ANC 2019 Election Manifesto

FOREWORD

Cyril Ramaphosa ANC President

Fellow South Africans,

The freedom we enjoy today was achieved through struggle, determination and great sacrifice. Despite challenges and setbacks, we won our freedom by working together and never giving up.

As we continue to work as a nation to create jobs, end poverty and build a better life for all, we must act with greater determination. Only by working together, can we strengthen democracy and grow South Africa.

Over the past 25 years, the lives of the people of South Africa have changed for the better. Millions of people have houses, electricity and access to clean drinking water. Children from poor communities have access to free education. In the past five years the number of HIV positive people on antiretroviral treatment has doubled while the overall rate of new infections is decreasing. Over 17,5 million of our most vulnerable citizens receive social grants. We advanced the cause and rights of workers to organise, collectively bargain, refuse dangerous work, and to strike. A National Minimum Wage comes into effect from January 2019, improving the lives of over six million workers.

Although much has been achieved, we could have moved faster and the quality of services could have been much better. We accept that mistakes have been made and in some critical areas, progress has stalled.

This is a moment of renewal. It is an opportunity to restore our democratic institutions and return our country to a path of transformation, growth and development.

The country’s future is now in the hands of those who believe in it the most. The voter.

Together with the people of South Africa, the ANC is ready to write the next chapter in our country’s history.

A chapter of new hope in the fight to eradicate unemployment, poverty and inequality.

A chapter where we uproot corruption. A chapter of renewal.

A chapter of rebuilding.

A chapter that pursues shared prosperity and inclusive growth. Let’s turn the page and Let’s Grow South Africa. Together.

The African National Congress is a broad movement of the people with the historic mission to build a united and democratic South Africa that is non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous. Many people fought a long and hard struggle and sacrificed much to bring about freedom and democracy in this country.

The Freedom Charter remains our inspiration and our strategic guide to realising a better life and a South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it.

The Freedom Charter is the living soul of our country’s progressive constitution and is the foundation of Vision 2030 of the National Development Plan (NDP). Everything we are doing is in pursuance of the vision of the NDP to address the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality.

Over the past 25 years, the dignity of our people has been restored. The lives of South Africans have improved. We promoted nation-building, social cohesion and celebrated our diversity as a nation. We pursued world peace and advanced an agenda for a better Africa and a better world.

Much of what we set out to do in the 2014 Manifesto has been implemented with varying degrees of success.

So much remains to be done to bring us closer to the achievement of the Freedom Charter.

Our struggle for radical socio-economic transformation continues.

Our economy has not been fundamentally transformed to serve all people. Unemployment remains high, particularly among the youth. The land question has not been fully addressed. The country has obscene levels of income and wealth inequality. Gender-based violence has reached crisis proportions and drugs, violent crimes and gangsterism are wreaking havoc in many communities. Corruption continues to raise its ugly head, threatening the very moral and ethical basis of our young democracy. Our education, training and health systems still need radical improvements.

The ANC acknowledges that we made mistakes and veered off course.

As a nation, we have learned the harsh impact of corruption on society and the economy. We have witnessed the loss of integrity in some of the institutions of state, business and political and other organisations. We have learned hard lessons about the vigilance needed to stop lawlessness, greed and selfishness from taking root.

We are resolved to work with our people to address this cancer in our society.

After a difficult time, we are on the cusp of a new era of hope and renewal – the New Dawn is upon us.

The ANC has a unique history of advancing the aspirations of South Africans. The commitments we make in this Manifesto are in the spirit of Thuma Mina that inspires the New Dawn. At critical moments in our country’s history, we have demonstrated that we can mobilise and unite South Africans around the common challenges facing the country.

We have shown the capacity to self-correct where mistakes have been committed. We are a movement with experience in governance and a clear resolve to advance an agenda of radical socio-economic transformation.

This Manifesto is informed by the 54th National Conference of the ANC and, true to our tradition, we have consulted widely and listened to many voices in drafting the Manifesto. These voices include those of our Alliance partners and a broad range of organisations in the wider civil society. The peoples’ priorities are incorporated in this Manifesto.

Our Manifesto is a coherent and bold people’s plan for a better life for all, addressing the persistent realities of unemployment, poverty and inequality. The NDP will to continue to guide government’s policy agenda and will be implemented at a brisker pace.

Our Manifesto is about:

- Transforming the economy to serve all people, through interventions that promote a developmental growth path to create more jobs and decent jobs. This will need sustainable and radical land reform and a plan to broaden ownership of the economy. It will mean that we must address monopolies, excessive concentration and the growth- inhibiting structure of the economy and advance an industrial plan for localisation. We must drive innovation and the digital revolution, increase levels of investment in the economy, accelerate the provision of infrastructure to support the economy and meet basic needs, transform and diversify the financial sector, consolidate support for small businesses and cooperatives, as well as the grow the township and village economy. These interventions will be accompanied by the development of an appropriate macroeconomic framework to support the transformation of the economy to serve all people.

- Advancing social transformation that continues to make education and health our priorities to radically improve access and quality, building more homes, a modern, integrated, affordable, accessible and reliable public transport system, and working towards a comprehensive social security system to protect the well-being of the people and society. Our Manifesto focuses on keeping our communities safe by ensuring there is security in our streets, our homes, our schools and our borders. This includes our fight against gender-based violence, drugs and gangsterism.

- Stepping up the fight against corruption throughout society and safeguarding the integrity of the state and ethical leadership.

- Re-building and renewing a capable and developmental state, re-organising the way government interacts with the people, rebuilding and improving local government, and improving public accountability and responsiveness to the needs and concerns of the people, and rebuilding and improving the local government system.

- Advancing nation-building and social cohesion, stepping up the fight against racism, sexism, homophobia and other intolerances.

- Building a better Africa and a better world.

This manifesto sets out how we will improve the lives of South Africans and grow South Africa together.

Twenty-five years ago, the South African people changed the course of history and broke the bonds of colonialism, apartheid and patriarchy.

On April 27, 1994, we finally held South Africa’s first non-racial, democratic election and the nation delivered a decisive majority to the African National Congress. It is through this election that our beloved President Nelson Mandela assumed the helm with a commitment to build a better life for all South Africans.

Today, we look back at this process of critical political and social change full of pride because of what the ANC, its allies and the people of this country have achieved.

We have made progress and faced challenges in our foundational aspiration to build a united and democratic South Africa.

- Our constitution is embraced by all South Africans, advancing the individual and collective rights of our people. Our robust Chapter Nine institutions, judiciary and parliament are critical safeguards to protect these rights.

- We have improved the representation and empowerment of women in the public and private sectors through our constitutional commitment to non-sexism and gender equality.

- Our democracy unleashed the creative energies of all people in sports, arts, music, literature, film and dance, as well as science, technology and innovation.

- Although the demon of racism is far from defeated, we have a society that refuses to accept racism as the norm.

The lives of the majority of South Africans have improved:

- Electricity:

- In 1994, only 36% of the population and only 12% of people in rural communities had access to electricity.

- Today, 8 out of 10 South Africans, including those in rural areas, have their homes electrified. This has improved the quality of lives and reduced exposure to dangerous levels of air pollution from using coal, wood or charcoal for cooking and heating. Progress towards universal access is now integrated with the use of renewable electricity from the sun, wind and water to power buildings, transport and industry.

