wage subsidies of R3 500 to R6 730 a month as part of the Temporary Employment Relief Scheme and the extension of the R350 Social Relief of Distress Grant to 10 million people during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the KwaZulu-Natal riots in July 2021 and Russia’s war in Ukraine, the economy was now larger than before the pandemic and provided 16.3 million jobs.
Nearly all the jobs lost during Covid-19 had been recovered, while the R32 billion Presidential Employment Stimulus Initiative had created opportunities for another 1.2 million people, mainly women and youth, since 2020.
Industrial localisation had progressed, as had procurement of goods and services from local manufacturers and suppliers, with more than R1.5 trillion mobilised for new investment, exceeding the target set in the 2019 manifesto.
A new land expropriation bill was before parliament to “give the state the authority to expropriate land for public purposes or interests and establish that nil or zero rand compensation can be deemed just and equitable in accordance with the law”.
“The passing of this legislation will usher in a new era for a sustainable and radical land reform, to address the land question,” it said.
To assist small business, a unit focused on cutting red tape had been set up in the presidency, while steps had been taken to ensure that suppliers were paid within 30 days.
The time spent processing VAT refunds had been reduced from 15 weeks to four or five, along with that for processing zoning and licensing permits across tiers of government, the review said.
An Energy Action Plan had been developed and was being implemented to deal with load-shedding and long-term energy security and was “beginning to bear fruits”.
“We have now improved the performance of the Eskom units from a historic low of 48% energy availability factor (EAF) to an average of 60%. This has resulted in the reduction of the intensity of load-shedding,” it said.
The government had delivered more than 8 245 social housing units since 2019; along with more than 19 000 affordable first home finance houses; more than 198 000 RDP houses and more than 183 700 serviced sites.
In addition, the government handed over close to 100 000 title deeds to households and families, adding to the 3.2 million free houses built by the state from 1994 to 2019, the review said.
It said that the recommendations of the Zondo commission were “welcomed and are in the process of being implemented”.
About R4 billion in state funds stolen through corruption had been recovered, while law enforcement agencies had been empowered to use its findings as evidence against those implicated in court.
The ANC had instituted the step-aside rule against its members and leaders who had been charged for corruption and other serious offences.
Lifestyle audits were being implemented in all government departments, with 89 of 103 departments in all nine provinces now implementing them.
The review committed to a number of key tasks for the ANC in government over the next nine months — between now and the 2024 elections.
These included:
- Decisively dealing with load-shedding and community electricity blackouts;
- Financial sector transformation;
- Unblocking the delays in public infrastructure rollout and financing;
- Making decisive interventions in the 36 municipalities that fail to pay their employees;
- Urgent interventions at Metro Rail, Transnet, the SABC and the South African Post Office; and
- Ensuring that parliament passes all outstanding bills by November.