(Paul Botes/M&G)
The ANC on Monday announced that it would launch manifesto forums across the country to hear what South Africans want from the governing party.
This as it charts a manifesto ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The ANC held a manifesto consultative workshop in Irene, Pretoria, where it engaged with party members, academics, civic organisations as well as political analysts and economists.
The party’s head of policy Jeff Radebe told journalists at a briefing that discussions were going well, emphasising that the manifesto workshop was different from the ANC’s 54th national conference resolutions.
“The Nasrec resolutions were a basis. This is different because it’s not just the ANC; other stakeholders, academics, and experts in different fields were invited,” Radebe explained to journalists on the workshop’s sidelines.
He said the manifesto was set to be launched in January before what has been described by some as the most crucial polls the country would hold since the dawn of democracy.
Radebe also said the ANC had a roadmap set out to make sure ordinary South Africans participated in the drafting of the ANC’s plans for the country should it make it into the 6th administration.
Yengeni heading crime and corruption commission
“There will be manifesto forums in all provinces in South Africa. We will target municipalities that have been doing well and those doing very badly because we want to learn from both the good and bad experiences,” explained Radebe.
Radebe, who said the manifesto needed to address ways of combating crime and corruption, defended the party’s decision to appoint convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni to head up a commission at the workshop on crime and corruption.
“Tony was convicted, served his sentence and [paid] his dues. At the last conference of the ANC he was elected into the national executive committee and elected into the national working committee,” said Radebe, keeping his response to media queries about Yengeni brief.
ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe added that Yengeni was merely doing his job as mandated by the party.
“He heads the sub-committee of peace and stability in the ANC.
“The ANC needs to make sure cadres deployed to various subcommittees are seen to be discharging their duties,” said Mabe.
“This is an ANC process by the way,” added Mabe of the first day of the workshop. ― News24