Municipal offices must be accessible to workers: Nzimande

General secretary of the South African Communist Party Blade Nzimande appealed to municipality’s on Saturday to ensure that their offices were accessible to workers – even over weekends.

Speaking in Port Elizabeth on Saturday at the launch of the ANC’s election manifesto for the coming local elections‚ he said: “Let us provide quality service to our people and ensure that municipal offices are accessible to workers.

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“Workers should not absent themselves or take leave from work in order to access municipal offices. The offices must be open even on weekends.

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“Let us build the capacity of the state‚ including through insourcing outsourced services‚ to deliver a better quality of service to our people.”

Nzimande said the ANC government had achieved much since democracy in 1994‚ but that there was still a lot of work that needed to be done to reverse the damage caused by colonial dispossession‚ oppression and exploitation.

The massive advances achieved since 1994 were due to the ANC's respect and implementation of the Constitution‚ he added.

“Today‚ over 17 million of our people have benefited from free houses‚ built by the ANC-led government implementing the Constitution. No other party can match this service delivery record in the history of our country‚ and indeed in many countries on earth.”

The govern‎ment had rolled out electrification to millions of houses‚ benefiting millions more families that had relied on wood for cooking.

“Implementing the Constitution‚ the ANC-led government massively expanded the provision of clean‚ drinkable water. For many years‚ our people relied on water from the river.

“The ANC-led government built roads and clinics in rural areas and townships where there was none before.

“Today‚ millions of our people‚ pregnant women‚ the elderly and the unemployed have access to primary‚ secondary and tertiary healthcare‚ because the ANC is implementing the Constitution. ‎No other party can match this service delivery record in the history of our country‚ and indeed in many countries on earth.

“Because the ANC is implementing the Constitution‚ it has delivered almost near-universal access to schooling for all children. And beyond the Freedom Charter‚ the ANC has rolled out and continues to roll out free school feeding scheme so children do not have to learn on a hungry stomach. This is a source of encouragement for many from poor households to attend school. There is food at school.

“It is the ANC implementing the Constitution that has drastically widened access to colleges and universities to over 1.4 million students since 1994. The demographics in our colleges and universities have changed‚ and black people‚ who were denied access‚ are now the majority. In particular‚ women are a decisive majority of students in our colleges and universities. No other party can match the ANC's record in the history of our country‚ and indeed in many countries on earth‚ in terms of the massive progress we have achieved since 1994‚” Nzimande said.

There were many other achievements in other areas.

“Yet there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to reverse the damage caused by colonial dispossession‚ oppression and exploitation. The social inequalities that still persist‚ the high rates of poverty and unemployment were primarily created‚ and deliberately so‚ by colonial oppression and imperialist domination‚” Nzimande added.