WORKING TOGETHER WE CAN DO MORE

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Our guiding principle is to live by the motto on our country's coat of arms. We aspire to the creation of a nation united in diversity. It is a goal to which we all aspire and it is the path to achieving our shared goal of a better life for all.

Our constitution, inspired by the vision of the Freedom Charter unites a nation of many languages and significant cultural, religious and socio economic diversity. We have to work together to weave the threads that will see us celebrating a nation which is non racial, non-sexist and democratic - a nation that is dedicated to pushing back the frontiers of poverty.

The ANC led government has made much progress in the past 15 years, in the provision of housing, water and electricity to millions of homes. Our economy has grown, more jobs have been created than in any other time in our history and we have deepened our democracy. We have extended social protection to millions of South Africans through the provision of social grants.

There is still much to do to reach our goals and new challenges have arisen. We have to ensure that we grow the economy to meet the needs of our people squarely. Lasting victory over poverty and hunger requires the creation of decent work opportunities and sustainable livelihoods. Education must be at the centre of our efforts to improve the potential of every citizen and enable each one of us to play a productive role in building our nation. The quality of services the government will provide must be improved.

A vote for the ANC is a vote for a better life for all.

As a mass based organisation that is rooted amongst the people, reaching into every sector of society and every corner of the land, the ANC has the capacity to get all of society working together to make change happen faster.

Building upon our achievements and learning from our experience in government since 1994, we are committed to improving the quality of education, health care, sanitation, and to accelerate the delivery of houses to millions of our people and achieve a better life for all.

Our fight against crime will be a key priority to ensure safer and more secure communities.

Rural infrastructure development and agricultural reforms are at the heart of our plan to improve our country's food security.

The ANC is best placed to lead our country in the right direction, ensuring growth that is equitable and sustainable, as well as prosperity for all our citizens.

The ANC thanks all the citizens of our country for their input into the development of this Manifesto and we look forward to continuing our dialogue with you in the next five years.

Working together we can do more.

Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma

PROUD OF OUR PAST, CONFIDENT OF THE FUTURE

For over 97 years, the ANC has led the struggle to bring about a South Africa that belongs to all our people, black and white. From the beginning, we held together the unity of the African people in their struggle for freedom and dignity. We moved on to embrace the unity of all South Africans irrespective of their race, culture or religion. It is this unity that is a source of our strength and has inspired many who sacrificed their lives so that we can attain our freedom.

On 27 April 1994, we opened a new chapter in the history of our struggle, to build a common citizenship and equal rights for all South Africans.

The ANC has always stood for basic democratic principles that include:

• a constitution which guarantees human rights for all, the right to a minimum standard of life, including the right to access health, education, social security, food and water;
• the right of all people to elect a government of their choice in regular, free and fair elections in a multi-party democracy;
• mobilisation of our people to actively take part in decision-making processes that affect their lives;
• an independent judiciary;
• equality and freedom from discrimination on racial, gender or any other ground;
• workers rights, collective bargaining, freedom of association; and
• freedom of religion.

South Africa's democratic elections from 1994 to 2004 were about the aspirations and collective desire for a better South Africa and a better life for all. They were about a journey to bring an end to the legacy of apartheid and to build a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

Fifteen years into our democracy, together we have achieved much in building a new society, uniting all of our people, expanding opportunities that the new freedom brought to our people, reducing poverty and improving the quality of life of millions of South Africans. Much of the economic and social devastation of apartheid and its scars are still with us. Our common struggle to build a better South Africa continues. In December 2007, the ANC met in Polokwane, and delegates brought messages from South Africans, from different cities, towns and rural areas about the problems of our people: high unemployment, poverty, deepening inequality and challenges of service delivery. We heard and shared experiences about many municipalities, schools, hospitals and government offices not functioning properly. The ANC agreed on major measures to overcome these challenges.

