The ANC`s programme to accelerate change focuses on five main areas:
The ANC will speed up the programme to improve the quality of life of the people. The fight against poverty requires a co-ordinated strategy that cuts across all sectors and pays particular attention to rural and disadvantaged areas. The ANC will ensure all government programmes work together.
In the next 5 years we will:
Reduction of the number of homeless poor must become a practical measure of our success.
The ANC remains committed to ensuring that everyone in our country is able to live above the minimum living standard. Our social security net must target the most vulnerable - the poor, the aged, the landless, the disabled, the young. In the next 5 years we will:
As part of a comprehensive social security system we will introduce a new Social Health Insurance programme.
Over the next 5 years the ANC will develop a comprehensive, affordable and accessible National Public Health System, financed in part by a Social Health Insurance programme.
We will improve health care by:
In partnership with all sectors of society, we will continue to give absolute priority to HIV/AIDS programmes. The ANC will:
Education is not a privilege _ it is a right. The ANC is committed to moving as rapidly as possible to free, dynamic and compulsory education. As we move towards this vision, the ANC will continue to ensure:
Our objective is to ensure that all schools have adequate buildings, electricity, water and sewerage
To improve the quality of education, the ANC will focus on:
In speeding up the delivery of basic needs, the ANC will accelerate and improve the delivery of many other programmes, including water and electricity, rural development, youth development, and rolling out telecommunications infrastructure and postal services.
The ANC remains staunchly committed to the RDP vision that growth and development are thoroughly inter-connected. Without development (meeting basic needs, creating jobs, overcoming poverty) growth will mean nothing for the majority of our people. But without growth, development will not be sustainable.
To ensure both growth and development, and to weave them together the ANC is committed to:
Achieving growth with equity
The ANC will continue to expand economic opportunities by speeding up job creation,
increasing possibilities for self-employment, entrenching worker rights, advancing
work-place equity programmes, and developing skills training.
We seek to broaden the base of our economy, and distribute economic power more widely, including through building a co-operative and social sector. Regulation of the financial sector will ensure greater access to affordable finance, together with the extension of public sector financial institutions. The public sector will play a key developmental and enabling role.
Advancing Worker Rights
We will continue to take forward the programme of labour market transformation to protect
the rights of working people. We shall also expand opportunities for the unemployed,
within an economy characterised by growth and development. This includes consolidation of
legislation to protect worker rights, and measures to ensure effective implementation.
Special attention will be given to the position of farm and domestic workers, as well as
workers in small towns and small enterprises. Legislative amendments will be introduced to
ensure negotiation in cases of intended retrenchment.
Improving The Tax System
The ANC will build on our success in broadening the tax base, cutting down on tax evasion.
At the same time we are committed to progressive taxation, that lightens the tax burden on
most middle income and poor families. There will be special tax exemption on those basic
goods which poor families rely upon for survival. Productive, job-creating investment will
be encouraged and speculative investment discouraged.
Budgeting
We will ensure transparent budgeting through detailed medium term budget planning. We will
continue to give priority to social spending and ensure the resources reach those they are
aimed at. At the same time we will continue to improve revenue collection, manage national
debt at an appropriate level and ensure that we increase investment in social and economic
infrastructure. We will make sure elected representatives in national, provincial and
local spheres have the appropriate powers to shape budgets and are accountable for using
public money as intended.
Monetary Policy - Interest Rates And Inflation
Monetary policy must advance our development objectives, and promote productive investment
by both large and small enterprises. We will discuss and adopt options for the setting of
realistic inflation targets, work towards reducing interest rates to stimulate economic
activity, and help create conditions for a competitive exchange rate. In this regard,
consultation and co-ordination between government and monetary authorities will continue.
Promoting Investment
The ANC will speed up public sector investment through increased capital expenditure and
through co-ordinated investment plans of parastatals (like Eskom). The main aims of such
investment will be:
Effective private sector investment will be promoted through:
At the same time we will boost certain key sectors and industries to promote South Africa`s competitive advantage world-wide. Exports will be promoted, at the same time as ensuring the development of our domestic market, to maintain a sound balance of payments.
In this environment, even while creating new jobs, our economy cannot create enough jobs for the 350 000 new work-seekers each year, let alone absorbing the current unemployed.
Both public sector investment and private sector expansion have in certain sectors begun to show results. In the past 5 years we have been able to create many new jobs - including in tourism and in infrastructure development. Investment by the parastatals, and the creation of employment through public works programmes have also made an important contribution.
The ANC realises that much more must be done. A major national offensive will be launched against the scourge of unemployment, poverty, and inequality. We are determined to align all government policies and programmes to achieve our objective of sustainable jobs for all at a living wage.
The dark days of apartheid bestowed on us a legacy of crime and corruption. We inherited a criminal justice system which itself was pervaded with the lawlessness and criminality of that era.
The ANC`s approach to combating crime and corruption is in line with our overall vision for our country. We must be
In the next 5 years the ANC will:
But all of this needs your help
The ANC is committed to accelerating the pace of change, to dealing decisively with crime, but this also requires popular support. The ANC will, therefore:
What about victims of crime?
Dealing with violent crimes against women and children is priority number one. The ANC will establish more Special Courts where cases of abuse against children and women will be heard. As much as possible, victims will receive shelter and counselling from trained personnel.
Through the Victim Empowerment Programme, the rights of survivors of crime, traumatic incidents, abuse and disasters will be safeguarded and support provided through a range of special programmes.
What about corruption?
We will enforce strict measures, without fear or favour, to root out corruption in the public and private sectors, in our own organisation, and in society as a whole.
We have introduced special measures, including:
We will strengthen all of these programmes.
Because of the seriousness with which we view corruption, we have initiated a major campaign against this scourge in line with government`s call for an RDP of the Soul. We are also working together with the religious communities and other sectors to strengthen the moral fibre of our society.
The apartheid state was oppressive, unrepresentative, fragmented and unaccountable. Over the past 5 years we have grappled with transforming the state. We have made progress, but there is still a long way to go.
Our aim is to build a state that plays an active role in the development and transformation of our society. The state must play a leading role in addressing the huge backlogs left by apartheid. It must harness the resources of the public sector and work in partnership with all sectors of our society.
The ANC will:
The new transitional local governments have faced many difficulties: the backlog of municipal services and infrastructure; transforming racially divided local government; the culture of non-payment; and resistance of ratepayers in some former white areas.
The ANC will:
The time has come for Africa`s Renaissance. Our challenge as Africans is to promote peace and development, to foster democratic systems of government, respect for human rights, and an end to corruption throughout our continent.
In the last 5 years SA has become active in a wide range of leading international forums and initiatives. We have taken a lead in nuclear disarmament, outlawing land-mines, and in the struggle for a more just world economic order.
In the next 5 years we will:
In pursuing these goals we will strengthen our ties with all those who strive for peace, development and equity. We will strengthen our ties with our own continent, we will build stronger relations with Latin America and Asia, and we will consolidate our relations with the developed countries
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