- Water:

- In 1994, only 6 out of 10 South Africans had access to clean drinking water. Today, that figure has increased to nearly 9 out of 10 South Africans.

- The improved access to water services has reduced the time spent, mostly by women and girls, on gathering water and has given more time for productive activities, adult education, empowerment activities and leisure. We will continue to maintain water infrastructure and expand access to water for all, while enhancing quality control and management for the sustainable use of our water resources.

- Housing:

- Since 1994, over 3,2 million free houses have been built benefiting over 14 million people. This has meant a massive extension of home ownership, growing the productive assets of our people. In the recent period, we have been hard at work to ensure that more and more South Africans live closer to economic opportunities and that we eventually overcome the race-based spatial separation of our people inherited from apartheid.

- Education:

- In the 2014 Manifesto, we committed ourselves to eradicating illiteracy. Today 9 out of 10 adult South Africans can read and write, and an illiteracy-free South Africa is within our reach.

- Ninety percent of public schools have become no-fee paying schools, and learners are benefiting from school feeding schemes and subsidised public transport. This has contributed to the increase in school attendance from 51% in 1994 to 99% today.

- We have achieved near universal access to basic education for young children aged 7-14 years of age.

- The number of learners who passed matric increased from 50% before 1994 to around 78% today, with a major shift in the balance of high performers to schools with learners from poor backgrounds. We will continue to build a solid foundation for quality teaching and learning well before Grade 12.

- Our support for university and TVET college students from poor and working class backgrounds through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has hugely increased from R70 million in 1994 to nearly R15 billion in 2018. This has contributed to the enrolment of students doubling over the same period to over two million, significantly transforming the racial and gender composition of the student population.

- Building on the NSFAS programme, in 2018 we introduced free higher education at first year level for students from poor and working class families. This policy will be extended to second year students this year and by 2024 all undergraduate students will be fully funded by NSFAS.

- We have made signficant progress in meeting the NDP goal of graduating at least 5,000 doctoral graduates annually by 2030. In 2017, 2,450 students graduated with doctorates from our universities and we will continue expanding our investments in graduate education.

- Health:

- More South Africans are living longer, with average life expectancy increasing to 64 years in 2018 from a low of 53 years in 2005.

- Progress in life expectancy reflects improvements in the quality and availability of health care, our massive campaign to turn the tide against HIV and Aids and our efforts to meet basic needs like access to clean water, electricity and adequate housing.

- More than 4.5 million South Africans living with HIV receive antiretroviral treatment, up from 2.4 million in 2014, making it the biggest antiretroviral treatment programme in the world.

- We have made dramatic progress in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In 2004, over 70,000 of babies born to HIV positive mothers became infected. By 2018 this figure had plummeted to 4,500, saving tens of thousands of new born babies per year.

- New HIV infections have decreased but our collective fight continues for an AIDS-free generation.

- In 2009, there were 69,000 TB related deaths, and by 2016 these had dropped to 29,000.

- Access to free primary health care has been expanded from pregnant women and children under six years of age in 1994 to free primary health care for all today.

- Thousands more medical doctors, including from poor families, have been produced by our public medical schools. More needs to be done to improve the production of more health professionals.

- We have begun the process of establishing the National Health Insurance (NHI) by rolling out various pilot sites across the country and drafting the enabling legislation for the country-wide introduction of the NHI.

- Comprehensive social security:

- The number of individuals on social grants increased from 3 million in 1994 to 17,5 million in 2017, benefiting children, the elderly, people with disability and veterans.

- The Unemployment Insurance Fund has been extended to help most workers (including domestic workers) and the benefit payment period has been increased from 6 months to 12 months.

- Women on maternity leave who paid into the UIF for 13 weeks or more will now be entitled to receive benefits for between 17 and 32 weeks and receive a flat rate of 66% of their salary (instead of 38% to 60%). These benefits also extend to the LGBTQI community.

- More recently, we introduced unprecedented legislation in South African history, the National Minimum Wage, which will improve the wages of at least 6 million workers who are currently being paid below the national minimum wage level of R20 an hour. This National Minimum Wage forms part of the broader reforms aimed at achieving a living wage for most South Africans.

- Economy:

- Since 1994, we have seen sustained growth, tripling the size of the economy and improving the GDP per capita. Sustained growth has been crucial for enabling redistribution of public resources to meet the basic social needs of our people.

- Employment also picked up since 1994 compared with the pre-1994 period. Today seven million more people are working, making a total of over 16 million. However, employment growth has slowed since 2013 due to a combination of global and domestic factors. We face a more significant challenge to meet the target of 24 million employed by 2030.

- We have advanced the rights of workers and protected vulnerable workers through progressive labour legislation. At the same time, relative to full-time employment, we have seen the growth of more precarious forms of work through casualisation and labour brokering.

- The black middle class has grown significantly thanks to the ANC’s progressive policies on affirmative action, black industrialisation, broad-based black economic empowerment and gender equality.

- Infrastructure:

- We have invested more than R2 trillion in infrastructure projects over the past 10 years to build more schools, clinics, roads and the freight logistics network.

- These achievements and many others have been the most critical factors in the support the ANC has received from the voting public since 1994. People have affirmed the confidence they have placed in us to achieve the vision set out in the Freedom Charter.

- Throughout these years, the majority of the South Africans have voted for an ANC government and renewed its electoral mandate to continue with its historic mission of building an inclusive South Africa and contribute to a better Africa and a better world.

We aim to transform the economy to ensure it serves the people. Our Manifesto builds on the recently announced stimulus and recovery plan and sets out our key commitments to change the structure of the economy.

Too many people are unemployed, particularly among the youth and too many jobs are lowly paid and insecure.

1. Our Plan for More Jobs and Decent Jobs takes forward the outcomes of the Presidential Jobs Summit aimed at protecting and creating decent jobs, with a focus on addressing youth unemployment. The public and private sector must take concrete steps to bridge the gap between skills and the labour market, including the implementation of mass apprenticeship opportunities for young men and women.

2. Our Plan for Broadening Ownership promotes mixed ownership of the economy, with a focus on extending worker ownership across the sectors of the economy.

3. We will carry out a Sustainable Land Reform Programme that expands participation in, and ownership of, agricultural production, advances food security and helps reverse the apartheid spatial separation of our cities and towns. This will be done through a range of measures, including expropriation without compensation.

4. We will address Monopolies, Excessive Economic Concentration, Abuse of Dominance by Large Corporations and the Growth-Inhibiting Structure of the Economy by de-concentrating and transforming the economy and opening it up to participation by small and medium enterprises, emerging co-operatives and township and village enterprises.

5. Our Investment Plan aims to increase the levels of investment by R1.2 trillion over the next 4 four years to grow our economy and create jobs. We will create a publicly-led infrastructure fund to build more roads, schools, health facilities, water and sanitation infrastructure, transport networks, ICT systems and energy generation and distribution capacity.

6. Our Industrial Strategy will accelerate industrialisation by supporting enterprises, including black industrialists, to save and create decent jobs in the core industries of manufacturing, agro-processing, mining and beneficiation, and tourism. Industrial policy support will include sectors of the future, such as renewable energy. We will address the rising energy prices and strengthen public procurement and other regulatory tools which will be leveraged to support locally produced goods and services and promote the Buy Local Campaign. We will work with the private sector and organised labour to drive the industrialisation of South Africa and Africa.