In the period ahead South Africa will need a government with both experience and political will, a government that fully understands what needs to be done to address our apartheid past, a government that puts people first (batho pele) and builds a participatory democracy. The ANC, working together with the people, can form such a government.

OUR MANIFESTO IS CLEAR AND ACHIEVABLE

Our programme is based on clear objectives and achievable plans. It requires:

• continued democratisation of our society based on equality, non-racialism and non-sexism;
• national unity in diversity which is the source of our strength;
• building on the achievements and the experience since 1994;
• an equitable, sustainable, and inclusive growth path that brings decent work and sustainable livelihoods; education; health; safe and secure communities; and rural development;
• targeted programmes for the youth, women, workers, rural masses, and people with disabilities; and
• a better Africa and a better world.

These principles will guide us for the next five years, based on the vision of our people - the Freedom Charter, adopted at the Congress of the People in 1955.

The ANC government, together with our people, will implement this programme: it will continue to listen and to consult widely.

We have followed the tradition of popular participation in putting together this Manifesto, through an extensive consultative process involving the Alliance Partners, the mass democratic movement and key sectors of our society. Members of the public have made a direct contribution to this Manifesto by sending in thousands of suggestions. Others have expressed their views at public meetings, door-to-door visits, izimbizo and interaction with ANC leaders across the country. The ANC can thus proudly say that this Manifesto has been drawn up together with our people of South Africa. If we all work together, we can achieve even more.

TOGETHER WE HAVE ACHIEVED MUCH

Working together, South Africans have achieved much in the first 15 years of democracy. We brought apartheid to an end. We set out to re-build and develop our country.

It has been 15 years of nation building, reconciliation and democratisation. We have built the foundation of a new society by enshrining the basic human and democratic rights of all in the country's constitution; building the institutions of our democracy and ensured citizen's participation in decision-making processes that affected their lives.

It has been 15 years of advancing worker rights. The workers have benefited from the passing of progressive labour legislation and introduction of social security benefits. An ANC government has introduced laws to protect workers, create machinery to negotiate wages and working conditions, set minimum wages for domestic workers, farm workers, hospitality, taxi workers and security sectors and established maximum hours of work for all. We introduced affirmative action laws and legislation to promote skills.

It has been 15 years of struggle for gender-equality. 30% of all our parliamentarians, provincial legislature members and councillors are women and 43% in cabinet. ANC policies will further increase women representation in parliament and government to 50% by 2009. A number of laws and policies were passed to empower women, to improve the quality of their lives and opened up space for their voices to be heard on matters concerning their lives. More importantly, opportunities for women to access basic services and social, economic and political opportunities have been actively promoted.

It has been 15 years of peace and stability, which brought to an end to the decades of political violence under apartheid.

It has been 15 years of re-building the economy; pushing back the frontiers of poverty; and improving the quality of life for millions.

Our country has become more cohesive and we collectively celebrated achievements in sport, arts and culture. We have been awarded to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We became the Rugby World Champions twice, African Soccer Champions in 1996, the Angling World Champions and world class Paralympians in 2008.

Our international responsibilities and recognition have also grown. The ANC government has strengthened the country's role in peace, reconstruction, development and integration, especially in Southern Africa and the African continent. Our membership of the United Nations Security Council provided opportunities to promote peace. Strategic partnerships with major countries of the South (China, India and Brazil) were strengthened.

Pushed back the frontiers of poverty

ANC policies have pushed back the frontiers of poverty. In 1996, only 3 million people, had access to social grants. Today 12.5 million receive social grants. In 1996, only 34,000 children had access to social grants. Today nearly 8 million children younger than 14 years, receive social grants.

In 1996, 58% of the population gained access to electricity. Today, 80% do. In 1996, 62% of the population has access to running water. Today, 88% do.

3.1 million subsidized houses were built, including 2.7 million free houses for the poor, giving shelter to an additional 14 million people.

