ANC has done more for you since 1994, says Ramaphosa

The ANC has taken time to remind South Africans what it has done for them since the advent of democracy.

In what was meant to be a review of its 2019 election manifesto, the party laid a keen focus on its 30 years of governance, reminding South Africans of the disbursement of social welfare, massive electrification, access to education and healthcare as well as creation of jobs under its watch.

From spending billions on social grants and rapidly increasing the number of its recipients to building millions of free houses, the ANC on Sunday reminded citizens how under its rule their lives have improved.

The ANC took stock of its promises on service delivery since it came into power ahead of an expected difficult election next year.

The party clearly believes it has done quite well despite the negative sentiments reverberating across the country.

“The South Africa we live in today is very different from the South Africa we all lived in in 1994, everybody agrees. Those who don’t see this are blind, those who can’t hear this don’t have ears, and those who don’t speak about it don’t have mouths, and it so happens that their tongues have been cut off,” said party president Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday in Dobsonville, Soweto.

“The honest truth is that the ANC government since 1994 has done a lot of work, even though there are still some problems. We are facing a lot of problems now and some of these problems emerge from these 30 years that we’ve been governing.

“Today millions of people have houses, people have electricity, they have water — the most basic needs that our people never had in the past, they now have.”

The party will use the month of September to crisscross the country in what it says is a review of its 2019 manifesto.

During the first leg, held in Gauteng, Ramaphosa outlined how the plan was not to only focus on the 2019 manifesto but have been advised to also highlight all that the ANC government has achieved or fallen short of since it took over government in 1994.

“In all these years we were ready to highlight what we have achieved to address these challenges. We were ready to equally admit where we committed mistakes and show how we would correct them going forward. Our assessment of the past five years is no exception.”

“We remain committed to eradicating the indignities of bucket toilets, with the number of municipal bucket toilets declining from over 230,000 in 2004 to about 43,000,” he said.

“In 1994, only six out of 10 South Africans had access to clean drinking water. Today, that figure has increased to nearly nine out of 10 South Africans.”

He said that since 1994 the ANC government has built more than 1,700 new clinics and 56 hospitals resulting in seven out of 10 households having public health facilities as their first point of call when someone is ill. South Africa also has the largest HIV treatment programme in the world.

“Our health system, however, remains unequal, and that is why we committed to a National Health Insurance, to ensure fair allocation of resources so as to achieve universal quality healthcare for all,” he said.

The school feeding scheme where over 9-million pupils are fed along with 15 years of compulsory education for the poor have seen, according to Ramaphosa, a “near-100% attendance by South African children” at schools “until at least the age of 15”.

“We have also introduced grade R and support for early childhood care, to give all children a better chance to reach their potential. Through a vibrant and diverse post-school education and training system, and by nearly tripling the allocations to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) from R15bn in 2017 to over R40bn this year, the foundations for a skills revolution have been laid,” he said.

The ANC government has also increased the recipients of social grants from 3-million in 1994 to 18-million in 2018, benefiting children, the elderly and people living with disabilities, he said.

To further shield South Africans from vulnerabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic, Ramaphosa reminded locals that his government introduced the R350 social relief of distress grant for the unemployed, which will continue benefiting 8.4-million people until 2024, laying foundations for the basic income grant being mooted.

“After long years of negotiations, the national minimum wage came into effect in 2019, raising the wages of over 6-million workers. This and the amendments to the Compensation [for Occupational Injuries and Diseases] Act provide further protection and benefits to domestic and farm workers. There is also legislation in the pipeline to allow workers to access a portion of their pensions,” he said.

Ramaphosa said the economy has tripled since 1994 and has led to growth in employment from 8-million to 16.4-million.

He acknowledged that unemployment still remains high at 32%, with the youth being the most affected at 62%.

“To tackle unemployment, we invested R32bn in a Presidential Employment Stimulus, and this programme to create jobs, work experience and support livelihoods have benefited 1.2-million people, especially youth and women, since 2019,” he said.

The ANC government has built 3.2-million free houses, Ramaphosa said. Of these, 8,245 were delivered under his government through the Integration Residential Development Programme, while more than 19,000 were through an affordable first-home finance scheme; with more than 198,000 RDP houses built and more than 183,700 serviced.

“In addition, the government handed over close to 100,000 title deeds to households and families.”

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