7. The country and the world are at a critical point in the Digital Revolution. We must craft our common digital future and devise a national programme for innovation that will unleash the talents and creativity of South Africans. Our country must become the centre of digital transformation in Africa. Its benefits must be spread across the economy and society rather than reinforcing existing inequality.

8. We will help grow Small Enterprises, Co-Operatives and the Township and Village Economies for economic transformation, job creation and innovation and encourage all forms of entrepreneurship.

9. We will Transform and Diversify the Financial Sector and ensure the industry serves the economy and the people.

10. Our Macroeconomic Framework, through fiscal and monetary policies, will be aligned to support the commitments made in this Manifesto.

MORE JOBS, MORE DECENT JOBS

Working with labour, business and communities, we will create many new jobs and ensure that all workers can earn a decent living.

- 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

- Massively increase internship and training opportunities for young people

- Implement the national minumum wage to improve the lives of 6 million workers

- Mobilise R1.2 trillion in new investment over 4 years

- Establish an Infrastructure Fund to build roads, rail lines, hospitals, schools, dams and other infrastructure vital for a growing economy

Too many of our people are without decent jobs. Our plan is to draw more South Africans, particularly youth and women, into decent employment and self-employment. Much work still needs to be done to promote decent work.

We will:

- Work with social partners (business, labour and communities) to implement the Presidential Jobs Summit framework agreement, which has the potential to create around 275,000 jobs annually.

- Ensure that we not only create new jobs, but work hard to protect existing jobs. In line with the Presidential Jobs Summit outcomes, we will take active steps to ensure that retrenchments are the last consideration taken by employers and that retrenchment procedures are reviewed.

- Set bold but achievable targets for youth internships, including prescribing a minimum percentage in the public sector while securing concrete commitments from the private sector.

- Increase employment through programmes that expand early childhood development sites, primary health care services and increase police visibility in our communities.

- Remove work experience as a requirement for employment of young people, especially in the public sector, as it robs the youth of employment opportunities.

- Scale-up support for micro, small and medium enterprises, co-operatives and township and village enterprises, including through the rapid implementation of measures contained in the Competition Amendment Bill. Support for these enterprises will include enterprise development, public and private procurement and access to funding and enterprise development.

- Increase participation in public employment programmes such as the Expanded Public Works Programmes through a guaranteed placement of TVET graduates and increasing private sector placement for beneficiaries of public employment programmes.

- Roll out the implementation of the National Minimum Wage to cover workers in domestic work, farming and forestry and other vulnerable sectors and ensure effective compliance.

- Ensure adequate legislation is in place to give effect to the Constitutional Court’s ruling on labour brokers.

- Develop a short and medium-term plan to insource support services back into the public sector.

- Ensure that the laws of the country are observed in the employment of foreign nationals by firms.

The rate of investment in the productive economy and infrastructure has slowed in the recent past. Increasing such investments will help us grow the economy faster, create jobs and boost incomes. This should help us to strengthen our infrastructure for more roads, schools, toilets, clinics and hospitals, housing, public transport, communications systems, energy generation and distribution.

We will:

- Work tirelessly to increase the levels of investments by R1,2 trillion over the next four years as part of our plan to grow the economy and create jobs. We are within reach of our target. These investments will help diversify the economy in sectors like mining, forestry, manufacturing, telecommunications, transport, energy, water, agro-processing, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure and financial services.

- Investigate the introduction of prescribed assets on financial institutions’ funds to unlock resources for investments in social and economic development.

- Build a social compact on infrastructure investment with business and organised labour to build more and better infrastructure. These investments will boost faster economic growth and improve the lives of many South Africans.

- Establish a Sovereign Wealth Fund to invest in strategic sectors of the economy and long-term social and environmental needs of the county.

- Establish an Infrastructure Fund to finance key economic and social infrastructure projects. Strengthen the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission (PICC) to unblock and fast-track the delivery of infrastructure projects, such as the public passenger transport system, water infrastructure and integrated communities.

The ANC will strengthen the country’s industrialisation path by boosting domestic demand through public and private procurement, building our core industries of manufacturing, agriculture and agro-processing, mining and beneficiation, energy and renewable energy, tourism, the ocean economy and creative industries.

On localisation, we will:

- Strengthen government and state-owned enterprises procurement and leverage private sector procurement to support local enterprises, including township and village enterprises, black industrialists, and support stronger job creation and localisation.

- Increase designation of products that are locally produced to facilitate an expanded Buy Local Campaign, stronger support for the Local Procurement Accord agreed to at NEDLAC and greater partnerships with and commitments by the retail sector to support local industries.

- Impose penalties for state institutions or agencies that do not comply with the government’s localisation commitments and ensure this forms part of the perfor- mance agreements with accounting officers.

- Attach conditionalities to all forms of state support, including incentives, to encourage the private sector to match government local procurement commitments. These conditionalities will be similar to the Tax Clearance Certificate required for all enterprises doing business with the state and receipt of incentives.

- Build an institutional capacity to support localisation, including SARS with an urgent focus on combating illegal imports, smuggling, invoice fraud and dumping.

- Apply targeted tariffs and non-tariff measures where necessary to protect and incentivise labour-intensive industries, including agriculture, clothing, textile and footwear and other manufacturing industries.

On renewable energy, we will:

- Continue to support the use of renewable technologies in the country’s energy mix to reduce the cost of energy, decrease greenhouse emissions, build the local industry through increased localisation and create jobs, while recognising the reality that we have large coal reserves that can provide cheap energy that can also assist with affordable prices.

- Take forward NEDLAC’s Green Economy Accord on renewable energy. We will ensure that workers are treated fairly and reskilled and that the needs of people and the environment are at the centre of a just transition to a sustainable and low carbon energy future.

- Develop and implement a dedicated education and training programme on renewable energy targeting young people.

- Contribute to investment to boost greater demand in the renewable sector – particularly solar, municipal waste, biomass, biogas and wind – to support rural development, localisation, research and development, small enterprises and

co-operatives. The universities in Mpumalanga and Northern Cape will offer academic programmes in renewable energy.

- Reposition Eskom to play an active role in the renewable energy sector and promote public ownership in renewable energy infrastructure.

- Investigate the cost-benefit of introducing solar panels in state buildings and mandate new commercial and residential developments in the medium term to use renewable energy technologies to reduce utility costs. These should include deploying clean energy solutions to provide lighting and small power needs in the informal settlements.

On reducing administered prices, we will:

- Use administered prices as an intervention for growing the economy and supporting localisation in specific sectors.

On mining and beneficiation, we will:

- Support the local recycling industry, especially metals, rubber and paper. For scrap metals used by local foundries and steel mills, we will introduce an export tax to ensure greater local use of the resource to create local jobs, reduce energy emissions and support the national infrastructure programme.

- Ensure that the Mining Charter provisions benefit state, community and employee ownership. The state mining company will be strengthened to play a significant role in the industry.

On clothing, textile, and footwear, we will:

- Support the growth of the industry through boosting existing initiatives, including strengthening the Buy Local Campaign and intensifying the fight against illegal imports.

- Increase opportunities for women entrepreneurs, worker-owned businesses and SMMES in urban and rural areas through access to funding and markets, including public procurement and engagements with the retail sector to support local enterprises.

- Consider the establishment of a Special Economic Zone for clothing, textile, and footwear.

On the pharmaceutical industry, we will:

- Establish a state-owned pharmaceutical company as part of our programme to promote an affordable and reliable supply of medication and localisation, especially in the production of vaccines and active pharmaceutical ingredients.