Created jobs at a faster rate and provided more economic opportunities

Sound management of the economy and better use of national resources has seen the economy grow every year since 1994. Investment has increased as a share of Gross Domestic Product from 15% in 2002 to 22% in 2008.

In recent years the economy has for the first time been creating jobs faster than the rate at which new people have entered the job market. On average half a million new jobs have been added to the economy every year since 2004, reducing unemployment from 31% in 2003 to 23% in 2007.

The Expanded Public Works Programme created a million work opportunities a year ahead of its target.

ANC government policies such as black economic empowerment and affirmative action have contributed to the growth of South Africa's black middle class by 2.6 million in 2007 and small business support has been streamlined and expanded.

Access to education and health care for millions more

In our primary and secondary schooling we are just a few years away from achieving 100% participation by all our children. The participation of girls is one of the highest in the world. About 600,000 children attend crèches and pre-schools.

The matriculation pass rate has risen from 58% in 1994 to 65% in 2007.

Overcrowding in classrooms has been reduced - by 2006 there was one teacher for every 32 learners, an improvement from one teacher for 43 learners that we inherited in 1996.

The mass literacy campaign is now reaching more than 500,000 people who could not read and write. We are well within target to ensure South Africa is free of illiteracy by 2014.

In higher education, 140,000 students have been supported through our national financial scheme, which is helping to improve participation of the poor in higher education.

Our free primary health care has expanded and 1,600 more clinics have been built. About 248 out of 400 public hospitals have been revitalised and refurbished.

The public antiretroviral therapy programme has enrolled more than 480,000 people living with HIV and AIDS, making our programme amongst the best and most comprehensive in the world.

These achievements, and many more, were possible because all of South Africa worked together to overcome the challenges facing the country. Together we pressed forward to our shared vision of a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

MUCH MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE

We have set ourselves key targets to reach by the end of the second decade of freedom, including halving the levels of poverty and unemployment by 2014. Much still needs to be done to reach these goals. Many households and communities, especially single-headed and child-headed households - remain trapped in poverty. With changing conditions, new challenges have arisen.

Unemployment is unacceptably high among our people. There is a special challenge amongst African women, rural persons and young people. There has been a growth of casualised, low wage and outsourced jobs, contributing to the rise of the working poor.

Inequality has persisted and increased in our society. Workers' share of national income has continued to decline. The rural areas remain divided between well-developed commercial farming areas, peri-urban and impoverished communal areas. The benefits of economic growth have not been broadly and equitably shared.

Much needs to be done to improve the quality of health care and education as well as improving service delivery, especially at local government level.

Crime is a major national challenge and the fight against crime and corruption needs to be stepped up. We have much work to do to strengthen and increase access to the institutions of democracy, especially parliament, legislatures and the judiciary, so that they serve ordinary South Africans better.

Part of the nation-building process is the struggle against all forms of racism, sexism, tribalism - including xenophobia, which has raised its ugly head in recent years. We also need to fight racially motivated violence and hate speech.

The recent turmoil in world markets, and before that, sharp rises in the cost of fuel and food, has impacted on the South African economy and the lives of our people. The cost of living has increased painfully and we can expect economic growth to slow resulting in job losses. Therefore the ANC will intervene to ensure that Government, together with labour, business and other sectors work together to develop practical solutions that will ensure that in the short, medium and long term South Africa's economic prospects continue to improve and that jobs losses are avoided or minimised.

Together we can do more to deal with these challenges and bring about faster change.

An ANC government, with the support of all South Africans and with the policies in this Manifesto can take our country forward.

OUR PLAN FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS

The ANC has identified five priority areas for the next five years:

• creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods
• education
• health
• rural development, food security and land reform
• the fight against crime and corruption.

These priorities will be tackled with all our means at our disposal - the resources of government, the vision of the Freedom Charter and the energy and commitment of our people. Our priorities will specifically target the needs of the youth, women, workers, the rural poor, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

Building on the economic achievements of the last 15 years, we will use various measures to build and accelerate a sustainable, equitable and inclusive economic growth path to address these five priorities. Our economic and social programmes will work together to ensure they support each other.

