The stage is set for the launch of the ANC’s election campaign on Saturday where ANC president Jacob Zuma will present the party’s list of promises to the nation.
Zuma will also be declared the party’s presidential candidate and his face will be adorning ANC election posters from now on.
Although few significant changes in ANC policy is expected, the plight of workers and the jobless feature strongly in its election manifesto, with creation of ‘decent jobs” at the top of the agenda and the protection for farmworkers being made a priority.
Laws will be put in place to ensure limitations on the casualisation of labour.
The manifesto will also promise increases in grants for children up the age of 18, as well as increased grants to pensioners and the vulnerable. However those in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party who argued for the inclusion of the basic income grant lost the battle.
Although the ANC will affirm its commitment to gender equality in Parliament and at all levels of government, the party backed off pronouncing on whether there will be a woman in the presidency.
A senior ANC policy official said that decision was up to the president, but the party will insist that half of the members of the Cabinet are women.
Crime will be tackled with increased salaries for policemen as well as better training and equipment to help the South African Police Service (SAPS) deal with crime timeously. No major changes in the current target of 7% to 10% drop in the crime rate is expected.
The target for education is to have 60% of all schools declared no-fee schools and to improve bursary systems to enable children from disadvantaged backgrounds to have access to tertiary education.
Rural development is a cornerstone of the party manifesto and will be linked to food security and land reform.
At a dinner on Friday night, Zuma showed the first sign of the party’s irritation with the leaders of Zimbabwe and signaled a possibly tougher stance on the issue once the current ANC leadership comes into government.
‘What the Zimbabwean leadership must remember and understand is that this situation is affecting us very directly as South Africans — socially, economically and in various other ways.”
South Africa argued last year at the United Nations Security Council that Zimbabwe should not be discussed there because the situation in that country is not affecting the region.
ANC officials in the province have been working hard to ensure the success of the event as well as reclaiming the Eastern Cape as the heartland of the ANC — an assertion threatened by the mobilisation of the Congress of the People (Cope) in this province.
The ANC said that all promises made in its manifesto were costed and are affordable to the country’s fiscus.
When questioned about where the extra money for the increased spending would come from, the party says this will be a matter for the Treasury to deal with and that the costs of the party’s promises will be reflected in the budget. The Mail & Guardian reported on Friday that the party plans to increase individual and company taxes to fund the new proposals.
Mandela denies rumours of split
Meanwhile, Nelson Mandela has denied speculation that he no longer supported ANC, which has suffered an acrimonious split in the run-up to this year’s election.
Mandela’s office said on Friday that it was ”completely erroneous” to assume he was distancing himself from the party.
Mandela (90) has refused to be drawn into the recent power struggle within the ANC, which led to the ousting of president Thabo Mbeki last year and the formation of Cope.
Mbeki is not attending the party’s celebrations and neither is Mandela, who has repeatedly said he is trying to retire from public life. Press reports suggested that the ANC had been desperate to secure Mandela’s public backing before the birthday event.
In a letter of support sent to the ANC to be read on his behalf on Saturday, Mandela said politicians of his era had completed their work, and a new generation needed to take responsibility. ”There has been a lot of speculation about my position with regards to recent events within the organisation. I have chosen — and made that publicly known — not to become involved in those or other political matters.”