- Support the local pharmaceutical industry through a range of measures, including access to public procurement and the black industrialist programme.

On the tourism industry, we will:

- Increase support for the tourism sector, including cultural tourism, to boost its job creation capacity by adopting a ‘whole-government approach’ to tourism, including reducing visa requirements for tourists and measures to ensure the security of tourists.

- Identify iconic and landmark sites that can be expanded for domestic and international tourists.

On the creative industries, we will:

- Promote and support the diverse creative industries, from folk art, festivals, music, books, paintings, performing art to the film industry, broadcasting and video games.

- Ensure public funding schemes do not exclude the creative industries and work with the private sector to increase investment in the sector.

- Develop and implement cultural projects in schools and communities that raise awareness of career opportunities in the creative industries.

- Develop and implement cultural projects in schools and communities that raise awareness of career opportunities in the creative industries.

- Promote and invest more in museums, archives, heritage and cultural projects. These will include support to conserve, protect and promote the country’s Liberation History and Heritage – archives, struggle sites, values, ideas, movements, veterans and networks.

- Work with stakeholders to ensure that innovators and artists are justly rewarded for their labour in the digital age and protect the copyrights of artists.

- Actively promote the growing African film industry by:

- producing more local content and investment in local infrastructure, especially in townships and rural areas,

- developing skills in capital raising, post-completion and distribution,

- providing capital for producing content and extending funding to address sales, marketing and distribution.

- Ensure demand for creative goods and services by tourists by supporting the development of creative industries.

On the ocean economy, we will:

- Establish an integrated governance framework for the sustainable growth of the ocean economy that maximises socio-economic benefits while ensuring adequate ocean environmental protection.

- Promote investment in offshore oil and gas exploration and production as new growth areas.

- Continue to support infrastructure development in marine transport as well as modernising and expanding the capacity of our ports.

- Finalise fishing quotas and ensure this is given effect to support aquaculture and sustainable livelihoods.

- Develop a marine policy that ensures the use of South African ships as part of our trade with the rest of the world.

The world and our nation are at a critical point in the rapid digital transformation linked to the 4th industrial revolution. This is reshaping the future of work, social interaction and industrial production. The rise of new technologies in robotics, artificial intelligence, big data and the internet-of-things will all have a profound impact on our country.

We will:

- Create a legal and regulatory framework for promotion of innovation.

- Work with stakeholders through the Presidential Digital Industrial Revolution Commission to shape a common digital future that places people at the centre of digital transformation and ensure that its benefits are spread across society.

- Increase spending on innovation and aim for more technological break- throughs critical to the country’s development through support for research.

- Scale-up skills development for the youth in data analytics, the internet-of-things, blockchain and machine learning, to enable training of young people to develop and operate new technologies.

- Work with partners to train workers and unleash their talents and creativity. A just transition framework will be developed with all stakeholders address re-skilling and support for workers displaced by new technologies.

- Reduce the cost of data through the work of competition authorities and the communication regulator, ICASA. Lowering the cost of data will be one of the major requirements in the licensing of the much-needed radio frequency spec- trum this year.

- Extending the government broadband rollout programme.

- Ensure there is significant localisation of new technologies and ensure that SMMEs and co-operatives are drawn into the digital economy.

- Support e-commerce which will enable SMMEs and co-operatives, including rural producers, to sell their products online, allowing them access to national, regional and global markets. This will include access to digital secure storage facilities known as data centres and cloud computing.

- Open opportunities for young people to develop new software and applica- tions, devices and equipment through specialised start-up support programmes for use by all spheres of government and society. A digital innovation centre will be established for this purpose within the next three years.

- Strengthen and consolidate efforts to digitalise government, utilise big data in planning and execution, and expedite the implementation of e-governance so that citizens can access public services from any location as they become connected. Priority will be given to effective use of new technologies for public infrastructure as we build smart public schools and smart health facilities and smart community policing to fight crime.

- Create rules to ensure safety and enforce our constitutional values on the web especially that of women and children.

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“We see a country that has embraced the benefits of technology for economic growth, social development and for more effective governance. We are producers of knowledge and drivers of technological progress.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa

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A GROWING ECONOMY FOR ALL

We will build an economy in which all our people have a meaningful stake and from which they can all benefit.

- Enable workers to own stakes in the companies they work for and share in the profits

- Create space for new emerging companies by ending monopolies and behaviour that stifles competition

- Allocate at least 30% of government’s procurement spend to small businesses and cooperatives

- Reduce the cost of data and extend free Wi-Fi to many more sites across the country

- Work with the financial sector to increase industrial and enterprise financing for small businesses, black industrialists and cooperatives

- Accelerate land reform and provide greater support for emerging commercial farmers

Broad-based ownership of the economy is one of the fundamental building blocks for transforming the economy to serve the people. The ANC has always been in favour of a mixed economy in which there is public, private and social ownership with distinct but complementary roles, thereby contributing towards shared prosperity.

We also believe that employees of successful companies must have a share in the profits and should continue to benefit should they retire or leave the company.

Moreover, promoting worker ownership adds to broad-based black empowerment by distributing wealth to broader sections of our people.

We will:

- Introduce legislation for the extension of company ownership to a broad base of workers through an employee ownership scheme and similar arrangements to supplement workers’ incomes and build greater partnerships between workers and owners to build these businesses. Social partners (government, labour and business) will put together the minimum thresholds and conditionalities to govern the establishment of worker-ownership funds, paving the way to empower millions of workers across the economy.

- Provide public assistance to enable employees to purchase viable private businesses from retiring owners that wish to sell their businesses to employees either through a worker-owned co-operative enterprise.

- Develop a policy framework to support the distinct and vibrant social and solidarity economy which is based on addressing social and environmental needs rather than profit maximisation. This sector includes co-operatives, community-based enterprises, trade union based enterprises, informal enterprises and non-profit organisations.

- Strengthen and consolidate existing state-owned enterprises to ensure they remain focused on their mandates to support socio-economic transformation while improving their governance systems and containing the cost of their operations. The ANC will extend public ownership, guided by feasibility studies, in pharmaceuticals, renewable energy and banking.

- Promote and ensure compliance in the ownership of black people, youth, persons with disabilities and women through the revised broad-based black economic empowerment programme.

Land reform is about redressing historical injustices and dispossession of the black majority. It is also a vital opportunity to unlock growth and promote socio-economic transformation. Our land reform programme provides a sustainable but radical way to address the land question. We will use our land reform programme to build productive assets for our people, unlock agricultural productivity, secure food security and address the persisting reality of apartheid spatial separation.

We will:

- Support the amendment of section 25 of the Constitution to clearly define the conditions under which expropriation of land without compensation can take place. This should be done in a way that promotes economic development, agricultural production and food security.

- Submit the revised Expropriation Bill to parliament to provide explicit circumstances under which land expropriation in the public interest may happen without compensation. The Bill will ensure that laws regulating expropriation will include the principle of expropriation without compensation through just and equitable provisions set out in the Constitution.

- Speed up the resolution of all outstanding land restitution claims

- Work with the established agribusiness to:

- ensure that the sector continues to increase its contribution to export earnings;

- develop greater support for emerging and small-scale farmers;

- invest in agricultural research and new smart technologies to enhance the sector’s market share in global trade;

- work with like minded countries to ensure just international agricultural trade regime;

- develop a sustainable agriculture strategy to mitigate the impact of climate change and identify new growth areas for production as well as diversification to new agricultural products that will ensure food security.