The developmental state will play a central and strategic role in the economy. We will ensure a more effective government; improve the coordination and planning efforts of the developmental state by means of a planning entity to ensure faster change. A review of the structure of government will be undertaken, to ensure effective service delivery.

An important aspect of a successful developmental state is investment in public sector workers and in turn our people expect that they execute the tasks with which they have been entrusted. This means that the right and adequate numbers of personnel should be placed in the correct positions, and where this is not the case, government should have the capacity to implement corrective measures, either through training or redeployment where warranted.

MORE JOBS, DECENT WORK AND SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS

The people shall share in the country's wealth!

Despite significant progress in changing our economy to benefit our people; unemployment, poverty and inequality remain serious challenges. Decent work is the foundation of the fight against poverty and inequality and its promotion should be the cornerstone of all our efforts. Decent work embraces both the need for more jobs and for better quality jobs. The creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods will be central to the ANC government's agenda.

The ANC government will:

• Make the creation of decent work opportunities and sustainable livelihoods, the primary focus of our economic policies. We will make maximum use of all the means at the disposal of the ANC government, to achieve this. This objective should be reflected in the orientation and programme of development finance institutions and regulatory bodies, through government procurement and public incentive rules, in industrial, trade, competition, labour market and other policies.
• Ensure that macro-economic policy is informed by the priorities that have been set out in this Manifesto. Fiscal and monetary policy mandates including management of interest rates and exchange rates, need to actively promote creation of decent employment, economic growth, broad-based industrialisation, reduced income inequality and other developmental imperatives. Economic policy will include measures to decisively address obstacles that limit the pace of employment creation and poverty eradication, and will intervene in favour of more sustainable and inclusive growth for all South Africans.
• Ensure that state-led industrial policy leads to the transformation of the economy. Adequate resources will be provided to strengthen the state-led industrial policy programme, which directs public and private investment to support decent work outcomes, including employment creation and broad economic transformation. The programme will target labour-intensive production sectors and encourage activities that have high employment effects. It will include systematic support for co-operatives by way of a dedicated support institution and small business development; supporting investment in productive sectors; and working together with our partners in Southern Africa to invest in our regional economy.
• Implement special sector programmes embracing industrial, trade and other measures backed by adequate resources This will include the strengthening of the manufacturing mining and other vulnerable sectors, and tide them through the period of the global economic crisis, saving and growing jobs in the clothing and textile sector, strengthening the automobile and components sector, expanding the food industry and other sectors.
• Ensure that a comprehensive package of measures is introduced to promote beneficiation programmes, to ensure that the natural wealth of the country is shared, and developed locally, and accelerates the creation of decent work opportunities in manufacturing and services.
• Engage the private financial sector in order to facilitate its transformation and diversification including the development of the co-operative financial institutions as well as ensuring that the sector contributes to investment and developmental priorities of the country.
• Develop programmes to promote the important role of mining and agriculture in employment, meeting basic needs and community development, and commit to continued transformation of these sectors to achieve national goals. Furthermore, government will ensure meaningful benefits for communities who gave up their land for mining activities.
• Tourism and other services will be supported to expand work for our people.
• Develop and invest in a programme to create large numbers of 'green jobs', namely employment in industries and facilities that are designed to mitigate the effects of climate change.
• Ensure that the mandates of development finance institutions are clear and truly developmental and that their programmes contribute to decent work outcomes, achievement of our developmental needs and sustainable livelihoods.
• Lead a massive public investment programme for growth and employment creation. In the period ahead, government will accelerate and expand its investment in public infrastructure. This will include expanding and improving the rail networks, public transport, and port operations, dams, housing construction, information and communications technology and energy generation capacity as well as education and health infrastructure, and in the process create additional decent work opportunities whilst meeting the basic needs of the society.
• Step up a massive programme on expanded public works linked to infrastructure and meeting social needs with home-based care, crèches, school cleaning and renovation, community gardens, removal of alien vegetation, tree planting and school feeding.
• In order to avoid exploitation of workers and ensure decent work for all workers as well as to protect the employment relationship, introduce laws to regulate contract work, subcontracting and out- sourcing, address the problem of labour broking and prohibit certain abusive practices. Provisions will be introduced to facilitate unionisation of workers and conclusion of sectoral collective agreements to cover vulnerable workers in these different legal relationships and ensure the right to permanent employment for affected workers. Procurement policies and public incentives will include requirements to promote decent work.
• Create an environment for more labour-intensive production methods, procurement policies that support local jobs and building public-private partnerships.
• Vigorously implement broad-based economic empowerment and affirmative action policies and adjust them to ensure that they benefit more broad sections of our people, especially the workers, youth, women and people with disabilities. Policies will, in addition, actively promote skills development and equity at the workplace.
• Launch a much larger national youth service programme and a new national youth development agency, focusing on access to funding and employment creation, which will be linked to skills development opportunities and build decent work opportunities for young people.