- Address the domination of agricultural inputs by big business and the monopoly domination in agro-processing and food retail that keep out small players.

- Consolidate all government support provided to small-scale farmers to ensure expanded production, including promotion of their co-operative activities or eco-systems through joint marketing and joint processing of their produce to ensure better impact.

- Address domination of agricultural inputs by big business and the monopoly domination in agro-processing and food retail that keeps out small players.

- Ensure that no land is wasted or underutilised through enacting and implementing measures to promote urban agriculture and community food gardens to provide national food security and reduce hunger.

- Give priority to land administration, management and development of skills in land related careers such as land valuation, land surveying and town and regional planning.

- Introduce measures to address high land and property costs, which push the poor majority into the periphery and deepen racial inequalities.

- Accelerate the transfer of title deeds to the rightful owners as part of the rapid land release programme that makes parcels of land available for those who want to build houses themselves.

- Ensure tenure security through adequate recognition and protection of the rights of long-term occupiers, women and labour tenants in communal land tenure.

- Advance women’s access to land and participation in agriculture and rural economies.

- Promote sustainable use of water resources, including smart agriculture, to mitigate the impact of climate change.

***

“Vacant land near the centres of cities and towns must be turned into affordable housing for the poor and working class, close to shops and parks, schools and clinics, public transport and places of work.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa

***

Central to boosting economic growth and allowing greater participation and empowerment of new entrants in the country’s economy is the need to deal with excessive economic concentration and abuse by large corporations and the grow inhibiting structure of the economy.

We will:

- Ensure the competition authorities have the legal power and the financial resources to address the problem of monopolies, excessive economic concentration and abuse of dominance by large players that keep SMMEs and co-operatives out of the mainstream economy.

- Institute measures to determine the level of ownership concentration and to take remedial action to de-concentrate the economy.

- Combat discrimination against SMMEs in the economy, including the abuse of buyer power, and unfair, excessive and predatory prices and other trading conditions that are imposed on small enterprises.

- End the abuse of dominance by large vertically-integrated firms.

- Ensure broad-based ownership, including worker ownership, in companies, during merger proceedings.

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, socially-owned enterprises such as co-operatives and revitalisation of township and village economies are critical for economic transformation, inclusive growth and job creation and can help drive innovation and all forms of entrepreneurship.

These enterprises provide great potential for women, youth, military veterans and people with disabilities. Over the years, the ANC government has developed and provided a range of financial and non-financial support measures to many of these enterprises.

We will:

- Scale up small business support measures, including access to funding and improved competition legislation. We will set up incubation centres in townships and rural areas.

- Facilitate access to markets for small businesses, co-operatives and township and village enterprises. At least 30% of government procurement spend will be allocated to goods and services from these enterprises. We will encourage the private sector to do the same.

- Implement a special dispensation or set asides in the awarding of medium- and long-term contracts to small businesses, co-operatives and township and village enterprises to allow for a period for incubation and other support to help reduce failure rates.

- Increase support measures for co-operative enterprises by implementing critical elements of the newly amended Co-operatives Act, including operationalising the co-operative development agency and the training academy.

- Establish a township and village economy fund to support the productive activities and the development of industrial parks, business centres and incubation centres in these areas.

- Help formalise township and village-based enterprises through an active campaign by provincial and local governments that promotes the benefits of formalisation.

- Address illegal trading and selling of adulterated food and the penetration of big retail chain stores as they undermine the township and village economy and displace locally owned retail stores and related services. To this end, we will:

- Expand the campaign to stop illegal trading in townships and villages, much of which is conducted by foreign nationals, with a view to promote and protect local ownership of grocery retail stores and other economic activities.

- Support the formation of a network of community-owned retail and wholesale facilities and effective use of township and rural-based local suppliers, including support of bulk-buying and packaging schemes by township and village retailers.

- Implement the outcomes of the Retail Market Inquiry by the Competition Commission addressing the impact of big retail chain stores on township and village economies.

The ANC is committed to a programme to transform and diversify the financial sector, including state, co-operative and mutual banking. We must do more to address the role of the financial sector in national development, including problems of access to funding and capital for small enterprises, housing, township and village enterprises and infrastructure.

It calls for a new social compact in the sector with clear targets.

We will:

- Broaden access to affordable industrial and enterprise finance for SMMEs, black industiralists and co-operatives. The ANC government will work with the financial sector on implementing its R100 billion commitment to support mainly black-owned enterprises over the next five years.

- Amend legislation to allow qualifying state-owned enterprises, such as those involved in the enterprise development, postal services and housing finance sectors to acquire state banking licences.

- Ensure that development finance institutions pay greater attention to employment creation, empowerment, industrial diversification and development, small businesses and co-operatives.

- Investigate the introduction of prescribed assets on financial institutions’ funds

to mobilise funds within a regulatory framework for socially productive investments (including housing, infrastructure for social and economic development and township and village economy) and job creation while considering the risk profiles of the affected entities.

- Increase public funding and support the growth of the co-operative banking sector as not-for-profit financial institutions that address financial exclusion and broaden ownership and control of banking by workers and communities. To this end, co-operative banking legislation will be strengthened to:

- recognise registered “co-operative financial institutions” as co-operative banks through a tiered system approach that considers different levels of co-operative banking development,

- ensure adequate protection for deposit-holders in the cooperative banking sector through the proposed Deposit Insurance Scheme,

- allow the sector to access payroll deduction facilities for their members in both the public, private and social sectors,

- speed up access to the national payment system to allow the sector to provide a comprehensive range of banking and related services to their members.

Our macroeconomic framework, including fiscal and monetary policies, will be aligned to support the commitments made in this Manifesto.

The ANC believes that the South African Reserve Bank must pursue a flexible monetary policy regime, aligned with the objectives of the second phase of transition. Without sacrificing price stability, monetary policy must take into account other objectives such as employment creation and economic growth.

Our Manifesto builds on the achievements made over the last 25 years to advance social transformation.

We will continue to give priority to Education and Skills Development, as we work towards universal access in early childhood development facilities, improving the quality of primary education and enhancing the effort to strengthen higher education and vocational training.

We will bring the country closer to Quality Universal Health Coverage through National Health Insurance and will improve the quality of the public health sector as the backbone for a future unified national health system.

We will ensure that Sustainable Human Settlements help transform the spatial legacy of apartheid and build a more inclusive society.

We will continue to Maintain and Expand our Social Security System to protect the vulnerable and reduce poverty.

A SKILLS REVOLUTION

By opening up the doors of learning to all, by focusing on quality and innovation, we will equip young South Africans for the world of tomorrow.

- Prepare to make 2 years of early childhood development compulsory for all children

- Appoint qualified teachers, develop their skills and enforce accountability

- Replace unsafe and inadequate school buildings and sanitation facilities

- Extend free higher education for the poor and ‘missing middle’

- Implement a mass apprenticeship programme across the economy

The last 25 years have seen many achievements in education, from the creation of a single non-racial education system to the accomplishment of almost universal enrolment in the early years of school, as well as a substantial expansion of enrolment in higher education to the recent growth of our first childhood development programme. The focus has now shifted towards quality of education

while improving access. Quality education must lead to higher learner progression through institutions, and high completion rates in schools, TVET colleges and universities. Unlocking the energy and creativity of South Africa’s young and working people, by building their skills and capacities, is critical to the eradication of poverty, unemployment and inequality. We shall ensure that skills development is at the heart of all aspects of our plans in this Manifesto.