The above-mentioned practical steps of the ANC government will enable us to decisively defend our economy in the present global and domestic economic climate and take measures to advance our own developmental agenda. This will include an economic stimulus package, which will assemble various policy instruments to stimulate the economy to avert massive slowdown in the economy. In addition, government will take active measures through an appropriate social package to avert or minimise job losses, protect vulnerable sectors and cushion the poor from the economic down turn.

FOOD SECURITY - ENSURING NO ONE GOES HUNGRY

The Freedom Charter says: Rent and prices shall be lowered; food plentiful and no one shall go hungry.

The ANC is committed to creating an environment that ensures that there is adequate food available to all, that we grow our own food and protect the poor communities from the rising prices of food and eradicate hunger.

The ANC government will take the following practical steps:

• Promote food security as a way to lessen our dependence on food imports.
• Introduce a food for all programme to procure and distribute basic foods at affordable prices to poor households and communities. Government will develop an appropriate institutional approach for the implementation of this programme.
• Introduce measures to improve the logistics of food distribution such as transportation, warehousing, procurement and outsourcing in order to reduce food prices in the long term. Continued enforcement of stronger competition measures will be used to act against food cartels and collusion, which inflate food prices.
• Expand access to food production schemes in rural and peri-urban areas to grow their own food with implements, tractors, fertilizers and pesticides. Other government measures will support existing community schemes, which utilise land for food production in schools, health facilities, churches and urban and traditional authority areas.
• Ensure an emergency food relief programme, on a mass-scale, in the form of food assistance projects to the poorest households and communities including through partnerships with religious and other community organisations.

RURAL AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND REFORM

The land shall be shared amongst those who work it!

Despite significant progress made over the last 15 years, people living in rural areas continue to face the harshest conditions of poverty, lack of access to land and basic services. The ANC is committed to a comprehensive and clear rural development strategy linked to land and agrarian reform, improvement of the conditions of farm workers and farm-dwellers and builds the potential for rural sustainable livelihoods.

The ANC government will:

• Intensify the land reform programme to ensure that more land is in the hands of the rural poor and will provide them with technical skills and financial resources to productively use the land to create sustainable livelihoods and decent work in rural areas.
• Review the appropriateness of the existing land redistribution programme, introduce measures aimed at speeding up the pace of land reform and redistribution and promote land ownership by South Africans.
• Expand agrarian reform programme, which will focus on the systematic promotion of agricultural co-operatives throughout the value chain, including agro-processing in the agricultural areas. Government will develop support measures to ensure more access to markets and finance by small farmers, including fencing and irrigation systems.
• Ensure a much stronger link between land and agrarian reform programmes and water resource allocation and ensure that the best quality of water resources reach all our people, especially the poor.
• Ensure that all schools and health facilities have access to basic infrastructure such as water and electricity by 2014.
• Introduce the provision of proper sanitation systems in the rural areas.
• Strengthen partnership between government and the institution of traditional leadership to focus on rural development and fighting poverty.
• Work together with the farming community to improve the living conditions of farm dwellers, including the provision of subsidized houses and other basic services.
• Provide support for organised labour to organise and unionise farm workers and increase the capacity of the Department of Labour to enforce labour legislation.

EDUCATION IS AT THE CENTRE OF OUR EFFORTS

The doors of learning and cultures shall be opened!

Education is a means of promoting good citizenship as well as preparing our people for the needs of a modern economy and a democratic society. Building on the achievements in education, the ANC government will aim to ensure progressive realisation of universal schooling, improving quality education and eliminating disparities. This requires a major renewal of our schooling and education system.

The ANC government will:

• Work together with educators, learners, parents, school governing bodies and other stakeholders, to make education the priority of all.
• Work towards a free and compulsory education for all children. As the immediate step it will ensure that at least 60% of schools are no-fee schools.
• Ensuring that South Africa is completely liberated from illiteracy by 2014 through our mass literacy campaign - Kha ri Gude.
• Introduce a sustainable Early Childhood Education system that spans both public and private sectors and gives children a head start on numeracy and literacy. The ANC government will also train and employ 15,000 trainers per annum and strengthen support for creches and pre-schools in rural villages and urban centres.
• Improve the quality of schooling, particularly performance in mathematics, science, technology and language development. Measures will include provision of incentives for mathematics and science teachers.
• Promote the status of teachers, ensuring the employment of adequate numbers, and improving their remuneration and training, as an important part of our drive to ensure that quality teaching becomes the norm, rather than the exception. Together with the trade unions, we need to ensure that teachers are in school, in class, on time, teaching, that there is no abuse of learners and no neglect of duty.
• Increase graduate output in areas of skills shortages. This will include measures to streamline Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAS) and other institutions to addressing existing and forecast skills shortages.
• Embarking on the re-opening of teacher training colleges where appropriate.
• Revive the role of state owned enterprises in skills development and training.
• Place Further Education and Training colleges at the centre of a popular drive to develop skills development for the economy.
• Encourage students from working class and poor communities to go to tertiary institutions by reviewing and improving the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.
• Extending school feeding schemes to all deserving high schools and improving the implementing of the feeding scheme in all deserving primary schools.

FORWARD TO ACHIEVING HEALTHCARE FOR ALL

The Freedom Charter commits us to a preventive health scheme run by the state; Free medical care and hospitalisation provided for all, with special care for mothers and young children.

There have been many achievements in improving access to health care, however much more still needs to be done in terms of quality of care, making services available to all South Africans and ensuring better health outcomes. The ANC government will aim to reduce inequalities in our health system, improve quality of care and public facilities, and boost our human resources and step up the fight against HIV and AIDS and other diseases. Health reforms will involve mobilisation of available resources in both private and public health sectors to ensure improved health outcomes for all South Africans.

In practical terms, the ANC government will:

• Work together with all key sectors in our society through a social compact to continue to transform the health care.
• Introduce the National Health Insurance System (NHI) system, which will be phased in over the next five years. NHI will be publicly funded and publicly administered and will provide the right of all to access quality health care, which will be free at the point of service. People will have a choice of which service provider to use within a district. In the implementation of the NHI there will be an engagement with the private sector in general, including private doctors working in group practices and hospitals, to encourage them to participate in the NHI system.
• Improve quality standards for both public and private sectors, which will include specific targets for the provision of adequate numbers of workers at all levels of the health care system, including recruitment, training and filling of vacant posts. There will also be a focus on increasing health worker training output in the public sector - including through re-opening of nursing training colleges. There will also be improvements in the working conditions and provision of decent wages for workers.
• Improve management and leadership skills at all levels of the health system, as well as meeting the national standards of quality care and ensuring an explicit accountability framework.
• Upgrade and improve public hospitals and clinics, as well as the administrative systems and buildings so that long queues and waiting times are reduced and improved quality care is available.
• Reduce the rate of new HIV infections by 50% through aggressive prevention campaign and expand access to appropriate treatment, care and support to at least 80% of all HIV positive people and their families. More resources will be devoted to strengthening the implementation of the national plan on HIV and AIDS and STI. Partnerships will be built with labour, business and community organisations to step-up the national fight against HIV and AIDS.
• Improve the health status of the population and achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This will includes measures to scale up HIV prevention, address the challenge of TB and reduce child HIV infection rates through upscaling the Prevention for Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV to 95%in all districts.
• Accelerate the campaigns on health promotion and disease-prevention by changing social values and norms through common community action. Furthermore, communities will be encouraged to adopt healthy diets and to exercise and to take part in campaigns against drug and substance abuse.
• Continue to raise awareness about addressing sexual and reproductive health rights of women and strengthen the enforcement of these rights, as well as ensuring that they are incorporated in the HIV and AIDS programmes.
• Review existing drug policy and strategy to support effective implementation of the NHI and strengthen the managerial and technical capacity of government. Government will also conduct a feasibility study for the establishment of a state-owned pharmaceutical company.
• Invest in research and development in the health sector, including infant mortality research, HIV prevention technologies, health status surveys, development of new medicines, and indigenous knowledge systems.

TOGETHER INTENSIFY THE FIGHT AGAINST CRIME AND CORRUPTION

Fighting crime and fighting the causes of crime will be a priority of the ANC government in the next five years and there is a need to overhaul the criminal justice system to ensure that the levels of crime are drastically reduced. Corruption must be stamped out.

The ANC government will:

• Establish a new modernised, efficient and transformed criminal justice system to develop the capacity for fighting and reducing crime in real terms. Government will review the functioning of the police, the judiciary and the correctional services to achieve integration and coordination.
• Actively combat serious and violent crime by being tougher on criminals and organised syndicates. In this respect, we will increase the capacity of the SAPS through recruitment, rigorous training, better remuneration, equipping and increasing the capacity of especially the Detective Services, forensics, prosecution, judicial services and crime intelligence.
• Establish and strengthen the new unit to fight organised crime.
• Provide greater support for the SAPS, especially to combat the attacks on the members of the SAPS, Including through introducing legislative measures to protect law-enforcement officials in the execution of their duties.
• Combat violence and crimes against women and children by increasing the capacity of the criminal justice system to deal with such violence.
• Mobilise communities to participate in combating crime through establishing street committees and community courts, amongst others.
• Step up measures in the fight against corruption within society, the state and private sector, including measures to to ensure politicians do not tamper with the adjudication of tenders. Measures will also be taken to ensure transparent process of the tendering system as well as ensuring much stronger accountability of the public servants involved in tendering process.

BUILDING COHESIVE AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

There shall be houses, security and comfort for all!

The ANC will continue to protect and strengthen the gains we made our the last 15 years. Through our programmes for housing, social security, sport and recreation, we aim to continue to build a better life for all. Housing is not just about building houses. It is also about transforming our cities and towns and building cohesive, sustainable and caring communities with closer access to work, social amenities, including sports and recreation facilities. Our social security system, such as the provision of social grants, is aimed at empowering our people to take active part in the social and economic life of our country. In addition, ANC policies will continue to promote the role of inter-faith organisations in promoting cohesive, caring and sustainable communities.