On Early Child Development (ECD), we will:

- Extend the core responsibilities of the Department of Basic Education to include the provision and monitoring of ECD.

- Provide a comprehensive package of ECD services (birth registration, social assistance, parenting support and quality learning).

- Standardise guidelines, norms and standards for ECD and set the employment targets in the sector over the next five years.

- Develop a plan to take care of the first 1,000 days of human life, from pregnancy until two years of age, in which the pregnant mother will get good nutrition, be encouraged to stop smoking and drinking alchohol and undertake antenatal care visits from an early stage. The baby will have good nutrition, exclusive breast feeding, immunisation and growth monitoring.

- Work to achieve universal access to two years of ECD, which would two years of compulsory quality pre-school enrolment for 4 and 5 year olds before grade 1.

- Promote innovation on different models for delivering home and community-based ECD.

On Basic Education, we will:

- Prioritise policies and strategies targeting the achievement of quality teaching and learning outcomes by enhancing the skills and competencies of educators, including the school management team comprising the school principal, deputy principal and subject heads.

- Amend relevant legislation and policies to enforce accountability and consequence management.

- Appoint adequately qualified teachers whose subject content knowledge is at required levels.

- Implement the new innovative way of assessing learners through the National Integrated Assessment Framework for Grades 3, 6 and 9 as a replacement for ANA.

- Amend the curriculum and provide the necessary resources to prepare learners for the 4th Industrial Revolution.

- Continue to replace inappropriate school structures and sanitation facilities.

On Post School Education and Training, we will

- Continue to strengthen measures that will improve access to higher education with the goal of achieving free higher education for the poor and ‘missing middle’.

- Ensure that the TVET and Community College sector is adequately funded and responds to the country’s skills needs and high levels of unemployment. This will include fostering partnerships with universities of technology and various industries for work experience for both lecturers and students.

- Ensure that there are special efforts by the private sector and other partners to work with the training authorities to develop the skills needed in the workplace.

- Target our skills development programmes to the unemployed, youth, low-skilled people and those in precarious forms of employment, including the self-employed.

- Develop a new landscape for Skills and Education Training Authorities (SETAs) and ensure they are aligned with national priorities and our industrial plan. This should include a mass apprenticeship programme that covers all sectors of the economy.

QUALITY HEALTH FOR ALL

We will take immediate steps to improve the state of hospitals and clinics and work to achieve universal health coverage by 2025.

- Implement a National Health Insurance to provide quality health care free at the point of use

- Fill critical vacant posts in public health facilities

- Significantly expand 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

The goal of achieving universal health coverage and overcoming our two-tier health system through the National Health Insurance (NHI) programme remains a central priority. The NHI will be publicly funded and administered to guarantee quality health care to all South Africans and will be free at the point of use.

All South Africans should be covered by NHI by 2025. The tabling of the NHI Bill in parliament will be a crucial milestone for rolling out funding for universal access and implementing key elements of the NHI.

Our Plan builds on the outcomes of the 2018 Presidential Health Summit, which highlighted the state of crisis in our health system. The Summit called for a stronger social compact among key stakeholders and for government to address immediate challenges in the public health sector. The partners will jointly address the challenges of human resources, infrastructure, financial management, community involvement and the health information system.

We will:

- Implement the next phase of the NHI programme over the next five years through legislative measures to realise universal health access and good quality care for all.

- Create a publicly administered NHI Fund.

- Roll-out a quality health improvement plan in public health facilities to ensure that they meet the quality standards required for certification and accreditation for NHI.

- Strengthen the public health system to deliver services covered by NHI and not outsource this responsibility.

- Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy and operational plan to address the human resources requirements, including filling critical vacant posts for full implementation of universal health care.

- Expand the primary health care system by absorbing over 50,000 community health workers into the public health system. Within five years, the number of community health workers will be doubled and deployed in our villages, townships and informal settlements to serve our people.

- Consolidate nursing colleges into one major nursing college with satellites in each province and orientate their curriculum towards more practical work at the patient’s bedside.

- Strengthen and expand the Mandela-Fidel Castro Programme to supplement the production of much-needed medical practitioners and other health professionals. At the same time, local universities must be expanded with

new infrastructure, equipment and personnel to increase the intake of medical students for local training.

- Delegate responsibility to district and frontline health service managers in hospitals and clinics to ensure that people do not spend long hours in queues before receiving the treatment they need.

- Ensure effective enforcement of health and safety regulations at the workplace.

- Enhance management and leadership of the entire health sector to ensure improved service delivery.

- Develop a comprehensive policy and legislative framework to mitigate the risks related to medical litigation.

- Develop a streamlined, integrated information system for decision-making in support of implementation that will remove duplication at all levels.

- Drive national health wellness and healthy lifestyle campaigns to reduce the burden of disease and ill health. These will include:

- testing an additional 2 million people for TB and initiating treatment for those with the disease,

- ensuring that by 2020, 90% of all people with HIV know their status, 90% of those who know their status and are HIV positive are put on treatment and 90% of those on antiretrovirals are virally suppressed. Through this 90-90-90 strategy, we aim to end the epidemic.

SECURITY AND COMFORT FOR ALL

We will further improve the lives of millions of South Africans by working towards comprehensive social security, building houses close to work opportunities, providing affordable basic services and building reliable public transport.

- Expand access to social security benefits and increase UIF coverage

- Release state land for people to build their own homes

- Develop several major projects that brings together economic nodes, housing, smart technologies and public transportation

- Invest in safe, reliable and integrated public rail transport

- Prioritise the provision of clean water and decent, safe sanitation

Social security is a necessity for the social well-being of the people. Despite major achievements made to provide adequate social security coverage since 1994, there are those who are not covered by existing programmes, affecting those who work and those unable to work. Over the next five years, the ANC will make comprehensive social security coverage a major priority.

We will:

- Define a basket of social security benefits that all should access, with the delivery of a package of services free from administrative burdens.

- Address social grants exclusion errors by improving targeting (orphans, children, aged on farms, remote rural areas, disabilities).

- Increase UIF coverage as currently only 5% of unemployed people benefit from this Fund.

- Support child headed families through social security.

- Finalise a comprehensive policy on social security that will include low-paid workers and informal traders, as well as pregnancy and maternity benefit schemes.

While we have improved the lives of millions of South Africans through provision of housing and associated basic services, the spatial patterns of aparthied have not been addressed. Through the National Development Plan we seek to advance a coherent programme to transform human settlements and to ensure that the delivery of housing is used to restructure towns and cities and strengthen the livelihood prospects of households and overcome apartheid spatial patterns.

We will:

- Work closely with the private sector to develop major development projects that brings together economic nodes, human settlements, smart technologies and public transportation that impact on spatial transformation. These include building at least one new South Africa city of the future.

- Transform the property market to promote access to urban opportunity and social integration through access to well-located, affordable housing and decent shelter, thereby reversing urban fragmentation and highly inefficient sprawl.

- Release land at the disposal of the state for site and service to afford households the opportunity to build and own their own homes.

- Transform the composition and functioning of the property industry and accelerate legislative measures to eliminate speculative behaviour, including the establishment of a Property Sector Ombudsman.

- Improve the alignment of housing provision with other public investments and service provision, including schools and health facilities and transport networks, complementing more integrated residential, industrial and

commercial development.

- Address the title deeds backlog, along with associated institutional and capacity gaps, to ensure that the transfer of title deeds move with higher speed.

- Develop a more coherent and inclusive approach to land by developing overarching principles for spatial development.

- Revise the regulations and incentives for housing and land use management.

On public transport, we will:

- Invest in rail infrastructure to ensure it is safe, reliable and integrated with other modes of public transport. Rail must be the backbone of our public transport system.

- Work with the taxi industry to transform the industry by supporting initiatives that will ensure it is safe, clean and provides a quality service.

- Support driver training and ensure industry players participate in the broader transportation agenda.

- Modernise the public transport permits to prevent corruption

- Support the roll-out of Bus Rapid Transport systems in other cities.

- Invest in public transport infrastructure.

- Support the integration of various modes of transport through a single ticketing system.

- Ensure that freight is shifted from road to rail.

Providing access to clean water for all has been the goal of the ANC since 1994 and we are proud of the progress we have made and we will continue to expand our water infrastructure. Sustainable use of our water resources and making water affordable are central to achieving this goal. While progress has been made in the provision of sanitation services, more must be done to eradicate bucket systems and pit latrines.

We will:

- Continue to prioritise roll-out and provision of water infrastructure to ensure availability of clean water to all South Africans.

- Eradicate bucket systems and pit latrines in various parts of the country.

- Review the policy on minimum free basic water to help further cushion the poor.

SAFE COMMUNITIES, SAFE LIVES

We will strengthen policing to rid our communities of all forms of crime, drugs, gangsterism and violence against women.

- Ensure police are better trained to investigate and conclude cases

- Increase the numbers and visibility of police men and women in communities

- Implement a national plan of action that addresses the causes of gender-based violence

- Equip police and courts to support survivors of gender-based violence

- Target drug syndicates through the new anti-gang units

BUILD SAFER COMMUNITIES

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Gender-based violence has reached crisis proportions. It affects every community in our country and touches the lives of most families in one way or another. Women are being violated and murdered in the worst manifestation of patriarchal relations. This is not acceptable. The ANC says the fight against gender-based violence must be intensified, and we welcome the growing, diverse number of voices that are joining the fight against gender-based violence.

The ANC believes in a multi-sectoral approach that responds to the need to step up the fight against gender-based violence and strengthen the broader interventions that address the causes and effects of such violence, particularly issues of patriarchy, economic relations and changing the way of thinking about gender relations.

We will:

- Work with all stakeholders to take forward the outcomes of the 2018 Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence, though, among others, a national plan of action against gender-based violence.

- Speed up educational programmes aimed at offering psychological and social support to vulnerable learners, and work with young children to change social attitudes.

- Call for stricter bail conditions for and harsher sentences in combating violence against women and children, particularly in cases of domestic violence and sexual offences.

- Capacitate and equip the police and the court system to support survivors of gender-based violence and sexual assault.

- Scale up the network of Thuthuzela Care Centres and other victim empowerment centres for a more effective response to incidents of violent sexual acts against women and children, reduction of victimisation and improved conviction rates and conclusion of cases.

High levels of crime pose a serious threat to the freedom and dignity of South Africans, with drugs, violent crime and gangsterism wreaking havoc in our communities. The causes of crime are rooted in unemployment, poverty and inequality and a comprehensive response to crime is required.

The ANC government has given national priority to crime prevention, involving all public institutions of justice and security and promoting community mobilisation and participation.

Undocumented immigration has an adverse impact on national security. We should ensure that that those who come to South Africa do so legally and that the country knows what they do while they are in the country.

We will:

- Ensure that law enforcement officers are adequately trained to investigate cases to improve success rates.

- Strengthen resourcing, joint planning and budgeting across the criminal justice system, including strengthening capacity in areas of investigations and prosecutions.

- Increase police visibility in our communities by increasing the number of men and women in uniform.

- Strengthen Community Policing Forums and Community Safety Forums. Members of the communities must know their neighbours and be concerned about their lives.

- Ensure the reduction of crime, especially violence against vulnerable groups.

- Target drug syndicates through the implementation of the National Anti-Gang Strategy and the revised National Drug Master Plan.

- Work with law enforcement agencies and various organisations to fight the abuse by young people of substances like nyaope, tik, wunga, etc.

- Run national campaigns to build respect for the rule of law.

- Enact and enforce legislation to compel municipalities to regulate the location of taverns and liquor retailers away from schools and religious establishments.

- Take tough measures against undocumented immigrants involved in criminal activities in the country or in cross-border crimes, including those involved in illegal trading and selling adulterated food in townships and villages.

CAPABLE, HONEST GOVERNMENT

We will put an end to state capture, restore the integrity of public institutions and tackle corruption, while ensuring that government has the capacity, resources and people to serve citizens effectively.

- Take decisive action against state capture and corruption in public institutions and state owned enterprises

- Conduct lifestyle audits of public officials and prevent public servants from doing business with the state

- Make tender systems more transparent, efficient and credible

- Continue work to strengthen law enforcement agencies like the Hawks, Special Investigating Unit and National Prosecuting Authority

- Strengthen the oversight role of Parliament and provincial legislatures

- Support local councils to improve financial management, service provision and infrastructure building and maintenance

Corruption has negative consequences on our economy and society, impacting on the integrity of our institutions, our leaders and undermining the very moral and ethical basis of our young democracy. Ethical and moral leadership in both the public and private sector will be critical if our collective fight against corruption is to succeed.

We are committed to consolidating our resolve to crack down on corruption and state capture involving the public and private sectors, including collusion, price-fixing, tender fraud, bribery, illicit financial flows, illegal imports and misuse of tax havens. We will comprehensively fight corruption, combining both prevention and punishment.

We will actively promote a culture of integrity throughout the state, society and within our people’s organisation - the ANC. We will ensure that leaders and members of the ANC and the broader movement and those entrusted with public responsibilities are uncorrupted, honest and self-disciplined with clear values who can resist moral pressures. We will not tolerate practices that harm the public interest. We will hold people accountable and those who loot public resources must face the might of the law.

The ANC has given priority to maintaining and enhancing the integrity of public institutions and public representatives and tackling corrupt practices in the private sector. We have taken firm action to deal with the problems of corruption, state capture and the types of misconduct that have not only given rise to a public outcry but have also impacted negatively on the economy and society.

These actions include the establishment of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, cleaning up state security agencies, authorising hundreds of investigations by the Special Investigating Unit, dismissing those who have abused positions of authority and cancelling major state contracts. All these actions represent significant progress in restoring integrity and public trust.

We will:

- Strengthen the criminal justice system to recover stolen public funds, including those in offshore tax havens.

- Step up measures that act against private companies, financial services and agents that facilitate tax avoidance and illicit financial flows, profit shifting, illegal imports and import fraud, thereby robbing the country of tax revenue.

- Ensure the speedy implementation of lifestyle audits and broaden vetting and financial monitoring to curb corruption.

- Strengthen implementation of legislation preventing public servants from conducting business with the state.

- Develop systems to ensure that we build a more transparent and more open tender system as mitigation against fraud, bribery and corruption.

- Build and strengthen a social compact on anti-corruption that will include initiatives that discourage those that turn blind-eye to corruption.