In the next five years, the ANC plans to:

• Expand the provision of the child support grant to children aged 15 to 18. This will be implemented in a phased manner and will be linked to compulsory schooling requirement. Legislative measures will be taken to ensure that we realise this requirement.
• Work towards bolder expansion of unemployment insurance.
• Introduce a contributory social security system to provide for guaranteed retirement, disability and survivors' benefit, while streamlining the road accident, occupational injuries and the unemployment benefits. The ANC government will consult closely with trade unions on any changes to the pensions system.
• Establish a consensus on our future social security system to make it comprehensive and inclusive.
• Increase access to secure and decent housing for all through government's newly adopted housing programme, including continued conversion of hostels into family housing units, strengthening partnerships with the private sector and the banks to increase access to decent housing. Other plans include acceleration of public rental and social housing by ensuring more provincial and local government is earmarked for this purpose, support for community-self building efforts and housing co-operatives, and ensuring that land close to urban centres is made available for low cost and public housing.
• Ensure that all qualifying military veterans will receive subsidised housing.
• Speed up the revival of school sport and ensure that it forms part of the school curriculum. In addition, the ANC government will ensure that the provision of sport facilities in poorer communities receives priority.
• To create further opportunities for the training of sports administrators, referees and coaches so as to improve standards in sport.
• Promote partnerships with interfaith forums to promote social education for moral regeneration, religious tolerance, social cohesion and development.
• Ensure that the 2010 FIFA World Cup leaves a proud legacy that our children and our communities will enjoy for many years to come, and contributes to the long-term development of the country. The ANC government will work with all stakeholders to ensure that this world event contributes to create decent work opportunities, particularly for the youth, women and street traders; promotes procurement of local goods, services and products; and that housing units and sports facilities developed for the event are made available to local communities after the event is over.

A BETTER AFRICA AND A BETTER WORLD

There shall be peace and friendship!

The ANC believes that economic and political cooperation with other countries can improve the lives of our own people and will continue to work towards a better life for all, a better Africa and a better world, without hunger, disease, conflict and underdevelopment.

The ANC government will:

• Work together with people of our continent and its Diaspora for cohesion, unity, democracy and prosperity of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and African Union and strengthening our capabilities to respond to the challenges we face.
• Continue to work towards regional economic integration in Southern Africa on a fair, equitable and developmental basis, promoting SADC integration based on a developmental model that includes infrastructure development, cooperation in the real economy and development of regional supply chains. The ANC government will ensure that trade unions and representatives of the business community are represented in SADC.
• Spare no energy in our efforts to find urgent, democratic and lasting solutions to the situation in Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Western Sahara, Somalia and other countries.
• Continue to support the global campaign to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
• Conduct awareness campaigns among our people to prevent incidents of xenophobia, and work for the integration into our communities of all who are resident in our country, acknowledging the contribution that foreign nationals make to our economy.
• Work together with the countries of the South to continue to promote south-south relations and agitate for a fairer and more humane international trade and financial system and a just world order.
• Commit to the peaceful resolution of all conflicts in Africa, the Middle East and rest of the world. We support a two state solution as a model of peace between Israel and Palestine, recognizing the right of Israel to exist as a sovereign state and support the establishment of a strong and sovereign Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.
• House the Pan Africanist Women Organisation (PAWO) following the outcomes of the historic conference of PAWO held in South Africa in 2008.

CONCLUSION

Our country does need change in the way government relates to our people and in the delivery of services.

We are committe d to a service delivery culture that will put every elected official and public servant to work for our people, and ensure accountability to our people. We will continue to develop social partnerships and work with every citizen. We will manage our economy in a manner that ensures that South Africa continues to grow, that all our people benefit from that growth and that we create decent work for the unemployed, for workers, for young persons, for women and for the rural poor.

We will remain in touch with our people and listen to their needs. We respect the rule of Law, human rights and we will defend the Constitution and uphold our multi-party democracy.

We have achieved much in the last 15 years, but we are committed to do more. Working together we can do more! A vote for the ANC is vote for a better life for all.

Issued by the African National Congress, January 10 2009 - see www.myanc.org