We are also determined to show no tolerance in the fight against corruption and misconduct within the ANC. We have taken steps to send to parliament and legislatures the best of our public representatives who have made individual and collective pledges to serve our people with respect, integrity and humility.

We are building a capable developmental state that has improved the lives of millions of our people. Few countries in the world have succeeded in expanding vital services such as water, sanitation, electricity, roads and housing to so many people in such a short time.

This has been achieved by national and provincial government working with local government. However, far too many municipalities and some provinces are distressed or dysfunctional. They lack the financial, technical or administrative capacity to meet the needs of their residents.

Integrated planning and implementation across departments and spheres government must be improved.

The social compact between government, business, labour, civil society and traditional leaders must be strengthened.

The institutions established by the Constitution such as Parliament, the judiciary and institutions supporting democracy are discharging their duties with distinction.

Many political leaders and civil servants are hard working, honest, competent, committed and accountable. Unfortunately, too many have been seduced by greed and succumbed to corruption and the arrogance of power and have become unresponsive and unaccountable. Violent protests have become too frequent.

The National Development Plan sets out clear recommendations to build a capable, accountable developmental state.

On a responsive and accountable government, we will:

- Work to improve the way government interacts with communities by conducting regular forums or imbizos and make effective use of new communication technologies to address community problems and empower communities to organise themselves.

- Strengthen the oversight role of Parliament and provincial legislatures.

- Continue implementing measures to safeguard the independence of the judiciary.

- Support and resource institutions supporting democracy.

- Step up public service performance inspections and unannounced visits as part of improving the performance of public servants in putting people first.

- Strengthen governance interventions in public entities and security agencies.

- Implement accountability and consequence management.

On local government, we will:

- Ensure that local government builds and strengthens people’s power and that residents are actively involved in decisions about their ward, zone, town or city.

- Support municipalities to make more effective use of information and technology to improve their efficiency, effectiveness and impact.

- Continue to improve the skills base of local government by enforcing compliance with appropriate standards for senior officials and building capacity through deployment of district support teams consisting of engineers, planners, financial and governance experts.

- Strengthen the coordination of inter-governmental relations and planning and be more proactive in mediating and resolving problems, including between district and local municipalities.

- Support municipalities to transform the spatial injustices of apartheid which relegated most South Africans to the margins of cities and towns and farming areas, leaving them without rights, without land, without assets and without opportunities.

- Use the Integrated Urban Development Framework to manage rapid urbanisation and steer urban growth towards a sustainable model of compact, connected and coordinated cities and towns and strengthen links between urban and rural areas.

- Build the capacity of municipalities to promote investment and job creation by ensuring that they provide electricity, water and other services reliably and consistently and are efficient in issuing permits and effective in the enforce- ment of regulations and by-laws.

On institutions of traditional leadership, we will:

- Promote co-operative relations between government in all spheres and traditional authorities and its leadership, including in relation to economic development and land use management.

- Investigate a special cooperative governance dispensation that will effectively manage the relationship of municipalities and traditional authorities.

- Strengthen relations with institutions of traditional leadership, including working closely with Contralesa.

***

“The achievement of an inclusive society requires institutions that are not only credible and capable, but that are also equipped to enable and facilitate transformation. We seek a state that is both capable and developmental”.

President Cyril Ramaphosa

***

A NATION UNITED IN DIVERSITY

We will work to unite all South Africans to overcome the divisions of the past and build a country in which all belong and in which all feel at home.

- Implement indigenous language programmes in schools and elsewhere

- Introduce laws to combat hate crimes against people based on their race, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation or albinism

- Promote media freedom and diversity

- Include the needs of people with disability in all government programmes

- Celebrate all cultures during national holidays and include all South Africans

The ANC is a political movement dedicated to building a united and democratic South Africa free from all forms of racism, sexism, xenophobia and hate crime.

The struggle for non-racialism requires overcoming the legacy of inequality left by colonialism and apartheid. It also means promoting the values of non-racialism and tackling incidents of racism.

The ANC has passed a generation of legislation to help achieve racial equality, including creating institutions to fight racism and support democracy. We appreciate that we are stronger in our diversity as one nation. We have a proud history of championing the cause for gender equality, the rights of people with disability and the LGBTQI+ community.

We will:

- Fast-track the promotion and implementation of indigenous language programmes, including finalisation of language legislation in provinces for inclusion in the school curriculum.

- Finalise the proposed legislation before parliament aimed at preventing and combating hate crimes and prosecution of persons who commit those offences. The legislation will deal with hate crimes against persons based on their race, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation or albinism.

- Promote the values of non-racialism and non-sexism through the promotion of arts, culture, sports and interfaith activities.

- Train teachers and public servants on how to deal with all forms of discrimination.

- Organise programmes that honour and salute men and women who have earned their titles as veterans of wars of liberation.

- Promote study of history in schools.

- Mainstream gender equality and the needs of people with disability into all facets of planning, budgeting, monitoring and accounting, including performance indicators and targets in government programmes.

- Promote programmes that advance media freedom and diversity, with a specific focus on community media and alternative media.

- Ensure national holidays are celebrated on an intercultural basis and are fully inclusive of all South Africans, black and white.

***

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background or religion. People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate they can be taught to love for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite”.

President Nelson Mandela

***

Our view of the world is based on the founding principles outlined in the Freedom Charter, a world in which there is respect for the right to national sovereignty of all nations, the pursuit of world peace and friendship, not wars. We remain committed to a better Africa, free from the shackles of under-development and the legacy of colonialism. We will continue to advance our progressive internationalism and solidarity around the world.

We will:

- Enhance regional integration with increased and bal- anced trade in the SADC region and on the Continent by supporting the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which will boost intra-Africa trade and build a bigger market of over one billion people with a GDP of $2,6 trillion that will unlock industrial and infrastructure development in the region.

- Work with African Union sister countries on initiatives to build an Africa we want through Agenda 2063.

- Promote cross-border infrastructure, tourism and manufacturing value chains in the region and increase the levels of South African manufacturing and value-added exports to the rest of the continent.

- Promote greater peace, security and stability in SADC, the DRC, South Sudan and elsewhere on the continent.

- Increase the voice of developing countries in the United Nations and other multilateral institutions.

- Utilise South Africa’s tenure in the United National Security Council to promote global peace and security

- Dedicate resources to support our increased continental and global responsibilities.

- Recommit South Africa to take forward its responsibilities in the fight against climate change, as part of the global community and in line with the Paris Agreement.

- Work with other countries to ensure that there are incentives created for immigrants to stay in the borders of their own country.

- Ensure that our policies of regional integration and cooperation includes resolution of immigration matters, especially undocumented immigration.

***

“We imagine a country that is integrally and enthusiastically part of the great African continent, as comfortable with immigrants from other countries as we are made to feel when we visit their countries to trade, to invest, to learn, to work and to settle.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa

***

 Fellow South Africans

We are under no illusions of the difficulties and obstacles we will encounter along the road to a better future for all.

Throughout this Manifesto we have emphasised that ours is a plan about you, South Africans, black and white, young and old, rural and urban.

We firmly believe that the coherent and achievable plan set out in this Manifesto is in accord with the needs and aspirations of the South African people and the goodwill of the progressive people around the world.

You have helped us develop this Manifesto. We must work together to effectively implement it.

Let’s Grow South Africa Together.

THE POWER IS IN YOUR HANDS

LET’S GROW SOUTH AFRICA TOGETHER

A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL